Coaches Corner: Canyon Lake’s Matt Monzingo

Head Coach Matt Monzingo

This time last week the two coaching staffs from Canyon Lake and Blanco had something in common. They were both preparing to play a team that had not played a game yet.

This week the CL Coaches are preparing to play a team that has not played a game yet. Last week La Vernia had a bye week while almost every other team in the State of Texas were starting their seasons.

“It is frustrating,” Head Coach Matt Monzingo said. “They can learn with film on us and they got to watch us play last week.”

Before you start thinking the La Vernia Bears have all the advantages, then listen to what Coach Monzingo said next. “We played a game and they haven’t…our conditioning will be better and we will have a better idea of our game plan and that will be better.”

So the advantages for La Vernia can also be a downer based on playing a team that already has a game under their belt.

The old adage about a team improving the most between game one and game two will certainly be in favor of the Hawks. The Bears hibernation for the extra week might be a bigger weakness.

Based on the game against Blanco last week the Hawks locked down the Blanco offense in the second half.

“We played much better overall and the players up front got busy,” Coach Monzingo quipped. “We were more conservative in the first half and the secondary got better and started to attack and got very involved in the running game.”

To put that last comment in perspective, look at the following numbers. Of the 110 recorded tackles in the game against Blanco the secondary had 45% of those tackles.

In fact, Jeremy Best, Daniel Camarillo, Matt Noyola had 17, 10, and 10 respectfully. Brandon Berger pitched in with nine tackles.

“Blanco was a whole lot better this year and we are better also,” Monzingo stated. “La Vernia plays man coverage and so our guys will need to run solid routes to be able to get open.”

“They have a solid defense and we will have to establish the run to take the pressure off the passing game,” Coach Monzingo continued.

Last season against La Vernia, Eduardo Covarrubias rambled for 188 yards and CL had a total of 223 yards on the ground. The Hawks will need to repeat that type of game to control the outcome.

The passing game had an anemic four completions on 19 attempts for 53 yards last year. If the running game can give Branson Belcher time in the pocket then hopefully those numbers will improve.

This is where the, we’ve played a game already, might come in handy. Belcher completed the last five passes he attempted last week.

“For the most part, Belcher did not have any penalties and he managed the clock,” Monzingo closed.

The little things are what wins games. Last week the Hawks woke up in the second half and had their epiphany in the second half. The La Vernia Bears will not have that advantage…in fact, the Bears will not know how they will react until they are actually in a game.

Canyon Lake can safely say that they responded well coming out of the half time locker room. That reaction is the positive the team will enter this week’s game with.

Hopefully those little things will add up to a big victory.