Golden Valley senior Aaron McCormick entered Friday night’s matchup against the Canyon Cowboys with five rushing touchdowns to his name on the season — and ended it with nearly double that amount.
Buoyed by a 90-yard touchdown run on just the second offensive play for the Grizzlies at Canyon High School, McCormick ended the night with 245 yards and four touchdowns on just 11 carries as the Grizzlies won in dominant fashion over the Cowboys, 49-10, to end a two-game losing skid.
“It felt great, man,” McCormick said. “Just being able to burst off runs more than 30 yards at least, that just feels amazing, man. And having a quarterback to back it all up, just even better.”
McCormick had high praise for Grizzlies (3-3, 1-1) signal-caller Jaxon Ray. The sophomore didn’t get any touchdowns against Canyon (1-4, 0-2), but he was efficient and moved the Golden Valley offense down the field. He finished with over 200 yards on 10-of-16 passing, hitting six different Grizzlies with at least one pass. Four of those passes went to junior Ian Henriquez for 76 yards.
“It’s my job to move the chains,” Ray said. “No touchdowns, but our line did great. Our running backs got the ball in the end zone, and it’s just really chemistry through the air. All year we’ve been working sideline calls, working checks, and it all really showed tonight.”
The Grizzlies racked up over 550 total yards as a team on Friday, with over 350 of those coming on the ground, including all seven touchdowns. Golden Valley head coach Dan Kelley said he liked the way his young and inexperienced offensive line worked, and hopes to see further improvement as the season moves along.
“I thought it got better tonight, and they need to get better,” Kelley said. “And Jaxon’s getting better every week. Hats off to him. How many 10th grade quarterbacks — I know Saugus has a freshman quarterback — can go out there and manage the offense? I thought he did a great job tonight.”
Sophomore Cornell Glass added 65 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries for the Grizzlies. He also had 52 yards on two receptions. Many of his yards came after eluding tackles and shifting his way around the Cowboys’ defense.
“Another sophomore, which I’m so excited about,” Kelley said. “You know, we’re out there playing with four or five sophomores, and they’re playing like varsity football players. I couldn’t be happier.”
Junior Nollan Ramirez had 47 yards and two touchdowns on just three carries for Golden Valley.
Canyon’s offense started off on a strong note, getting to the red zone before settling for a short field goal to make it 7-3 early in the first quarter. But the Cowboys were shut out from that point on until the running clock had already started in the fourth quarter. That touchdown was an electric play, though, as senior Julian Carlin hit senior Jeremiah Herreres for a 77-yard bomb.
Canyon nearly scored midway through the first half, but the Grizzlies made three consecutive goal-line stands. Kelley said he doesn’t like to see his defense go into bend-but-don’t-break mode, but was happy to see his team come up strong when it counted.
“The goal-line stand was huge,” Kelley said. “Canyon, they’re the best quarterback-sneaking team I’ve seen in a while. We took that away from them. Our defense did a really good job with that.”
Friday’s game was delayed by about 20 minutes in the first half due to an injured Canyon player. Sophomore Jacob Milhoan went down with what Canyon head coach Ken Holsenbeck said was an injury to the right side. He said he wasn’t sure about Milhoan’s status but that the injury likely wasn’t as severe as was initially feared. Milhoan was eventually able to get to his feet before being carted off the field and taken to a nearby ambulance.
The Cowboys will look to regroup next week when they take on the Castaic Coyotes.
“Proud of some of our individual performances,” Holsenbeck said. “Jeremiah Herreras played well. Julian Carlin, our quarterback, super tough. Love, love watching him play. He has such a great attitude. But obviously, overall, just not good enough.”
The Grizzlies have a short week as they play on Thursday against the Hart Hawks. Golden Valley is looking to make the playoffs after missing out last season.
“Win, win, win,” McCormick said. “Try and make it as far as we can. Trying to make it to playoffs, keep that .500 win rate.”
