Plymouth Rallies, Stuns Canton in 31-30 Homecoming Thriller

Students' emotions Friday at Plymouth-Canton's varsity field were running high even before the kickoff between the Plymouth Wildcats and Canton Chiefs.

Its thrilling conclusion, a game-winning 40-yard Plymouth field goal with 2 seconds remaining from Brenton Zuzo that capped a 10-point, 18-second scoring frenzy, sent throngs of jubilant Plymouth fans onto the field and dejected Canton fans into the parking lot. It was a perfectly surreal cap to a tumultuous week.

Earlier in the day, an in connection to threats that prompted earlier in the week at the campus — news that was on students' minds, even if no one was talking about it.

For Canton football, which already was coming off the week before, there were memories of last year's playoff loss to the then-underdog Wildcats, which ended the Chiefs' season and helped launch Plymouth to the state championship game. As for Plymouth, a perfect season was at stake heading into its Homecoming game against its fiercest rival.

With an amped-up crowd that resembled a college fan base cheering them on, Plymouth struck first early in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead over Canton, and the game see-sawed from there, thanks in part to Plymouth throwing three interceptions, each of which led to a Canton score. 

Plymouth running back Donte Fox helped keep Plymouth ahead throughout much of the first three quarters, however, scoring two touchdowns and accumulating 136 rushing yards.

The tide appeared to shift heavily in favor of the Chiefs in the second half, however. When running back and defensive back Kevin Buford went down with what appeared to be a lower-body injury, the stadium fell silent. After he was carried off the field, he literally walked the injury off — he'd later say it was just a major cramp — and the Canton fan base gave Buford a standing ovation. That boost of energy seemed to translate into a productive Canton run, where the Chiefs went ahead, 27-21, after a touchdown and two-point conversion.

Buford re-entered the game and Canton forced another Plymouth turnover. This time, the Wildcats' defense was able to keep the Chiefs out of the end zone, and Canton settled for a Scott Piwowar field goal to go up 30-21 with just over a minute remaining.

This is where things began to get interesting.

Piwowar booted the ensuing kickoff out of bounds, giving the Wildcats the ball at their own 45. Quarterback Shaun Austin connected with wide receiver Nate Emminger for a 64-yard gain to put the Wildcats on Canton's one-yard line. Austin rushed the ball in for a touchdown on the ensuing play with about 20 seconds left on the clock, as Plymouth cut the decifit to 2, 30-28, after the extra point.

This set up Plymouth's onside kick that would determine the outcome of the game. Recover the kick and prolong the game; lose it to Canton and the game ends.

"I knew that if we could get the onside kick, and we work on that a ton for this situation, that if we could get the ball to about the 30-yard line we had a shot," Plymouth coach Mike Sawchuk said.

The Wildcats recovered Zuzo's kick, then Austin efficiently worked his team into the Canton zone, gaining 23 yards in two quick plays.

This brought on the field goal unit, where Zuzo blasted the ball from 40 yards out with two seconds left on the clock.

Sawchuk said he had confidence in Zuzo, even if the young kicker wasn't exactly battle-tested.

"That's his first big-time kick," Sawchuk said. "So yeah, I was nervous for myself and nervous for the kid. He sucked it up and got it done."

Zuzo said after the game that he was well-prepared for the game-clinching play.

"We went through situations like this in practice and we knew we could do it if we got into a game situation," Zuzo said. "With this big of a rivalry, we knew that we had to come out on top and we had that fire, because they're right across campus from us, we go to school with them, we had that rivalry and we just came out on top this time."

With the win, Plymouth improves to 7-0. It clinched a playoff spot last week with its sixth win. Canton drops to 5-2 as it looks to secure a playoff berth with a win in either of the remaining two weeks of the season.

"You just have to not necessarily forget, but we just have to look past it, look to our next opponent," Buford said after the game. "We just had a couple of bad plays that were momentum-changers."