The Cowboys’ turned the ball over five times as Royal High School hands Canyon their second loss of the season.

Despite the forecast, Canyon High School wouldn’t let it rain on their homecoming parade. The school honored their homecoming courts as they were escorted onto the track via luxury cars and trucks prior to Friday night’s matchup with Royal High School. After all the pomp and circumstance concluded, there was little that went Canyon’s way the rest of the evening.

In wet and windy conditions, the Cowboys struggled to get any offense going as they were limited to a lone field goal in their 23-3 loss to Royal. The team turned the ball over five times, including a muffed kickoff return, in addition to a mishandled snap on a punt of their own that resulted in a safety for the Highlanders.

With rain pelting the field and winds gusting, the Cowboys committed to the run game in the first half with limited success. The stingy Royal defensive front kept the Cowboys’ ground attack at bay.

“It’s part of our game plan, certainly the weather isn’t helping to change that at all,” Canyon Head Coach Ken Holsenback said at halftime when asked if the offensive game plan was affected given the weather conditions.

In the waning minutes of the first half, Royal drove the ball down the field, culminating in a Carlitoz Nunez touchdown reception with 10 seconds remaining and sending the Cowboys into the locker room at halftime with a 9-3 deficit.

The Cowboys’ continued to pound the ball in the second half but were once again stifled by the Royal defense. Four of the Cowboys’ five turnovers came in the second half, two of which led to scores for the Highlanders. After a Highlander touchdown extended their lead to 16-3, the Cowboys were unable to field the subsequent kickoff. The prime field position lent itself to another Royal touchdown, and what would be the final score of 23-3.

“It’s a tough one man,” Holsenback said after the game. “We’ve had a lot of trouble getting some practices in given some various conditions that have been going on, it’ll be nice to get back to a full week of practice out here, we need to get after it and clean up the things we aren’t doing well.”

With the loss, Canyon drops to (2-2) on the season. They opened their season with back-to-back non-league victories this season against Canoga Park and Hueneme earlier this season before dropping Friday’s game and last week’s matchup with Harvard Westlake.

Despite the bump in the road, there are silver linings. With their two wins, Canyon has already eclipsed last year’s win total. Still, their head coach knows that there is work to be done.

“We’ve got to clean up what we do. We’ve got to clean up our tackling, we’ve got to clean up our blocking, our assignments, and all that. We’ve got to focus on what we do as opposed to what they do,” Holsenback said of the matchup next week.

The Cowboys will face off against West Ranch (4-0) next Friday, September 16th, as Canyon looks to claim their first Foothill League victory since 2017. The game will be hosted at Valencia High School with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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