HART PLAYS LIGHTS OUT TO BEAT CANYON NOT EVEN POWER OUTAGE CAN SLOW NORTON, INDIANS VS. RIVAL HART 56, CANYON 21.

Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Sean Norton listened all year to how Nate Longshore was the best quarterback in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Longshore had the size (6-foot-4, 230 pounds), the cannon of an arm and the Pacific-10 Conference football scholarship. But what many overlooked, and what Norton proved again to a television audience Thursday, is who performs best on the field.

A clearly motivated Norton passed for touchdowns on Hart of Newhall's first four possessions and ran for scores on the next two as the Indians dominated host Canyon 56-21.

``Longshore gets a lot of hype,'' Norton said. ``He's a great quarterback. But I wanted to come out here and prove myself, to let people watching on TV know that I'm still here.''

No. 3 Hart (4-3, 2-0) reconfirmed itself as the dominant team in the Santa Clarita Valley, improving its record mark for consecutive Foothill League victories to 60 in beating No. 2 Canyon for the 13th consecutive time.

Canyon (6-1, 1-1) rolled into the game undefeated and averaging 50 points a game. It was projected to be perhaps Hart's toughest test during the streak.

The Cowboys aren't ready to rope in the Indians just yet - not by a long shot.

``It just got personal,'' Norton said. ``People were questioning whether or not Hart had it this year. When people doubt us, it just makes us want it that much more.''

Hart scored touchdowns on each of its six first-half possessions, making the game look similar to last summer's Hart passing-tournament game between the schools. But the Cowboys answered each touchdown in that game and eventually won.

Norton opened the game with an eight-play drive, finding Norris Whitmore over the middle for a 20-yard touchdown. Hart quickly got the ball back and scored again on a 40-yard pass down the right sideline from Norton to Evan Surratt.

Then things got strange. As Hart prepared to kick off, the lights on the Canyon field went out, delaying the game for 32 minutes with 5:15 remaining in the first quarter. Seconds after the lights went out, the Canyon crowd waved green glow-in-the-dark light sticks in the air.

Hart coach Mike Herrington yelled that the event was staged. The Hart crowd chanted ``Canyon's Scared'' and ``Canyon Cowards.''

But if the outage was planned, it did nothing to dim Norton. Hart recovered a pooch kick on the first play after the lights came back on, leading to Norton's 21-yard touchdown over the middle to Terry Leigh.

After a Canyon punt, Norton needed just three plays to find Whitmore, again wide open over the middle, for a 66-yard touchdown. Hart had scored four touchdowns in less than seven minutes and led 28-0 at the end of one quarter.

Norton ran for 9-yard touchdowns on each of Hart's next two possessions, building a 42-7 lead at halftime.

Norton finished with 327 yards on 18-of-29 passing, with another 97 yards on the ground.

Longshore, who accepted a scholarship to California, completed 21 of 29 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns. The teams still could meet again in the Southern Section Div. II playoffs.

``They whipped us,'' Longshore said. ``We just didn't come out and do what we needed to do. They had a couple of big plays in the first half, and we couldn't get back into it.''

Matthew Kredell, [phone]

matthew.kredell(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Hart's Terry Leigh strides into the end zone for a first-quarter touchdown Thursday at Canyon High.

(2 -- color) Canyon running back Louis Montano (21) is brought down by Hart's Daniel Howell on Thursday.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News