Maybe it was the shift to a 7:00 pm kickoff. Maybe it was moving from the advantageous turf to a wet moppy grass field. Whatever it was that kept the Grant Generals in a virtual fog for the entire first half, it wasn't pretty for the PIL visitors as T.J. Gorman ran over and through the Generals in leading Canby back onto the winners track with an impressive 27-12 win Friday at Canby High School.

Canby Coach Mike Doty had to put Gormans performance up with some of his favorites as the Cougars came out and siezed control of the game right away. While Grant enjoyed great success shutting down Southridge's rushing game last week, it was just the opposite on this version of "Friday Night Lights' as Gorman and crew controlled the line of scrimmage and managed to get of 42 plays to Grants 18 in the first 24 minutes. Throwing in just enough razzle dazzle plays and a few well placed Jake Fowler passes, the Cougars defense may have even been more impressive than the offense. Grant went to the locker room at the half without a first down. All told, the Generals amassed a paltry 24 yards of total offense and of seven possessions either went three and out in four of them, turned over the ball in three and went for a fourth and short and failed in one other possession. In the meantime, all the 6'1 senior running back did was rack up 122 rushing yards in taking the Cougars into the half leading 20-0.

All told, Gorman accounted for 162 rushing yards and 66 receiving yards while Grants leading General, Andre Broadhous, staggered through a most forgettable first half of action with only 20 yards of rushing, 3 completions and 4 interceptions.

The second half saw Canby get one more score in when Fowler hooked up with a 28 yard scoring pass to the "he's everywhere Gorman' and move to comfortable 27-0 lead with 9:22 left in the third quarter when Grant finally put up their first first down of the game before turning the ball over on a fumble at Canby. Then Grant finally got on the scoreboard to begin the fourth quarter. With 9:38 left in the game, Broadhous tossed a nice deep flare into the right side of the north end zone to speedy Paul McCoy to avoid the shutout. They looked like they might even make a game of it when Broadhous found Mcoy again on a 40 yard TD pass but they gambled and went for two and failed. Canby recovered and put together a nice drive to ice the game.

Now the two teams start to move into the meat of their conference schedule. Canby and Grant can be expected to be in the thick of the playoff chase and as fate would dictate, it wouldn't be surpising to see them tangle yet again in November. I have a hunch that Grant wants turf and a sunny day and Canby wants it real and green and wet and cold.