CL Hawks lose by a Claw, 14-13 to La Vernia Bears
Canyon Lake lost by a claw, 14-13 to La Vernia Bears last Friday night at Hawk stadium. A blocked extra point was the difference in this game as the special teams did play a better game, however the blocked extra point would end up haunting this Hawk team for another week.
The Hawks defense bottled up the Bears with only 251 total yards but could not capitalize when they needed too in order to ice La Vernia.
This defense had another solid effort overall and now have a three game stint of holding opponents under 300 yards of total offense.
The three game average is 255 yards and only 143 yards via the ground. Canyon Lake gave up 251 yards to the Bears and that included a 93 yard drive at the end of regulation.
“We played a heck of a game and our defense did a lot better,” Senior Trevor Duty deduced. “We did our hardest and I put all I could in that last drive. We were prepared…we just let off the pedal too much.”
That stat will tell you this team might be able to make some noise as CL tries to get their offense in sync and balance out each aspect of what a winning program can put together.
“We played a much more disciplined tonight,” Head Coach Charley Drum started. “We did not take advantage of our chances and they buckled up and stopped us.”
“We did a great job up front, La Vernia is very similar to Boerne and Fredericksburg and so playing this type of team will show us what we need to do when district starts….our district will be a dog fight.”
Canyon Lake had put together a nice drive down to the Bear’s three yard line when an unforced fumble on the snap would give La Vernia the ball on their seven yard line with right at ten minutes left in the game.
A 15 play drive which took off over eight minutes on the fourth quarter clock sealed the deal and gave this homecoming crowd a sad drive home.
“We have to come to practice and fly to the ball more,” Senior Chandler Faulkner said. “This was a team effort and we practiced a lot.”
This game was as close as the score would indicate. Time of possession was in La Vernia favor by a whopping two seconds.
Yardage was in favor of CL, but by only 18 yards.
The Good:
1. Another long pass play to Daniel Camarillo for a touchdown. 51 yards
2. Converted their second on-side kick in as many games.
3. Recovered our own blocked punt to continue a drive.
4. Won the turnover battle.
5. Averaged over 40 yards per punt.
6. Controlled the kick offs and did not allow a huge return.
The Bad:
1. Had an extra point blocked.
2. Had a punt blocked.
3. Another unforced fumble.
4. Too many penalties, costing yards and allowing opponent to continue drives.
5. Could not get to the quarterback for sacks.
6. Only had two plays of negative yardage for La Vernia.
The Ugly:
1. Another loss.
Special teams also pulled off their second on-side kick this week which is part of the game that is hard to pull off.
Canyon Lake had benefitted from a 15 yard penalty on La Vernia, that allowed the home team to place the ball on the Bear’s 45 yard line.
Kickers, Jake Robinson and Faulkner both addressed the ball giving the opposition no clue on who would be kicking the ball.
“They (the Coaches) would tell us in the huddle before we kicked off on what we would do,” Faulkner explained. “I really practice this kick a lot and it was a team effort.”
The Hawk offense could not take advantage of this opportunity, responding with two penalties helping the Bear’s defense in stopping another Hawk chance to score.
Canyon Lake was 3-0 this time last year, but also remember that team missed out on making the playoffs.
This time of year is important for a team to learn and when district starts, the Hawks will need to put those mistakes behind them and fulfill their only goal that counts, playoffs.
That is certainly still in the works. Case and point, this same Bear’s team was 0-3 this time last year and still ended up playing three rounds into the playoffs before everything was said and done.
Losses hurt, but not learning from losses will hurt more.
This Hawk team has a solid Defense and that is the one item that gives schools a chance to continue their season.
Losing by a claw is better than losing by a paw. Burnet will be the next opponent and time will tell what this team can put together as this season matures.
Score 1 2 3 4 Final La Vernia 0 7 0 7 14 Canyon Lake 0 7 6 0 13 Scoring: Hawks-Daniel Camarillo 51 yard pass from Belcher (Jake Robinson kick), 11:23, 2nd Bears-Jose Sahugun 53 yard pass from Colby Sims (Alec Dews kick), 5:42, 2nd Hawks-Belcher 1 yard run (pat blocked), 2:26, 3rd Bears-Wiatek 1 yard run (Dews kick), 1:49, 4th
Stats Bears Hawks Total Yards 251 269 First Downs 14 12 Rush/Yards 36/148 39/172 Comp/Att/Int 5/8/0 6/15/0 Passing Yards 103 97 Punts/Ave. 2/33.5 3/40.7 Fumbles/Lost 2/2 1/1 Penalties-Yards 5-40 9-65 TOP 24:01 23:59
Passing Comp Att Pct. Yards TD Int Branson Belcher 6 15 .400 97 1 0
Rushing Att Yds Ave. Lg TD Eduardo Covarrubias 22 111 5.0 20 0 Casey Coffee 12 50 4.2 9 0 Branson Belcher 5 11 2.5 9 1
Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Daniel Camarillo 4 75 18.8 51 1 Doug Hubnik 2 22 11.0 13 0
