Canton-Galva opens with statement win over #1 Little River

CANTON, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) - The Canton-Galva Eagles made a statement with a 66-36 Week One victory over the Little River Redskins.

Canton-Galva came into the early season with two major changes. First, the Eagles went from Eight-Man Division I to Division II. Second, they lost three Seniors, Garrett Maltbie, Ryder Norstrom, and Braison Alcala, to injuries from their jamboree the Friday before.

The Eagles had to reconfigure their offense to make up for the missing players.

Canton-Galva won the toss and elected to receive the ball. They made it to the Little River 19-yard line but turned it over on downs.

Little River took over. A 39-yard pass play from Rylan Konen to Grant Stephens kept the drive alive and put the Redskins in the red zone. Braxton Lafferty would score the night’s first touchdown on an 11-yard rush. Konen ran the ball in for the two-point conversion and an early 8-0 lead.

After a touchback, Jett Vincent received the hike and took off for a 65-yard touchdown run. Lane McMannis was tackled in the backfield to prevent the two-point conversion.

Little River still led 8-6.

The Canton-Galva defense forced the Redskins to punt on the next possession.

After the punt, the Eagles went to work on their 31-yard line. On the drive’s second play, Jett Vincent threw a 44-yard pass to Cason Mastre to score a touchdown. Vincent again found Mastre through the air to add two points and give the Eagles their first lead of the night at 14-8.

Little River would return the favor with Rylan Konen finding Braden Young on a 40-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14 all.

The first quarter ended with the score tied.

Little River’s first possession of the second quarter ended when Cason Mastre intercepted a pass by Rylan Konen.

The Eagles took over on their 19-yard line. Four plays later, Jett Vincent took off again for 39-yards and another touchdown. Vincent would pass to Cason Mastre for the two-point conversion and the 22-14 lead.

Little River would punt away the ball from their 24-yard line. The punt set Canton-Galva on to their 16-yard line. Jett Vincent threw a five-yard pass to TJ Koehn. On the next play, Vincent ran for 59-yards to extend the lead to 28-14.

Canton-Galva’s defense again held Little River to a punt.

The Eagles started their next drive on their 25-yard line. Jaden Ediger completed a 45-yard pass to Cason Mastre to set up Jett Vincent’s next touchdown.

From seven yards out, Vincent evaded two tackles and then lept from two yards out and landed in the end zone to score again.

The score now read 34-14 Canton-Galva. The Eagles would head to the locker room at halftime with a 20-point advantage.

Little River would get on the board first in the second half with a Rylan Konen 26-yard pass to Andrew Smith. They missed the two-point conversion to make the score 34-20.

Jett Vincent came out of a timeout and threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to TJ Koehn to counter the Redskin score.

The scoreboard read 40-20 Eagles.

Jett Vincent would score again on the next Canton-Galva possession of the third quarter. His fifth rushing touchdown came from five yards out of the endzone.

The two teams would head into the fourth quarter with a score of 46-20.

Canton-Galva scored with 9:19 left in the game on a 56-yard Jett Vincent score.

Little River countered with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Rylan Konen to Grant Stephens. Konen kept the ball to add two more points. The score is now 52-28.

The Redskins would score one more time on another pass play to Braden Young from Braxton Lafferty.

Jett Vincent was not finished either, he would run for two different 37-yard rushes to score touchdowns seven and eight of the game.

The final score was 66-36.

“We had three days to put in a different offense. The kids grinded all week,” said Shelby Hoppes, head coach of Canton-Galva. “We were down three guys, all Seniors. For them to come to fight like this and to get this victory, I wasn’t expecting this in 100 years.”

“Canton-Galva wanted it, they owned the intensity. It was on their side the whole game,” said Little River Kevin Ayers. “We’re going to come out of this pretty motivated. It’s a wake-up call. I don’t like losing week one but I do like the fact my team go their eyes opened and have to go to work.”

Braxton Lafferty led Little River in rushing with 119 yards and one touchdown. He also passed for one touchdown on 27-yards.

Rylan Konen threw seven of 14 completed passes for 150 yards and three touchdowns. He also was intercepted once.

Jett Vincent dominated the stats for the game. He ran the ball 28 times for 355 yards and eight touchdowns. He passed the ball six times with four completions of 147 yards and two touchdowns.

Cason Mastre received three of those passes and collected 110 yards and one touchdown. The other receiving touchdown went to TJ Koehn who caught two passes for 62 yards.

“A man goes down and the next one steps up,” said Jett Vincent in replacing Garrett Maltbie as the quarterback. “I think this is a statement with the number one team coming into our house and down three starters, it doesn’t get to be a better story than that.”

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