Cimarron prevails in game of inches
Canyon Springs racked up 492 yards of offense on Friday night at Cimarron-Memorial.
But 1 1/2 penalty yards turned out to be the difference.
The top-ranked Pioneers were called for a facemask penalty at the end of a 1-yard TD run by Cimarron’s Joe Zikakis. The penalty moved the ball to the 1 1/2-yard line for the extra point, and Cimarron decided to go for two.
Rashan Lawrence punched in the 2-point conversion to put Cimarron up 27-26, and the Spartans stopped Canyon Springs on two final drives to hold on for the home victory.
"To have all the odds stacked up against us and come out to a top-ranked team and pull off supposedly an upset like this is just great," Cimarron lineman Shane Kanie said. "It’s phenomenal."
Cimarron coach Ron Smeltzer said his team probably wouldn’t have gone for two if not for the penalty. But he said the players wanted to shoot for the lead immediately.
"They came off the field and said, ‘Hey, Coach, let’s run right at them. We can push them,’ " Smeltzer said. "Which is what they did. Those guys up front did a really good job."
Lawrence’s conversion gave the eighth-ranked Spartans their first lead, but their work wasn’t done.
Canyon Springs got the ball back with 8:03 left and promptly marched into Cimarron territory.
But the drive stalled at the 25, and Devonte Christopher’s pass attempt on fourth-and-11 fell incomplete as Cimarron’s Sasha Toussaint dragged him down as he threw.
The Pioneers had one final shot, getting the ball at their 16 with 1:47 left. But Kanie tackled Christopher for no gain on fourth-and-5 to end any threat.
It was one of the few times Cimarron controlled Christopher, who rushed for 162 yards and two touchdowns, including an 89-yarder in the first quarter.
The elusive Christopher did most of his damage on scrambles and quarterback draws.
Kanie said he was just glad to be able to hang on to Christopher.
"I was thinking, ‘Please don’t let go. Please don’t let go,’ " Kanie said.
Christopher also passed for 262 yards and a touchdown, but Cimarron’s defense did a better job against him in the second half, limiting him to 50 rushing yards and putting more pressure on him on pass plays.
"When he was breaking on us in the first half, it was just mental mistakes, like missing tackles and stuff," Kanie said. "But we fixed that when we started recognizing that we were behind and that we were facing a really good quarterback.
"So we rose to the occasion."
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