Canyon Springs tops Chaparral, 61-18

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 | 10:37 p.m.

The Canyon Springs High football team on Thursday scored 31 unanswered points after surrendering a first-quarter touchdown in beating host Chaparral 61-18 in the Northeast Division opener for both schools.

Chaparral led 6-0 three minutes into the game when Jacob Barr threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Corey Hockin.

But Canyon Springs (1-2) quickly responded with three touchdowns in the next five minutes to easily win its first game of the season. Corey Esco and Marquon Webster had interception returns for a touchdown one minute apart in the first quarter.

“It’s all about eliminating mistakes,” Canyon Springs coach Hunkie Cooper said. “We are a young team and for us, it’s been where we make the mistakes and when we make them that hurt us. But we are starting to hit our stride. Our kids showed a lot of character tonight.”

Sophomore Donnel Pumphrey added to the onslaught with an 87-yard touchdown run to open the second quarter and give the Pioneers at 31-6 lead.

After two Chaparral touchdowns, Canyon Springs closed the game with 30 straight points.

Even though Canyon Springs dropped its first two games of the season, they won the game that counts — the league opener.

Last week, Canyon Springs lost by one point to Basic — a game Cooper said they gave away with errors.

“We punted our first four possessions against Basic,” he said. “You can’t let a team like that hang around.”