Pre/Game: Canyon Lake @ La Vernia

McGuire Johnson rushes by a group of Lineman that crushed the Bulldogs on his 67 yard touchdown run

             Canyon Lake       @       La Vernia      Sept 13 7:30pm
             Hawks (0-2)               Bears (1-1)
 History: La Vernia leads the series 3-2.
 2008 Hawks 08 Bears 42
 2009 Hawks 07 Bears 21
 2010 Hawks 24 Bears 19
 2011 Hawks 34 Bears 23
 2012 Hawks 13 Bears 14
 This Season Games:
 CL Hawks   06  Blanco    13        Bears   24  Medina Valley     07
 CL Hawks   35  Somerset  47        Bears   34  Pt Lavaca Calhoun 54

Canyon Lake lost their second game of the year last week, but there were some very encouraging signs that this Hawk team might have had their light switch turned on based on how well the offense ran the ball.

Of the top 30 rushing games in Hawk history three of the runners in last week’s game made the list.

McGuire Johnson is in 10th place with his 199 yards rushing while Josh DeVries now resides at 25th after gaining 92 yards and Hayden Dubois made the cut at 30th position after 81 yards rushing in that Bulldog game.

Canyon Lake as you can deduce had their best rushing game in their history after running past the game with Sealy two years ago by 17 yards.

La Vernia Bears have also started their year by running the ball and will have several running backs that will get the Hawks attention.

Vince Gill, Colby Skelton, Jevante Anderson and Landon Richter will be active in their backfield.

Skelton is the Quarterback and so that will also give you some trouble by his ability to escape trouble when attempting a pass.

In La Vernia’s opening game, Skelton only completed five out of 19 passes, but of those five receptions the Bears averaged over 25 yards per catch.

So that percentage can be deceiving based on being able to capitalize in large quantities of yards after a catch.

The Hawks will have to continue their clamp down mode after last week’s game with Somerset, when CL was able to hold a prolific passer to 173 yards of passing.

Bad news is in the form of rushing defense where Canyon Lake did not do a good job of stopping the Somerset runners.

That one stat allowed those Bulldogs to run out the clock when the Hawks needed to have a stop in order to finish their comeback quest.

One strength in La Vernia’s arena is defensive back William Doege who had two interceptions in their first game. The good news is that if Canyon Lake can have another good game running then it really does not matter how many passes a player has intercepted based on the number of times the Hawks would throw that rock.

This game will be a good barometer for how your Hawks will proceed for this season. If this offense can keep a good game of running, then that confidence will certainly play to their advantage as this season matures.

Defense will be another barometer for the fans to be watchful for seeing how this team is proceeding.

With a good game on that side of the ball, your Hawks can be a confident team as district sunrise starts to see the light.