Kocicka Runs Hart to Crown : High school football: He scores three touchdowns, passes for one in 35-18 victory over Canyon.

VALENCIA — Canyon High knew it would need to make big plays to upset defending Foothill League champion Hart. The Cowboys made some big plays, but--as Cowboy Coach Harry Welch feared--Hart made more of them Friday night.

The Indians (9-1, 4-0 in league play) pulled away to win, 35-18, in front of 7,000 fans at College of the Canyons, thanks to the arm and legs of quarterback Mike Kocicka.

Kocicka completed 15 of 23 passes for 185 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed for three touchdowns and gained 107 yards in 11 carries. He finished the regular season with 25 touchdown passes and 11 touchdowns rushing.

“This game didn’t hit me until I ran out onto the field and saw all the people in the stands, and then I knew how big this was,” Kocicka said of the league-title game between Santa Clarita rivals. “I’ve never seen so many people. I got jittery.”

Canyon (6-3, 3-1) kept the pressure on Hart by blocking a punt, passing for a first down on a fake punt and scoring on a 64-yard pass play. But the Cowboys were victims of a kickoff return for a touchdown, two blocked extra-point kicks by Hart’s Soren Halladay, three pass interference calls and a 34-yard scramble for a touchdown by Kocicka.

“You take away the kick return and the quarterback scramble and it’s a different game,” Welch said.

Canyon stopped Hart on the game’s opening drive when Ted Iacenda was driven from the Cowboy two to the five on three running plays. On fourth down, John McLaughlin couldn’t hold Kocicka’s pass in the end zone.

Canyon took over and three plays after Fred Polito (14 rushes, 68 yards) opened the drive with a 21-yard run, Sean Connelly connected on a 64-yard play-action pass play to David Therasse for a touchdown. It was Therasse’s first reception of the season.

After Halladay blocked the first of two Ricky Engbrecht extra-point kicks, McLaughlin took the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. Matt Kohl’s conversion kick made it 7-6.

Canyon was unshaken. After Ed Williams (19 rushes, 109 yards) nearly broke Hart’s kickoff, the Cowboys marched 66 yards, Polito scoring from the five.

But Canyon failed again on the point after, this time McLaughlin intercepting a pass by Williams.

Kocicka put Hart in control, 22-12, on touchdown runs of one and 34 yards.

“It was a blitz and I (changed the play),” said the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Kocicka of the 34-yarder. “I don’t have great speed, but I knew I could beat them.”

Williams scored on a one-yard run to make it 22-18 after John Ortiz partially blocked Marc Zimmerman’s punt. But Kocicka buried the Cowboys with a 12-yard scoring strike to Cameron Perry and a three-yard touchdown run.