Hawks Freshman Use “Ground & Pound”

BOERNE, Texas –The Canyon Lake Freshmen Hawks took a cue from the New York Jets and used their own version of “pound and ground” to rough up the Boerne Greyhounds 26-7 Thursday night to even their season record at 4-4 and 3-1 in district play.

From the first kick and even walking off the bus the Hawks used a physical, suffocating defense and a powerful, efficient run game to win in Boerne for the second time this season.

“We knew we were going to beat them when we walked off the bus,” defensive lineman Dallas Sandau said. “But at the same time we knew they were going to come at us pretty hard because they wanted revenge, so we had to be ready to go.”

The Hawks were indeed ready to go and used their “pound” first on the defensive side of the ball to hold the Greyhounds to 60 total yards and three 1st downs in the first half.

“We just pretty much stayed with our base defense tonight,” coach Lucas Chapman said. “I didn’t need to call a whole lot. The kids did a great job of being physical, reading their keys and getting after it.”

With the Greyhound offense in check, the Hawks began to use their “ground” attack to jump out 6-0 lead on a 15 yard run from tailback Hayden Dubois. Early on it was a singular “ground” attack as Canyon Lake only needed the toss sweep to move the ball effectively.

“We just kept running toss to start the game, and they never adjusted to it,” coach Brian Owens said. “That has kind of become our go to play lately and we were able to go to it a lot tonight. It felt like we ran it every play in the first half.”

Canyon Lake continued to use the toss while sprinkling in a few play-action passes to set up a 1 yard Colten Avey run that pushed the lead to 14-0 after a successful 2-point conversion attempt.

The second half proved to be more of the same as the Hawks continued to wear down the Greyhound offense and eat up yards with the run game.

Quarterback Skylar Tschoepe scored on a 1 yard run early in the 4th quarter, and then tailback Dominic Enea put the game away for good.

With the Hawks facing a 3rd and 8, Enea took an inside handoff, ran through most of the Greyhound defense breaking eight tackles and raced 64 yards to stretch the lead to 26-0. It was a run that his teammates were buzzing about after the game.

“That play was insane,” Sandau shouted. “I didn’t think he was going to make it, but he just kept on running. He looked like Earl Campbell out there.”

The Greyhounds were finally able to get on the board with a 9 yard run late in the game that made the final score 26-7.

“We beat them 13-6 the first time here, and I think the score tonight shows how much we have improved as a team over course of the season,” Owens said.

The Hawks will try to continue their winning ways at home against Fredericksburg next Thursday night.