Resilient Eagles look to build on previous success
Photo by Doug Stuart
The Canton Eagles return to the gridiron Aug. 26, hosting the Brownsboro Bears at Norris Birdwell Stadium. Both teams were playoff qualifiers in 2015, as Canton made it to the Area round and Brownsboro reached the bi-district round.
Editor’s Note: A portion of this story appeared in the annual Van Zandt County Football/Volleyball Preview section included in the Aug. 21 edition of the Van Zandt News.
Even the most diehard Canton Eagle fan likely found themselves on shaky footing during the early stages of the 2015 season as the team came out just a play or two short of winning each of its first three games.
Those early narrow missteps aside, Eagle players and coaches kept the faith, storming back from the brink of a disappointing season to rally back with six wins in their final nine contests to qualify as the third seed coming out of District 5-4A.
When the dust settled, Canton found itself in rarefied air as the lone Van Zandt County football team to record a playoff victory in 2015 with a thrilling 34-27 win over a highly regarded Gladewater team.
The Eagles nearly pulled off an even more impressive feat in the Area round of the playoffs, dueling with the Lorena Leopards down to the wire in a 35-28 heartbreaker.
"Early in the season, we didn't execute as well as we could have. We lost three games that could have gone either way. We could have been sitting there at 4-0 instead of 1-3. It was just a good football year. We peaked at the right time. You want to win all those games, but when you peak at the right time like we did, we felt like going into that second playoff game (against Lorena) we could play with anybody,” said Coach Robert Ivey. “Last year was fun and we got on a roll. We beat Gladewater in the first round. It's always fun to beat an opponent no one else thinks you're going to beat. It was just an awesome senior class and a great group."
Entering 2016, redistricting helped Canton nearly as much as any team in the county, with the Eagles trading perennial state title contender Gilmer, Bullard, Melissa and Nevada Community for in-county rival Wills Point, Ferris, Dallas Lincoln, Dallas Roosevelt and Emory Rains.
During the upcoming season, Canton will once again rely on dynamic quarterback Hunter Moore to guide the high-flying Eagle offense. After getting his feet wet as an injury replacement his sophomore season, Moore took his game to another level in 2015 by gaining nearly 3,000 yards of total offense (2,112 yards passing, 812 yards rushing).
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