A Road Less Traveled as Hawks Lose eSpecially bad, 34-14
JJ Nance on Kick-off return in game with La Vernia
Special Teams was especially bad as Canyon Lake lost their way to La Vernia on Friday the 13th, 34-14.
Traveling this road is really not difficult, however this highway can be hard to maneuver as you trek for your destination.
La Vernia found a four lane highway to paydirt via their special team units and in particular Levi Andrews as he passed enough Hawks on both of his 75 yard returns by kickoff and punt returns.
That helped the Bears to a 19 point lead to start the game and they did not look in their rear view mirror the rest of the evening.
“We got to learn to put all three parts of our game together,” Head Coach Charley Drum opened. “Our special teams did not perform well tonight. We just have to get all three clicking and if when we learn that lesson then that should bode well as district approaches.”
Canyon Lake did have a lot of positives, but they are still learning that you play with three teams in a game of football, offense/defense/special teams.
A blocked punt for a touchdown, a punt return for a touchdown, and a kick-off return for a touchdown was the ultimate trifecta that clipped the wings off these Hawks on this humid night.
Now for the good part of the game which had your Hawks able to score on their last drive to end the first half and then again on their first drive of the second stanza that had a 14 point swing and helped CL to within striking distance of catching the Bears.
The first drive encompassed 65 yards on 8 plays which had only 1:48 off the clock.
Name Carries Yards Time off the Clock
McGuire Johnson 4 33 1:48
JJ Nance 1 17
Josh DeVries 2 12
Hayden Dubois 1 3
8 65
That second drive had more plays (25) for a drive than this ReSporter has ever witnessed. 83 yards on 25 carries and a full quarter of time off the clock and then some.
Name Carries Yards Time off the Clock
McGuire Johnson 9 30 12:38
JJ Nance 5 22
Hayden Dubois 5 14
Josh DeVries 4 14
Skyler Tschoepe 2 3
25 83
“We just kept running right at them and focused on the ball and tried to score,” Running Back JJ Nance stated. “Everybody was giving 110% and nobody was taking it easy tonight.”
4th Down Conversions 5th Drive 4th Down Needing 2 yards Dubois carries for 2 yards 1/1 5th Drive 4th Down Needing 2 yards Johnson carries for 0 yards 1/2 7th Drive 4th Down Needing 1 yard Johnson carries for 2 yards 2/3 7th Drive 4th Down Needing 1 yard Nance carries for 3 yards 3/4 7th Drive 4th Down Needing 5 yards Nance carries for 7 yards 4/5 7th Drive 4th Down Needing 1 yard Tschoepe for 1 yard 5/6 8th Drive 4th Down Needing 19 yards Def. Interference 15 yards 6/7 8th Drive 4th Down Needing 27 yards Interception 6/8
You can equate Canyon Lake to highway 306 while in transit to this game. A lot of slow cars with very few passing lanes.
Last week during the Hawks game with Somerset the road was more in line with the Autobahn, as the offensive line was blowing those Bulldogs off the ball.
Canyon Lake found that it was harder to handle a Bear as La Vernia loaded the box and only gave up a little over 3 yards per carry, hence needing to convert 4th down plays to keep their drive going.
Highway 306 will drive you crazy as you find yourself behind that driver that is happy going 30-40 miles per hour while you try to come up with something to say for your appointment you will be late for.
Last week, Canyon Lake was high speed and had a much wider road to maneuver in order to acquire that goal line score.
On this night, Canyon Lake found it hard to get their game in that high speed arena and gobble up bigger chunks of real estate.
Against Somerset, the Hawks had seven explosive plays. (plays that are 15 or more yards) In this game your Hawks garnered just two plays of 17 yards.
This type of game makes penalties and fumbles pose a much larger road block keeping the offense in check.
Canyon Lake’s penalties always seemed to happen after one of those explosive plays.
Special Teams defense was not in the stadium on this night as the Hawks gave up 155 return yards which helped offset Canyon Lake’s advantage with the amount of yardage gained.
Those return yards gave the Bears 329 yards of total all purpose yardage while the Hawks finished with 257 yards and a lot of time off the clock.
So now Canyon Lake has had an offense that was not clicking in their loss to Blanco.
A Defense that did not answer the bell in their loss to Somerset.
A Special Teams unit that laid an egg in their loss at La Vernia giving up three touchdowns and 155 yards on three scores.
Canyon Lake’s defense did get some stops which certainly looked much improved from last week’s game.
“They ran a lot of stuff we haven’t seen,” DB Isaac Mendez tackled. “I’m proud of my teammates and we can learn more from a loss than a win.”
How will this team answer the bell this coming week when Burnet comes calling with some high flying offensive skill sets.
The Hawks are young and have installed a new offense and having a rocky start to this season was certainly foreseeable.
Now Canyon Lake will strap on their helmets again this Friday and hopefully see if they have found some answers for those let downs that have resulted in these three losses.
“I’m sure we will work on our special teams and we just have to get better,” Isaac Mendez closed.
“We will use everything we learned from this game and come away with a victory,” Nance finished. “Even tho we did not finish on top we will be able to use what we learned for next week.”
The drive will be much smoother for the Burnet game, being a home affair and that might keep the Hawks off that dreadful 306 highway and if the traffic gets slow then you can stop off and have a bite at Parziale’s Pizzeria, Granny D’s, and LakeView Cafe.
1 2 3 4 Final CL Hawks 0 7 0 7 14 La Vernia 12 7 0 15 34 Scoring Summary: LAV--Parker 4 yard return on blocked punt (pat failed), 9:54, 1st LAV--Andrews 37 yard run (run failed), 7:12, 1st LAV--Andrews 75 yard punt return (Douglas kick), 11:43, 2nd CLH--McGuire Johnson 6 yard run (Mike Thorpe kick), 0:47, 2nd CLH--Hayden Dubois 1 yard run (Mike Thorpe kick), 9:20, 4th LAV--Andrews 75 yard kickoff return (Simpson from Skelton), 9:08, 4th LAV--Gill 2 yard run (Douglas kick), 0:50, 4th
Game Stats Hawks Bears Total Yards 253 174 First Downs 17 8 Rushes/Yards 68/253 23/157 Comp/Att/Int 0/5/1 2/4 Passing Yards 0 17 Punts/Ave 2/33.5 2/36.5 Fumbles/Lost 5/1 0/0 Penalties-Yards 7-66 4-40 TOP 34:18 13:42
Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Lg TD Int Skyler Tschoepe 0 4 .000 0 0 0 1 JJ Nance 0 1 .000 0 0 0 0
Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD McGuire Johnson 24 108 4.5 17 1 JJ Nance 11 61 5.5 17 0 Josh DeVries 15 48 3.2 9 0 Hayden Dubois 14 36 2.5 5 1 Skyler Tschoepe 4 0 0.0 3 0
