Eagles Finish With Flair, 35-14

The disappointment of a second straight year with no postseason play did not keep the Canton Eagles’ passing game from one more night of big numbers.

Quarterback Chance Wallace threw around, between and over Kemp defenders, racking up 324 yards on a 37-for-50 night as Canton closed the year with a 35-14 victory at Norris Birdwell Stadium.

By contrast, Kemp struggled to move the chains all night, although the Yellowjackets got a pair of big plays that led to their two touchdowns. Quarterback Blake Murray was injured in the first quarter and saw limited action the rest of the game.

Canton held Kemp to 205 yards total offense, one of the better performances this season for the Eagle defense.

Early on, however, it was the Yellowjacket defense frustrating Wallace and the Eagles. After reaching the Kemp 30, Canton turned the ball over when a bad snap sailed over Wallace and was eventually recovered by Lance Roberts.

The ‘Jackets, though, failed to capitalize on the giveaway. Their first possession of the night stalled inside the Eagle 15 and Michael Scott was unable to connect on a 28-yard field goal attempt.

Later in the first quarter, another threatening drive by the Eagles ended on a turnover when Wallace’s pass into the end zone went to Kemp’s Wesley Kerr for a touchback.

The Eagle defense answered the call, though, forcing the Yellowjackets to a three-and-out on that possession.

Canton finally unlocked the scoreless stalemate early in the second quarter when Trent Termin scored on a 1-yard run. A 16-yard pass from Wallace to Stephen Malouf helped set up that touchdown.

Wallace threw to Termin for the two extra points to make it 8-0 with 11:18 remaining in the half.

Arsen Lajqi recovered a Kemp fumble moments later near midfield. Going back to work, Wallace mixed a few passes with the running of Termin and Jacob Harris to get Canton inside the red zone again.

A 19-yard pass to Harris took the Eagles to the Kemp 12 and it took two carries for Harris to score, the TD coming on a 1-yard gain.

Wallace hooked up with Termin once again on the two-point conversion pass to give Canton a 16-0 lead with 4:56 before halftime.

Kemp refused to fold early, though. A short kickoff from the Eagles was recovered at the Canton 45. On a big fourth-and-six play, quarterback Jeff Goldman got out of trouble well behind the line of scrimmage and found a wide-open Kerr, who raced 41 yards for a touchdown.

Cris Murray added a two-point run to make it 16-8 with 2:37 left in the half.

That was plenty of time for the Eagles to put together a scoring drive to close out the first half and they cashed in this time. Wallace tossed a 6-yard TD ball to Roy Denbow in the end zone.

The two-point conversion attempt failed, but Canton carried a 22-8 lead into the locker room.

The second half belonged to the Eagles and particularly some of their younger players like Malouf, Garrett Smallwood, Connor Eiland and Justin Richards.

After forcing and three-and-out on Kemp’s opening drive, the Eagles took over at midfield and increased their lead on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Wallace to Termin.

It could easily have been a blowout by the end of the third quarter if Canton could have scored on a pair of Kemp turnovers.

On the kickoff after Canton sped ahead 28-8, Anthony Gomez bounced the ball off an unsuspecting Yellowjacket player and recovered the ball at the Kemp 49.

However, that drive ended without reward as did the next one stated by Eiland’s interception of Goldman pass at midfield.

Kemp briefly pulled itself back into the game early in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard touchdown run by Zach Allison with 8:23 left in the game.

A big defensive play John Kilgore on third down forced the Eagles to punt for only the second time of the evening. However, the ‘Jackets could not move past the Canton 43 and the drive ended on a fourth-down sack of Goldman by Devin Faber.

With renewed energy, the Eagle offense did not take long to put the game away. Wallace hit Denbow for a 24-yard pass play, threw to Harris for a 9-yard gain, then handed the ball off to Termin, who took it into the end zone from the Kemp 10.

On the fourth play of what would become Kemp’s final possession, Richards hauled in a fine interception near midfield and returned it to the Kemp 32, from where the Eagles ran out the remaining time.

Justin Lawler gave a nice boost to the Kemp offense late in the game and finished with 64 yards rushing on six carries.

Denbow had 10 catches for Canton for 101 yards to lead a group of six receivers in the contest.