Sierra Canyon football blanks JSerra in opener

CHATSWORTH —  Sierra Canyon football, the number one-ranked team in the Daily News area, had a dominant performance in all facets of the game in their season opener as they defeated JSerra 35-0, avenging last year’s 35-7 loss to the Trinity League foes.

“We were definitely motivated by every article we read praising our defense and then questioning our offense.” Sierra Canyon coach Jon Ellinghouse said. “And just because we got a good defense doesn’t mean we got a bad offense and I’m just proud of the guys and coaches overall efforts.”

Running back Jaxson Stokes led the way offensively in the game for Sierra Canyon, running the ball fourteen times for 93 yards with three touchdowns. Laird Finkel won the three-man quarterback competition at Sierra Canyon, beating out Chase Everett and Demarco Hernandez. The Santa Barbara transfer had a solid first start for Sierra Canyon, finishing the game 14 of 24 for 233 yards with no turnovers.

“It feels great to get our feet wet and avenge last year’s loss against them,” Stokes said. “The offense started a little slow early but once we got into our rhythm, it was over after that.”

The talented Sierra Canyon defense was dominant throughout, allowing only 96 total yards and JSerra also had negative one rushing yard in the game. Most of JSerra’s first downs in the game, apart from garbage time, were caused by Sierra Canyon penalties.

The talented Sierra Canyon defensive backfield was stout throughout, not giving up many completions and giving the JSerra offense lots of issues with the Cover 0 coverage. The Sierra Canyon defensive line enforced its will throughout the game, giving the Lions not much of any room to run and pressuring JSerra quarterback Koa Smith-Mayall constantly with four sacks on him.

Texas commit and edge rusher Richard Wesley had two tackles for loss and a sack in the game. Defensive tackle Kasi Currie was also dominant in the game, clogging up the interior of the line constantly and had two tackles for loss.

“Last year we were not nearly as ready as we were this year,” Currie said. “We got a way better team this year, way better intensity and we practiced for this.”

Los Alamitos transfer Jerod Terry Jr. had a strong game out of the backfield for Sierra Canyon with six carries for 50 yards and one touchdown. De’Markus Barnes had two carries for 28 yards and three catches for 77 yards with a rushing touchdown as well for Sierra Canyon.

Sierra Canyon will look to improve to 2-0 next week when they take on Daily News area rival Oaks Christian.