Goal-line stand helps Pioneers hold off Cougars

Zaviontay Stevenson had accounted for all 12 of Canyon Springs' points during Friday's Sunrise Region quarterfinal game. But the junior still needed a little help from his defense.

Visiting Coronado recovered Stevenson’s fourth-quarter fumble at the Pioneer 27, drove down to the 3-yard line, and was poised to score the go-ahead touchdown.

But Canyon Springs' defense came through in the clutch and turned the Cougars away, and Stevenson helped run the clock out from there as the sixth-ranked Pioneers held on for the 12-7 win.

“The defense bailed me out right there,” said Stevenson, who carried the ball 31 times for 145 yards. “ I appreciate our defense. They have come up big for us all year. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here.”

Despite playing well, the Pioneers caught a break on the goal-line stand. Coronado (4-6) appeared score the go-ahead TD on fourth down when quarterback Jackson Cofer – limping noticeably after leaving the game with a shin injury six plays earlier – ran the ball into the end zone on a 3-yard bootleg to the left.

But a holding call nullified the run, and Cofer’s pass on the next play fell incomplete, ending the threat.

From there, Stevenson essentially closed the game out, running the ball on 10 of the Pioneers’ next 12 plays. His last carry – a 10-yard run on third-and-7 with less than a minute to play– clinched the win.

“It was time, and we just put the game away,” Stevenson said.

He did, and now Canyon Springs (9-1) will head to Liberty (7-3) next Friday for a Sunrise semifinal game.

Stevenson had opened the scoring against Coronado with 7:49 left in the second quarter on a 44-yard burst through the middle of the line to make it 6-0.

“(Fullback) Nigel Perry made an excellent block,” Stevenson said. “It was just a wide open lane for me to hit at full speed and just score.”

Stevenson then padded the lead at the start of the second half, as he took the opening kickoff and raced 95 yards for a TD to make in 12-0.

“I saw a good block by one of my teammates, and once I saw the opening, I made a big play for my team,” Stevenson said. “We needed to start off the half with a good play.”

As it turned out, Canyon Springs needed the play to survive.

Coronado mounted an eight-play, 50-yard drive later in the quarter, capped by Tanner Gorski’s 11-yard touchdown run on a reverse on a fourth-down with 5:36 left in the period.

But Canyon Springs defense made things tough on the Cougars offense most of the game, limiting Coronado to just 152 yards of offense.

Cofer led the Cougars with 15 rushes for 95 yards, but was held to just 36 passing yards.

“It was just our defense. That’s all I can say,” Canyon Springs coach Hunkie Cooper said. “Our defense was amazing. They were flying around all night, and when you do that, you are going to make plays.”

The Cougars defense also played well, with Jordan Rude coming through with two of Coronado’s four sacks, and Wade Jacobs blocking two Pioneer field goal attempts. The Cougars also thwarted three fourth-down attempts by Canyon Springs to turn the ball over on downs.

“The offense sputtered like water in the oil. But we were able to sustain drives on third down when we needed to the most,” Cooper said. “But (the Cougars) are a good football team. We had to stay in the run, because the way to contain a spread offense is to keep them off of the field.

“But when you can win, even though it’s ugly, we’ll take it, because it gives us another week to complete.”