Two big first-half plays give Canby momentum that paces its 36-14 win

CANBY - Westview's Friday-night playoff game got off to a horrible start, and that lousy beginning sent the Wildcats' season out with a difficult end.

Westview, facing Canby at Canby High School in the first round of the Class 6A state playoffs, saw the Cougars race out to a 36-7 halftime lead and Canby rode that edge home to win 36-14 on Friday night.

For Westview, the third-place finisher from the Metro League, the loss ended the Wildcats' season at 3-8. Canby, meanwhile, improved to 6-4 after its third-place finish in the Three Rivers League and sent it on to a second-round game against Grant at Lincoln High School at 7 p.m. Friday.

'We helped them out a couple times,' admitted Westview coach Greg Fisher. 'We made a couple big mistakes that let them get going.'

The Cougars kicked off the night's scoring with a 33-yard Noah Abel run in the first quarter, then made a big defensive play to match it, with Stephen Doman picking off a CJ Garcia pass and taking it back 35 yards for another TD and a 15-0 lead at the end of the opening period.

Canby stretched that edge to 22-0 early in the second quarter on a 41-yard Thomas Sutherland run, but Westview began to show some life from there. Garcia connected with Daniel Abdie on a 28-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter and Matt Gorman added the PAT to cut their team's deficit to 22-7.

But any momentum Westview might have gained from that score was short-lived. Canby's Noah Kyllo took the ensuing kickoff back 90 yards for a score, and Canby added another TD - a 5-yard Evan Sanders-to-Andrew Welch pass - to extend the Cougar lead to 36-7 at halftime.

'The pickoff and the kickoff return were the biggest ones in swinging the momentum in their favor,' Fisher said. 'We've been a momentum team all year and they got it with those plays.'

Garcia scored his team's second TD on a 10-yard run in the fourth quarter, but it was too little and too late.