PHOTOS: Canyon, behind 3-TDs by Joey Rouly, holds off Irvine 37-28 in wild opener for Vaqs

Joey Rouly scores his second touchdown for Canyon Friday night. (Photos courtesy Jim Tomlin, For OC Sports Zone)

Canyon, which scored 41 points in its opener last week, kept pouring on the points Friday night, defeating Irvine 37-28 at Irvine Stadium.

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Canyon (2-0) was led by Joey Rouly who hauled in three touchdown passes from quarterback Vincent Hourigan in the first half to help the Comanches take a 37-0 halftime lead.

It seemed like the game was decided at that time.

Then it got crazy in the second half.

“We made some crucial mistakes down the stretch to make it a little closer than it should of have been,” said Canyon Coach Mike Ogas. “First half, our starters really put it on them and played a great game.”

Rouly had TD catches of 9, 8 and 24 yards to help the Comanches jump out to a 21-0 lead after one quarter.

Rouly wound up with eight catches for 175 yards in just one half. Hourigan passed for 207 yards. Both he and Rouly sat out the second half.

“Rouly is an incredible player,” Ogas said. “Two weeks in a row, he’s lit it up. He’s got to be among the state leaders if not the national leaders at this point. You got to hand it to Rouly, but also our quarterback, our offensive line and the other receivers. We have lots of weapons.”

“It’s the first time in Canyon football history where we started the season 2-0,” added Rouly, who also played defensive back and was in on numerous tackles. “It wasn’t pretty toward the end, but a win is a win in the end.”

Canyon moved out to a 27-0 lead on a 1-yard TD run by Jeff Holley early in the second quarter. Rouly connected on a 31 yard field goal to make it 30-0.

Just when Irvine was starting to move the ball, Canyon’s Kenny Aladiume intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 84 yards for a score to put the Comanches up 37-0.

The game was out of reach, so Ogas brought in his reserves and Irvine, behind quarterback Beck Moss, came back with 28 unanswered points in the second half. Moss hooked up with Kade Zimmerman on a 28-yard touchdown pass following a fumble with 38 seconds left.

The Vaqueros tried to cut the lead to seven points but came up short on a 2-pointer.

Moss wound up with 233 yards passing and two touchdown passes in the second half against the Canyon back-ups. Kade Zimmerman had 13 catches for 156 yards.

The game was the first for new Irvine Coach Tom Ricci, who was supported by a large contingent of Irvine alumni who wished him well before the game.

His squad came out with first game jitters, fumbling the ball on the kickoff after one of the scores. The Vaqueros also made numerous penalties which helped Canyon advance the ball early.

Ricci had to figure out what to say at halftime.

“I told the kids in the locker-room, you finally had your first opportunity of varsity football,” said Ricci. “For some of those kids it was their first time, for most of those kids, except for maybe two. Our goal is to come out and win the second half, we want to execute.

“Our goal is to continue to improve and they did that, they came out and executed and did the things we wanted to do. Coach Ogas does a great job with his boys. Give it to them, they played solid, they’re going to do well.”

Ricci was pleased that his squad kept battling.

“Our guys didn’t quit,” he said. “They could have rolled over and they didn’t. They kept playing until the end and that’s what I’m proud of them for. I just think it took us into the second half to start seeing what we’ve talked about. The goal is to improve upon that every week.”

Ricci was pleased with Moss’ performance in the second half.

“He’s coming into this own,” Ricci said. “That was his first varsity start and he settled down. I thought he was doing pretty decent. He has a great arm.”

Cameron Goods scored on a 2-yard TD run for Irvine to make it 37-7 late in the third quarter. Then Moss hooked up with Zimmerman on an 13-yard touchdown pass with 4:51 left to cut the lead to 37-15. Moss also ran in for a two-point conversion.

Moss then threw a 24-yard TD pass to Jacob Sears to cut the lead to 37-22 with 1:46 remaining and Canyon then fumbled on the next series. Ogas brought his starters back in but after taking over at the Comanche 29-yard line, Moss and Zimmerman hooked up again for a score to get the Vaqueros even closer.

Holley rushed for 59 yards for Canyon while Samuel Dimaculangan led Irvine with 43 yards rushing.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com