The Canton C-Hawks made a couple of goal line stands in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter to hold off the Dell Rapids Quarriers 28-21 on Friday, September 11th.
The C-Hawks scored first with 6:41 to go in the opening quarter on a 31-yard run. The extra point was made to give Canton a 7-0 lead. The Quarriers scored late in the quarter. Cooper Cuny had a 96-yard run with 1:53 to go. The extra point was no good, and Canton held a 7-6 lead. After the Quarrier defense forced a punt, Dell Rapids scored again with just :03 to play in the quarter. Jackson Peppel had a 61-yard run. The two-point conversion was good to give Dell Rapids a 14-7 lead.
With 5:13 to play in the second quarter, the game was forced into a lengthy weather delay. During the delay officials determined the weather break would serve as the halftime break. The C-Hawks scored right before the end of the second quarter. Canton had a 32-yard touchdown pass with :18 to go. A made extra point tied the game 14-14.
Canton struck again with 5:30 to play in the third quarter. A one-yard touchdown run put the C-Hawks ahead 20-14. They would score again moments later on a blocked punt they recovered in the end zone with 4:05 to go in the third quarter. A two-point conversion extended their lead to 28-14. Jace Brende brought the Quarriers within a score after a 55-yard touchdown run with 1:15 remaining in the quarter. The extra point by Connor Jones made the score 28-21. The score remained 28-21 going into the fourth quarter.
Dell Rapids put together one last drive towards the end of the fourth quarter. They got the ball with 4:22 to play in the game deep in their own territory after a turnover on downs. The Quarriers drove the ball inside the Canton five-yard line with under a minute to play. They had the ball as a 3rd and two yards to go as the clock was winding down. Their first attempt at running the ball up the middle was stopped short of the goal line. The Quarriers tried a quarterback sneak up the middle again on fourth down, but the call was the play was stopped short of the goal line with :10 to play. The fourth down stand secured the win for the C-Hawks.
Dell Rapids had 351 yards of total offense, 41 passing yards and 310 rushing yards. Canton finished with 262 yards of offense, 194 rushing yard and 68 passing yards. Hayden Hansen was 2-11 passing for 41 yards. Cuny had a catch for 33 yards, and Peppel had the other catch for eight yards. Cuny finished with one carried for 96 yards and a touchdown. Peppel had seven carries for 92 yards and a touchdown. Brende added nine carries for 86 yards and a touchdown. Brende also had 10 tackles in the game. Peppel finished with 7.5 tackles. Breck Evans had 5.5 tackles.
