PHOTOS: Strong defensive effort leads Canyon to 28-22 road win over Irvine

Canyon’s Troy Mills (21) and Joseph Mitchell close in on Irvine’s Kendyn Beaver. (Photos courtesy Jim Tomlin, For OC Sports Zone).

Canyon High School’s football team notched its second win out of the gate, defeating Irvine 28-22 Friday night in a non-league game at Irvine Stadium.

“Last night was a physical game,” said Canyon Coach Phil Hughes on Saturday. “Irvine did a great job of slowing our offense down, but our studs made big plays when we needed them to. Our defense came up with big stops at key points in the game to make Irvine’s long drives waste time and come up empty.” 

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

Canyon's Troy Mills chases down Irvine's Nathan Sasaki on a kickoff.

Canyon's Brennan Maertz stops Irvine's Kendyn Beaver.

Christian Lundsberg kicks an extra point for Canyon.

Harry Soltes scores his first TD hauling in a pass from quarterback Joseph Tierney.

Canyon's Fox Haugen blocks for teammate Kyle Krause on a big kick-off return.

Fox Haugen scores a touchdown for Canyon.

Fox Haugen heads for big gain with No. 20 Brady Von Sprecken set to block.

Kendyn Beaver carries the ball with Ethan France blocking

Quarterback Christian Lundsberg led the way for Canyon, completing 12 of 15 passes for 214 yards with four touchdowns.

Kyle Krause rushed for 46 yards on six carries, Fox Haugen had five catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns and also had a blocked punt and one blocked PAT.

Collin Chu had four catches for 41 yards and one touchdown.

Kayvon Monfared had one reception for 43 yards and Jaden Gonzales had one TD reception for 25 yards.

Defensively, Troy Mills had 23 tackles (10 solo and 13 assisted) and 1.5 tackles for a loss, Brady Von Sprecken, Noah Eckenrode and Connor Leonard had six tackles each. Leonard also had two interceptions.

Irvine quarterback Joseph Tierney connected on a touchdown pass to Harry Soltes for one of the scores for the Vaqueros (1-1). Soltes had two catches for 80 yards and two touchdowns.

Tierney completed 11 of 23 passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted twice.

Kendyn Beaver was Irvine’s top rusher with 149 yards on 28 carries. Deacon Moss had three catches for 51 yards for the Vaqueros.

“Canyon is legit,” said Irvine Coach Tom Ricci on Saturday. “They are huge and physical and we knew it was going to be a tough ball ame.  We had a couple of miscues in the first half that cost us, but as always, we are a second half team.

“I felt like we really fought back hard, but unfortunately we just ran out of time.  We definitely don’t pad our preseason and this game definitely helped prepare us to go through the rest of our schedule.”

Send football news to:

timburt@ocsportszone.com