Canton Academy season ends in heartbreaking fashion

Canton Academy saw their season end in heartbreaking fashion at the hands of Greenville St. Joseph for the second consecutive season, falling 22-14 in the quarterfinals of the MAIS 3A playoffs. 

“These seniors have a lot of fight, ever since I got here this class has done nothing but fight and sacrifice,” Canton Academy Head Coach Gage Posey said. “I’m really proud of them and the effort they gave, you can’t always control the way you lose a game, but you can use it to prepare for the next time whether that’s in football or in life.

It was a defensive slugfest for almost the entire game, with Canton Academy taking a 7-6 lead into the halftime break and things would stay that way until the fourth quarter. 

The Panther offense struggled to find any kind of consistency throughout the game against a very stingy St. Joseph defense.

“They got a lot of pressure on us up front and got us rattled a little bit,” Posey said. “We have a lot of young guys up front that made some mistakes, but they can use that to learn for the future and I’m really proud of this group.”

St. Joseph, however,  was finally able to find an offensive rhythm in the fourth quarter, scoring a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and then presumably scoring the dagger with 1:25 left in the game. 

The Panthers were not done yet, however. The Canton Academy offense went down and scored on a touchdown reception by Sawyer Bates with 23 seconds on clock.

The comeback seemed to be more than on when Canton Academy recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff and completed a deep pass inside the ten. 

After a false start penalty, the Panthers made one last heave to the end zone and the ball was knocked out at the last second, ending Canton Academy’s season and hope of a miraculous comeback. 

Even in the loss, Canton Academy battled back and had belief in their team in a way that not many teams could or would have, after scoring seven points in the first 46 minutes of the game and with their season on the line. 

“This group really worked for everything this season, especially this senior group,” Posey said. “When they are in the facility, in the weightroom, and on the football field they gave me everything they had and that’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

St. Joseph will advance to the MAIS 3A semifinals and travel to take on Kirk Academy next Friday night.