Crespi football improves to 4-0, shuts out Canyon

ENCINO — Crespi Carmelite Celts football has been nearly untouchable to start the 2025 campaign.

The Celts continued their undefeated tear on Friday with a dominating 58-0 home win over the visiting Canyon Cowboys.

Crespi (4-0) won the battle in all three phases and held Canyon (0-4) to single-digit yardage in the first half en route to its second shutout of the season.

The Celt pass rush broke through protection on the majority of plays and gave the Cowboys no breathing room nor any time for receivers to get open. Daniel Tobar and James Moffat both added sacks while sophomore Rylan Jackson ran back a pick-six to seal the deal late in the fourth quarter.

The Crespi offense matched the intensity and was just too much for the Cowboys, with an impressive, quick passing game led by sophomore quarterback Chase Curren.

Curren totaled over 250 all-purpose yards, mostly from his 14-of-20 passing day, with five total touchdowns, all in just the first half of play.

“It was a great team win out there tonight,” Curren said. “Overall, I felt like we had a good week of practice. We definitely watched our film and it showed out there. We did a great job blocking up front.”

Curren opened up the big plays on the Celts’ second drive, when the quarterback connected with sophomore Marcus Daley on back-to-back plays. Daley reeled in a 16-yard pass before breaking free on the very next play for a 35-yard score and the first touchdown of the game.

Curren lit up the whole field as six different Celt receivers finished with multiple receptions, including freshman wideout Harlem Bullock, who registered three catches for 41 yards and a touchdown.

Canyon had some chances to get going, but four dropped passes gutted the team early and only fueled Crespi’s momentum.

“One of the biggest challenges we’ve had here is just our mental mistakes,” said Cowboys coach Ken Holsenbeck. “We have to clean those things up, especially when you’re playing against some bigger, faster teams. You’ve got to be able to play a mentally strong game.“

Dominating on offense and defense wasn’t enough for the Celts, who also added some stellar play on special teams with multiple deep kickoffs and a 65-yard punt return for a touchdown by sophomore Oliver White.

“Oliver White is a special player,” said Crespi coach Brad Vonnahme. “He’s one of the best football players on our team. He plays with really high effort, makes plays and has an intensity about him. He’s a little guy, but pound for pound, he’s one of the strongest guys in our school. He’s somebody we’ve been excited about for a long time, and he’s starting to showcase that a lot.”

White left his mark all over the game with a big pass deflection on what could’ve been Canyon’s longest play of the game as well as a touchdown-saving tackle on a kickoff return late in the game to preserve the shutout.

White is one of several sophomore standouts fueling Crespi to its best start in this decade. Chemistry that started brewing before their high school careers may be giving the team an extra edge.

“Some of these guys, I played with when I was younger,” Curren said. “The coaches did a great job bringing us up here, keeping us together, and really building the culture. It shows out there on Friday night how we’re able to come together and get a big win together.”

While the play on the field has spoken for itself so far, Curren credits Crespi’s best start in years to its own brotherhood and coaching.

“We’re all coming together,” Curren said. “It’s really like a brotherhood in there. The coaches are doing a great job pushing us to be our best and keeping us humble, even though we’re winning a lot right now.”

Canyon completed its first winless non-league campaign since 2009.

“The good news is that league starts next week, so we go back to 0-0,” Holsenbeck said. “The goal doesn’t change: getting that top three in league and be able to get into an automatic playoff berth. But we’ve got to grow a lot from what we saw out there tonight.”

Both coaches shared the same sentiment of simply wanting more improvement and cleaner football with their respective league plays both coming up.

“I’d love to see us play cleaner football,” Vonnahme said. “We have some talented players who have made big plays and help achieve the results, but I just want to see us continue to focus on the process and every rep playing clean, controlling our controllables and becoming the best version of ourselves going into the bye week.”

Crespi will hit the road next Friday to play the Oak Park Eagles before heading into its bye week. Canyon heads straight into Foothill League play with an away game on its own field against the Golden Valley Grizzlies.