"The kids played well," said coach John Bozzi. "They were spirited on defense and determined on offense. I will tell you that if Doherty played with an offensive line that was a little stronger and if our receivers were little more athletic, he would put up some very impressive numbers. He made great reads and made great choices tonight."
Doherty's numbers were storybook. He was 15-for-19 for 223 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown pass to John Flannery. Cruz also had himself a memorable night at the ballpark.
He piled up his 168 yards in 29 carries and he scored four touchdowns.
"He was our No. 2 tailback behind Jeremy Murphy whom we lost to grades," said Bozzi. "He hadn't had many carries, although we knew he was a good one. He ran very well against Morgan last week [an 18-13 loss] and he was terrific tonight, especially when you consider he played two ways and took a lot of hits."
Bozzi went on to say that the key to the good things that happened on offense was the performance of the line.
"It says something good about the offensive line when the tailback gets the kind of yards Cruz got tonight," said the coach. "Canton's defensive front was bigger, but they pushed Canton all over the field tonight."
They started pushing early.
A 54-yard runback of the opening kick by Cruz put the Hawks in business at the Canton 33-yard line. Five plays later Cruz bucked over from the three to give V/C a 6-0 lead with 10:04 to go in the first quarter.
The Hawks marched 68 yards in nine plays to build the lead to 12-0 on Cruz' second TD, a one-yard plunge, with 1:52 left in the quarter. Cruz made it a hat trick when he scored his third touchdown at 7:42 of the second quarter.
That TD was a two-yard run and it came at the end of a 66-yard, eight-play drive. With Keith Johnson's extra point, V/C took a 19-0 lead at the half. At the half the Hawks had 112 yards on the ground and 113 yards in the air.
Canton briefly got back in the game in the third, scoring on a one-yard run by quarterback Nick Delvecchio.
But that was answered by Doherty's 73-yard bomb to Flannery.
Delvecchio matched that with a 76-yard TD pass to Luke Mentzer to cut the lead to 25-14 with 4:49 left in the third, but that was it for the visitors.
The fourth quarter belonged to V/C as the Hawks scored on a five-yard run by John Tomczak at 10:44 and added another TD, a five-yard run by Cruz, with 3:12 left to play.
"It is really great for the kids to get a win," said Bozzi. "We came close last week against Morgan and the kids played well that night. But this was very good for them. They played very, very well tonight."
V/C finished at 1-9 while Canton, in its first full varsity season, was 0-10.