By Grant Gordon
For The Signal
Though the postseason was a longshot and each team was vying for its first Foothill League win, Saugus High and Canyon waged back and forth on Friday night.
Down by 20 points late in the third quarter, the Cowboys mounted a furious rally ignited by an 87-yard touchdown reception by Colin Figueroa and eventually took a two-point lead.
But a stunned Saugus had a rally of its own and scored the game-winner on a bruising Joshua Bond three-yard touchdown run before Julian Bornn burst through for a 35-yard touchdown run that sealed the Centurions’ 40-28 victory over the Cowboys at Harry Welch Stadium in the teams’ regular-season finale.
Saugus (4-6, 1-4 in league), which hadn’t scored more than 20 points in a league contest, exploded on the strength of quarterback Colton FitzGerald’s arm. FitzGerald threw for 392 yards and a pair of touchdowns, completing 28-of-46 passes and also catching one for an 11-yard first-half touchdown on a reverse throwback from receiver Hunter Girch (five catches for 81 yards).
Brady Welch had eight catches for 135 yards, the last of which was a five-yard scoring grab to put the Centurions up, 26-7, with 4:35 left in the third.
The Cowboys (2-8, 0-5), who lost their 11th league game in a row, did their best to end their Foothill skid as Figueroa, who had five catches for 123 yards on the night, hauled in an Aydyn Litz (19-for-35 for 280 yards and three touchdowns) pass on the ensuing play from scrimmage to cut the lead to 26-14.
Reno Sifuentes (seven catches for 117 and two touchdowns) scored on the next Canyon possession and then Saugus’ next offensive play saw Travis Dyson return a fumble 10 yards for the go-ahead score.
Saugus, which got two touchdown runs from Bornn, was able to settle back down and pull off a rally of its own for the win.
