By Matthew Robinson
CHATSWORTH- One wonders where the Sylmar Spartans would be without their senior quarterback Tim Tanner. The Spartans found the answer in Games Two and Three against the Arroyo Eagles and Poly Parrots, respectively, with one of those games (Poly) being a mundane 14-8 loss with no offensive balance or a touchdown pass extracted from the Spartans’ passing game. Tanner didn’t play in those games because he was serving a Sylmar-mandated suspension for violating team rules. Last night against the Canoga Park Hunters, the Spartans were fortunate Tanner suited up and played because without him there’s a very good chance they would have lost. Then there’s the fact that if they had lost to the Hunters, they would have suffered the indignity of losing to one of the Los Angeles City Section’s 11 teams that have not won a game this season, which include: Canoga Park, Roosevelt, Locke, Jordan, Mendez, Contreras, Manual Arts (their head coach will be resigning at the end of the 2026 season), Sotomayor, Westchester, Dymally, and Gardena.
Tanner and four of his receivers, coupled with a decent performance from the defense (which included two interceptions), helped the Spartans scrape out a 19-13 victory on the road at Chatsworth High School. With this win, Sylmar is 2-3 overall and 1-0 in the Valley Mission League while the Hunters drop to 0-6 overall and 0-2 in the Valley Mission League.
Beating Canoga Park was the mission of this Spartans team this week and they accomplished that goal. But Head Coach Evander Williams felt his team underachieved in a contest that should have been a 21-point or more victory for Sylmar. And he’s right.
“We didn’t show our best out there; we played sloppy,” Williams said. “Our leadership needs to take more accountability for what they do and have that be infectious across the program.”
As for some positives in the game for Sylmar, Tanner went 16 of 23 for 229 yards, with one touchdown pass and no interceptions. He also carried the ball seven times for 72 yards and two touchdowns, which included a marvelous 65-yard touchdown run on the last play of the third quarter. But more importantly, that scoring run gave the Spartans a 12-point cushion they would sorely need late in the fourth quarter.
Leadership and performing well on the field are the main elements of a quarterback’s game, and Tanner knows full well that those elements must be fulfilled every week for the Spartans to have any chance at sustained success in 2026.
“I’m the quarterback; I [have] got to be the leader on both sides of the ball and I [have] to be able to lift my team up when things aren’t going well,” Tanner said.
Tanner went off on the Hunters’ defense with 301 total offense yards and three scores last night because, from the Chatsworth game (last week’s game) to the Canoga Park game, he’s felt that he must make up for lost time due to that two-game suspension.
“I feel like coming off my two-game suspension, I got a lot of ground to make up.”
It’s really something that Tanner had the night he had, considering the injuries along the offensive line and the moving of players from the defensive line to the offensive line (to combat those injuries) could have really hurt a lesser-talented quarterback. One of the key elements of Tanner’s game is his athleticism, field vision, and improvisational skills and those talents are not necessarily used by design; he has to use those talents for self-preservation (injuries) and to mask what is going on with his offensive line this season.
“My offensive line, three of my starting offensive linemen are down,” Tanner said. “I got my second-string offensive line in, I got people from the defensive line in [as starters on the offensive line], I got linebackers in my offensive line.”
Fortunately, that offensive line was up for the challenge last night as they paved the way for Tanner to do his thing while opening holes for the running game, which gained 97 yards on 15 carries with 2 scoring runs. Junior running back Freddy Ponce led the Spartans’ running backs with 31 yards on 4 carries, which included some helpful double-digit runs in the first and second halves.
Sophomore wide receiver Payton Perez found voids and sweet spots all night within the Hunters’ defense. He led the Spartans in the receiving department with three catches for 94 yards and one score, which included an 80-yard scoring catch on his team’s first offensive drive of the game. That scoring catch set the tone for the game, and let the Hunters’ defense know Perez was going to be a problem for them throughout the game. On defense, Perez was in on two tackles (one solo and one assist) and one interception.
Then there were senior receivers Daniel Flores (five catches for 55 yards) and Andrew Galvez (four catches for 35 yards) who each carved up the Hunters’ defense in their own ways. Some of their catches brought on hard hits or gang tackles from Hunters defenders. One cannot start or alternate in as receiver for the Spartans’ offense and not be tough-minded or effective in the short or intermediate areas. Meanwhile on defense, Flores had four tackles (one solo, three assists) while Galvez chipped in with three stops (one solo and two assists).
Senior defensive back/wide receiver Ryu Garcia was invaluable to the Spartans last night, catching two passes for 35 yards, but his offensive statistics paled in comparison to what he did on defense near the end of the game. It was his interception inside the 50-yard line area that closed the door for good on the Hunters’ rally.
On defense, there were two Spartans who were in double-digit tackle totals, and they were senior linebacker Xavier Guardado, who led the team in tackles with 11 while fellow senior Noe Aguilar was in on 10 tackles. Aguilar was one of those players that had to pull double duty as a defensive lineman and as one of Tanner’s protectors on the offensive line. Aguilar knew before Thursday’s game (and so did anyone else who has watched Canoga Park play this year) that Canoga Park was a running team, and he knew that he and his defensive mates had to sell out to contain or hold the Hunters’ running game in check.
“Defense, the main thing was to stop the run,” Aguilar pointed out. “[I wanted] to go one hundred percent every play and make sure no one [any Hunters ball carrier] gets past me.”
Since the Hunters ran the ball ad nauseam Thursday, many Sylmar defenders enjoyed solid nights in terms of activity all over the field. Junior defensive end Paul Conchas was in on six tackles (three solos), one tackle for loss, and one pass broken up; junior linebacker Liam Serpas chipped in with seven tackles, senior linebacker Noah Gonzalez had three tackles, and junior defensive back Michael Cuevas was in on three tackles.
Sylmar quickly established how they were going to beat Canoga Park when Tanner completed a pass to Perez in front of the Hunters’ sideline area. The receiver then turned upfield and as he was running, the Hunters’ home crowd quickly quieted, as it was apparent that Perez was not going to be tackled. The receiver kept running and he didn’t stop running until he reached the end zone. The 80-yard scoring connection and the successful extra point kick gave the visitors a 7-0 lead with 11:08 left in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Tanner took the snap from senior center David Zemora and a few seconds later executed an RPO (run-pass option) to Ponce. Tanner then took off to his left where he used key blocks and interference from senior right tackle Jose Rodriguez and Aguilar to inch his way into the end zone. Tanner’s four-yard scoring run and the missed extra point kick put the score at 13-0 with 7:20 left in the second quarter.
The Hunters got on the board late in the second quarter when they scored on a short touchdown run up the middle. The extra point kick by junior Lenny Santizo was successful, which moved the score to a more competitive 13-7 with 2:43 left in the second quarter.
Two plays after muffing a snap and being forced to fall on the ball for an eight-yard loss, Tanner again showed just how invaluable he is to the Spartans and how much of a pain he was to the Hunters’ defense. On the last play of the third quarter, Tanner took the snap and drifted back to his own 27-yard line, and from there looked downfield for someone to throw to. Tanner didn’t find anyone open, so he took off on a diagonal trajectory to his left, then cut back to his right where he found more open space near the Hunters’ 32-yard line. And from there it was nothing but the end zone in his sights. The 65-yard scoring run and the missed extra point kick gave the Spartans a seemingly commanding 19-7 lead.
Hunters junior running back Ryan Varillas set up his team’s last scoring drive of the game when he took a Vasquez handoff and proceeded to run hard with some serious urgency mixed in down the right side to the Sylmar one-yard line. That 19-yard run set up junior quarterback Manuel Vasquez’s one-yard scoring run. The extra point kick was blocked, so the score went to 19-13 with 3:24 left in the game.
On Sylmar’s last offensive drive of the game, a Flores 14-yard catch to the Hunter 28-yard line, a Ponce 13-yard run to the 15-yard line, another Ponce run to the 9-yard line, and a few runs by Ponce (1) and Tanner (2) helped run down the game clock. Even though the Spartans turned the ball over on downs because Tanner was three yards short of the first down on a fourth-down run, the Spartans still had the upper hand with the game clock.
Canoga Park got the ball back, but they couldn’t get past their own 21-yard line. Then on what would be Canoga Park’s last offensive play of the game, Garcia picked off Vasquez at the Hunter 47-yard line and was eventually tackled near midfield by Hunters wide receiver Salvador Valdez. A kneel-down on the next play by Sylmar ended the game.
Sylmar will host the Van Nuys Wolves next week on Friday, October 2nd, for a 7:00 meeting, while Canoga Park will travel to Reseda for a 7:00 PM meeting on Thursday, October 1st.
