Canton football team feels good after first win
Canton - Grabbing early leads didn't do much for the Canton High School football team in its 0-3 start to the season but the Little Giants finally broke loose against East Peoria.
Canton grabbed a 35-0 halftime lead to blank East Peoria 41-0 in a Mid-Illini Conference game. The Raiders had entered the Little Giants homecoming game on a 2-game winning streak.
"We had faced three quality opponents and we were finally able to establish that we were the better team," said Canton coach Nick Wright.
Big time stats
The Little Giants' Lashawn Wallace exploded for 240 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first half to power Canton and quarterback Cale Barnhardt added close to 200 yard passing in the game.
Wallace finished with 290 yards rushing.
"Lashawn does a good job when he gets out in space running away from guys and he can also run over guys," said Wright of his 5-11, 180-pound senior. "He ran really hard and was tough to tackle.
"That was our game plan going in."
"He did real well scrambling out of the pocket," said Wright of Barnhard't performance. "He made a couple of good reads and found some guys."
About Metamora
The Redbirds, who were 5-5 and made the IHSA Class 5A playoffs last year, are coached by Jared Grebner in his second year as head coach.
They lost to unbeaten Peoria 34-16 to start the season, beat LaSalle-Peru 16-8, lost to Washington 44-22 and downed Morton 38-21 last week.
Player to watch
Metamora quarterback Kaden Harnett rushed for 141 yards and 3 TDs against Morton, including runs of 40 and 66 yards.
How coach Wright sees it
"Metamora has always beeen a run-first team but more recently they've done it from a spread formation so it's tough.
"They're a very quality football team and we'll have to play mistake-free football."
Mid-Illini standings
Pekin 2-0 and 4-0, Metamora 1-1 and 2-2, Morton 1-1 and 2-2, Dunlap 1-1 and 2-2, East Peoria 1-1 and 2-2, Canton 1-1 and 1-3, Limestone 0-2 and 0-4.
How Canton got here
The Little Giants opened the season by losing to Eureka 25-7, Marengo 41-20 and Morton 35-7 before breaking into the victory column last week.
Next week
Canton will travel to Dunlap for another Mid-Illini Conference game.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Canton Little Giants feel good after first win of 2022
