CLJV Comes together by Winning again over the Billies, 26-12
Canyon Lake’s JV taking Bandera Bulldogs to the Pound
Canyon Lake reverses last year’s season as they dominated Fredericksburg for another district win, 26-12.
“We kind of do what the defense is going to give us,” Head JV Coach John Barthels said. “Everybody out here likes to play football and with this offense, it can put other team’s defense in bad situations.”
Go back to last year when most of this team’s players were playing as freshman and a good play would be an interception on a two point conversion that would result in two points for Canyon Lake.
Last year this team did not win a game and those two points that were scored would be viewed as a huge play.
Fast forward to this past Thursday when Canyon Lake won their second District 14-4A-I game out of three contests with a chance of finishing first.
The Billies started this game with some degree of authority as they stuffed the Hawk’s running game and preceded to take just four plays for a score.
“That middle linebacker was hauling in with a blitz every time,” Running Back Cody Davis said shaking his head. “It was a tough game and they were fighting but we were also matching them we just fought harder.”
Glimpses of last year would be dancing in the fans head as CLJV would get in that familiar kick-off formation as the receiving team.
They did that a lot last season.
CLJV would score the next two touchdowns by running the ball successfully in accumulating 152 rushing yards in that first half and surprising the Billies with a 12-6 lead going into intermission.
Just like other teams that won in their previous season had just found out that this Hawk team would not be the same one that struggled in so many facets of their game a year ago.
After the Billie score, Canyon Lake would take the ball 64 yards in eight plays with Austin Brennan accounting for 46 of that yardage and Anthony Jones getting those tough yards up the middle in getting the rest of the yardage (18).
Brennan’s 13 yard scoring run was vintage (Henshaw), oops The ReSporter means vintage Brennan as this running back is making a statement with his north/south running this season.
In the second quarter, on Fredericksburg’s next possession, Defensive Tackle Dylan Dittman, tried out for the Hawk wrestling team when he piled drove the Billie running back into the ground on a fourth down play and a six yard loss on that play.
Gordon the Plumber supports Canyon Lake Football
“I saw the ball and the hand-off and just went for it,” Dittman said matter of fact. “I just picked him up and and drove him…weight room has helped increase my strength and a lot of heart has helped pull this team together.”
That play also helped set up another scoring drive for the Hawks when they set up shop on their 30 yard line.
Seven plays and an explosive 24 yard run by Cody Davis helped put the Hawks in business with a first down on Fredericksburg’s 23 yard line.
Four plays later, CLJV would be enjoying a, 12-6 lead, when Jackson Neel made a muff center snap look like a play he had practiced countless times as his QB sneak looked like an eight lane 281 highway drive.
(The ReSporter can dream)
Fredericksburg’s Quarterback competed three passes on this night, but the bad news for this Billie player was having those completions being to Hawk players.
Hitting machine, Kenneth Jowers was the recipient of the first interception when he grabbed the Billies last pass before halftime and squelching that scoring try.
“On that interception, I ran that same play last year and I missed on the play and they scored,” Jowers said clairvoyantly. “I saw where they were going on that route and I was not going to miss it this time.”
This year is so much fun that, CLJV has scored enough times, that they can practice their onside-kick as they are getting pretty proficient at this trade.
That is how the Hawks started their second half and worked that play to perfection.
“I never knew I could on-side kick it and Coach told me in practice to try it,” Tyler McCleary said as you could hear, ‘And the rest is History’, in the back ground.
CLJV started their third quarter offense much like that first half when the Hawks could only make one yard on that first series of downs.
The Hawks had nine offensive plays in the third quarter and did not administer any damage to Fredericksburg.
Those nine plays accounted for just 18 total yards while the Billies would score and rolled up 68 yards in the process.
Momentum was certainly with the team that had Red Jerseys.
To start the fourth quarter, Fredericksburg had a pass that was intercepted by Hayden Reed and this would be an indication of a totally different outcome in yardage and the final score.
CLJV had 14 offensive plays in that last quarter and ran up 150 yards for a 10.7 play average.
Fredericksburg had the ball three times and threw two interceptions and fumbled for what would end up being an audition for Dittman as he not only got to the quarterback again but after causing this fumble, he would also recover the ball.
Oh, that last interception was Brennan doing the honors and he would have his encore with a 41 yard run that would end up burying the Billies.
Brennan’s two longest plays were cut back runs which had Henshaw (Brennan) stopping on a dime and then without hesitation bursting with speed to the open field and an eventual score.
“It is more of a natural thing,” Brennan said when responding to how he has perfected his cut back runs. “We don’t plan it in practice but if I see open space, then I am going to take it.”
The ReSporter is intentional in having Zach Henshaw’s name in this article as that is what those runs would remind you of, as Brennan would refuse to go down. Of course, it does not hurt that Brennan is wearing #22 on his jersey.
“I think we got better this year because we have some upperclassman playing with us this year and that just gives us more players and we have more coming to practice,” Brennan said as he responded to the question of what has made this team so much better than last year’s edition.
“We pick each other up after our mistakes this year and we have finally come together as a team,” McCleary said with a smile on his face.
1 2 3 4 Final Fredericksburg JV 6 0 6 0 12 CL Hawks JV 6 6 0 14 26 Scoring Summary: FBJV-Tyler Burns 8 yard run (pass failed), 3:24, 1st CLJV-Austin Brennan 13 yard run (run failed), 0:08, 1st CLJV-Jackson Neel 1 yard run (pass failed), 3:32, 2nd FBJV-Jose Neri 1 yard run (pat failed), 6:57, 3rd CLJV-Austin Brennan 22 yard run (Hayden Reed run), 5:00, 4th CLJV-Austin Brennan 41 yard run (run failed), 2:39, 4th Game Stats Billies Hawks Total Yards 204 318 First Downs 9 13 Rushes/Yards 25/204 46/318 Comp/Att/Int 0/6/3 0/2/0 Passing Yards 0 0 Punts/Average 1/27.0 1/23.0 Fumbles/Lost 2/1 1/1 Penalty-Yards 6-45 2-20 TOP 16:04 23:56 Passing Comp Att Pct. Yds Int TD Jackson Neel 0 2 .000 0 0 0 Rushing Att Yds Ave. Lg TD Austin Brennan 15 138 9.2 41 3 Cody Davis 12 81 6.8 24 0 Hayden Reed 10 41 4.1 6 0 Heath McDonough 1 26 26.0 26 0 Anthony Jones 6 22 3.7 6 0 Kenneth Jowers 1 10 10.0 10 0
