A mid-season, four-game losing streak isn’t an easy task for a sports team to overcome. But the College of the Canyons football team rallied mid-season, back to an above .500 record. 

The Cougars defeated East Los Angles Community College 27-21 Saturday night. The defense came up huge with a last-second stop to seal a second straight win for Canyons, putting them at 4-4 for the year with a chance to still make the playoffs. 

The Huskies had a real shot at winning this game with three straight tries to win from the Canyons’ seven-yard line. The Cougars’ defense dialed up three stops to seal the game. 

College of the Canyon players huddle up after a 27-21 win over East L.A. community college at Cougar stadium, Saturday 102922 (Daniel Rios/Canyons News) 

“In the situation that we were in, it comes to the last play,” Canyons linebacker Cole Bullock said. “In big games like this so we’re happy to see that we got the victory.” 

Bullock had a busy night. The linebacker scored a two-yard rushing touchdown for Canyons with 3:49 left in the third to take the lead back to 27-21. He was also busy on defense recording three tackles and one sack. 

“It’s always a good feeling,” Bullock said. “I kind of grew up a more offensive player. So being back on offense for a bit has been super fun.”

The Huskies got away with some trickery by running a double-pass play. Receiver Kalani Washington threw a 31-yard pass to fellow wideout Quitavious Workman for a score. This came off a Canyons’ fumble by quarterback Bryce Dickon. The Huskies had a lead of 21-20 with 10:09 remaining in the third. 

Despite the fumble, Dickson had a great game on the night. The freshman quarterback had 18 yards on 4-of-8 passing and added 72 yards rushing with 10 carries. 

Huskies quarterback Terrance Gipson had 122 yards on 15-of-31 passing and one passing touchdown while also adding 27 yards rushing with 12 carries. 

Gipson’s only touchdown of the night came from an 11-yard touchdown pass to the wideout Trejan Bridges. The Huskies still trailed after this score 20-14 with 12:50 left in the third. Once again this was the result of another Canyons’ fumble. This time, Cougars running back Damon Banks gave the Huskies prime field position with a mistake. 

“I was mad at myself,” Banks said. “But you know, you got to do what you gotta do to move onto the next play.”

Canyons kicker Ty Morrison had himself a night. He went 2-for-2 on his field goal attempts, both coming in the second quarter, and coincidentally enough, all of his tries were from 41 yards out. He kicked both kicks on back-to-back Cougars offensive drives and was responsible for COC taking a 20-7 lead in the second quarter. 

With a fumble later on in the night, Banks found success early. He had a nine-yard rushing touchdown to give Canyons a lead of 14-7 near the end of the first quarter. Banks finished with 13 rushing yards on 5 carries. 

It was ultimately Joshua Littleberry who got Canyons started on offense tonight. He took a check-down from Chayden Peery to the house for 57-yards. The Cougars took an early 7-0 lead.  Peery had 155 yards on 7-10 passing while having negative 5 yards rushing on 8 carries. 

The Cougars travel to Ventura next week to play the Pirates. Canyons hopes to get above .500 for the first time since week two of their season, extending the win streak to three. 

1 comment
  1. Way to fight the fight. It helps getting the ball more often but what really matters is what you do when you have it The cleaner Joshua Littleberry!

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