Following four straight losses after its last league win over Golden Valley, the Castaic girls’ flag football team rebounded at home with a statement win over Canyon.
The Coyotes defeated Canyon, 26-13, behind quarterback Larkin Smith’s four-touchdown performance and secured their fifth Foothill League win of the year.
“We’ve kind of been stuck in the single-digit, 12-point range but today is our highest point total of the season,” Castaic head coach William Jones said. “And it’s attributed to our quarterback. Usually we rely on the running game, and now that we’re able to rely on the passing game a little more our offense will be much more balanced going into future games.”
The Coyotes (6-7, 5-5) opened the game with an interception as freshman Hailie Mejia picked off Canyon quarterback Dalilah Lee (2-8, 2-7) and set up Castaic’s offense in the red zone.
“That was her first time starting on defense and she came away with the interception,” Jones said.”
On the following drive, Smith connected with Morgan Griffy in the end zone for her first touchdown pass of the game and Castaic led 6-0 after the failed one-point conversion.
In the second quarter, Castaic’s offense drove down the field and with possession set up in the red zone once again, Smith linked with Hailey Parkes to extend the Coyotes’ lead over Canyon by two possessions.
A few seconds before halftime, Castaic scored again as Smith threw her third touchdown pass of the game to Griffy to make it 20-0 to end the first half.
“She’s a very cerebral kid,” Jones said. “Sometimes she overthinks it, but she took what was given to her and she didn’t really force any passes. She threw with touch and anticipation, and she really just executed the plan that we had for her.”
In the second half, the Cowboys substituted Lee for Jodie Noche. On the first drive for Canyon, the offense came out of the gates as Noche scrambled into the end zone for a touchdown and cut into the Coyotes’ lead.
But following the comeback attempt from Canyon, Castaic’s Smith threw another touchdown pass to Hannah Moses for her fourth and final six-point play of the game.
In the final minutes of the game, Noche ran into the end zone again as she led the offense down the field, but following the Cowboys’ scoring drive, Castaic’s defense shut out Canyon the rest of the game.
“We kind of switched up our defense to give it a little different look, and it worked for the most part,” Jones said. “I’m a little disappointed with the 13 points we gave up because of those quarterback runs where we lost containment, but overall, our defense was clicking.”
Following Wednesday’s game against Canyon, the Coyotes play again Sept. 27 at home hosting Eagle Rock. Despite the down time, Jones is going to keep his team ready and utilize the momentum from the win into the second half of the season.
“We’re still going to have practice, and we’ll be able to go back and watch film and just keep the girls engaged,” Jones said. “We’re going to give them time to heal up because our girls are banged up a little bit, so they’ll get time to heal up and get time to study and we’ll be ready to go.”
As for Canyon, the Cowboys play again on Sept. 29 at home, hosting Vasquez, with the game set to begin at 3:30 p.m.
