Diamante Burton’s monster night lifts Canyon Springs over Sunrise Mountain

Gus McNair believes.

The Canyon Springs coach understands how far his Pioneers still have to go to be the football team they want to be. But he knows what he’s got.

McNair has Diamante Burton, the 5-foot-7-inch junior who slid over from running back to quarterback after one series Friday and led the Pioneers to a 33-27 road victory over Sunrise Mountain.

Burton carried the ball five times on an opening drive that stalled at the Miners 29-yard line. The rest of the way, he completed 22 of 30 passes for 367 yards and four touchdowns and also ran for a score that proved to be the game-winner with 3 seconds left in the third quarter.

At the time, the 16-yard TD run looked like insurance.

But when Sunrise Mountain’s Trayvon Ward burst up the middle for a 12-yard scoring run with 2:30 to play, the gap closed to 33-27. The Miners gave up one first down on Canyon Springs next drive, but used their three second-half timeouts to preserve 1:25 of the clock, and got the ball back at their own 20.

The chance to tie or win the game evaporated in just one play, however, as quarterback Stephen Wright’s pass was intercepted along the right sideline by Johnathan Bailey.

Canyon Springs then kneeled down twice to run out the clock for the non-league victory.

“We have a lot of talent here,” McNair said. “And it’s slowly coming together. It’s all about the team concept, learning how to be a team. And we’re still learning some of that right now.”

The Pioneers (3-1), at least, are winning while they develop. But the tests keep coming, as Canyon Springs hosts Basic in six days. Sunrise Mountain fell to 1-3 with the loss.

Trailing 20-7 at the half, the Miners turned it into a game in the third quarter.

Xavier Kyles took the opening kickoff in the second half back 80 yards, then kicked the extra point himself to get the Miners within six, 20-14, just 14 seconds into the third quarter. Kyles got Sunrise Mountain even when he caught a 19-yard scoring pass from Wright with 6:07 to play in the quarter.

A bad snap led to a kick try that was short, however.

Canyon Springs responded by going 61 yards on just three plays after the kickoff, culminated by Burton’s 30-yard strike to Jeremiah Jackson-Trotter with 5:23 left in the third quarter. Burton finished off the Pioneers’ next drive with the 16-yarder to make it 33-20.

“The defense has sort of carried us the past couple of weeks,” McNair said. “We told them the offense was going to take a little bit to start rolling. Diamante threw for over 300 yards tonight. Lazarus (Kyle) had more than 100 yards receiving. It was nice to see.”

Kyle caught seven passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns.