One Last Hurdle to Clear for the Hawks
Great Game
It is time to clear that last hurdle for this year’s edition of CL Hawks football.
We have talked about how Canyon Lake will need to have a faster start to their season.
Last year, the Hawks started 2-1, but that first game was not a good start for a team that seems to play better when the season has past the ,getting out of the gate, stage.
Wimberley was a hurdle just in their name and how this team seems to get the best of Canyon Lake just by getting off the bus.
Turnovers was the key in this game last year, CL lost 3 fumbles while coughing up the ball a total of 6 times against the Texans.
Speaking of turnovers, as a team, the Hawks had their best season ever in that department with a plus 13 in take-a-ways.
In the two games with the Texans and Lampasas, the Hawks had 12 fumbles and lost 6 with only 3 lost fumbles for the rest of the 10 games played.
Liberty Hill will be a hurdle this season, if Canyon Lake can take care of this team in their first district game then a much higher chance of finishing this district off better than a 4th seed.
CL Hawk Defense can be a big reason for hitching a ride to more playoff rounds
There could be many more hurdles and The ReSporter thinks of the Boerne and Taylor game, or that hurdle of being a young team that usually means mental mistakes.
But finishing off many of those main hurdles talked about above would certainly have the Hawks in the playoffs again, then that next hurdle has to come in having more success and getting further through the, ‘win or go home’, part of the season.
Canyon Lake reached the second round in their second playoff year and now sport an 0-3 record on this weekend.
Second Round Playoff Games
2010 Hawks 23 Somerset 24
2013 Hawks 08 La Grange 50
2014 Hawks 21 Rockport 27 ot
Two of the above games were close enough that Canyon Lake had a lead in the 4th quarter with last season’s overtime loss being, ‘so close you can taste it’, close to advancing.
Look at the stats for these games and you will notice that the La Grange game was the only time CL was in over their heads.
Losing to that same team during the regular season, gave the players needing to play a perfect game while having La Grange making some mistakes.
Neither one happened, hence the score.
Game Total Yards Final Score 2014 Rockport 308 Hawks 283 Pirates 21-27 2013 La Grange 141 Hawks 371 Leopards 08-50 2010 Somerset 408 Hawks 358 Bulldogs 24-25
Take those two losses in the close games with a team that has conquered the Hurdles mentioned the last couple of weeks and you could surmise that those games might be wins instead of going home losses.
The ReSporter thinks by the time this team reaches this part of the season, that the young players are no longer Freshman/Sophomores playing, as the light was turned on during the year resulting in a better overall game and fewer blunders.
Hawks busting through and having Car Wash this Saturday for a money raiser to acquire a better tunnel
This year’s defense has a chance to be better than that same version in 2014 and that can translate into a more solid unit in all phases of the game.
There was 310 points scored on the Hawks in ’14 and after the Liberty Hill game, CL gave up 31 points per game while only being scored on an average of 20.5 points per game in the first 6 games.
At the end of last season, Canyon Lake was playing pin-ball football, having little room for a drive to be stopped, allowing the opponent a chance to get that upper hand.
That average score for the first 6 games is skewed when you go to the first game in Blanco and adding 35 points to the scoreboard.
Take the Blanco game out of the equation and CL defensive average goes down to right at 17 points per contest.
What gives The ReSporter such an optimistic thought for the defensive unit comes from watching the sub-varsity games. Not only were those teams doing well with on offense, but on the other side of the ball, the JV and Freshman teams were giving up yards when the game was already decided.
CLJV gave up 54 points in 6 games recorded by The ReSporter, a very respectable 9 points on those Thursday nights.
For the 8th grade class from Mountain Valley, having 10 games recorded between both ‘A’ & ‘B” Squads allowed a paltry 4.4 points per game in games covered by The ReSporter.
Those teams will taking that defense up to Freshman games and hopefully those games will continue being dominated by defense.
Defense will be the name of the game as Canyon Lake attempts to clear all of those hurdles being put in their path this season. How this unit performs will be paramount in how far and well this year’s team has a chance of becoming.
The Hurdles are one of the best events for Canyon Lake this past year during the track season as it was topped off when Sophomore Brandon Courtney ran at the State Meet.
This Years All-Time Hurdlers 110 M Hurdles 300 M Hurdles Name Year Time Name Year Time Brandon Courtney 2015 15.42 Brandon Courtney 2015 39.56 Bobby Flint 2010 15.64 Karl Tucker 2010 42.23 Dakota Repa 2011 16.70 Joe Marple 2015 42.26 Gerrit Wilkins 2015 16.74 Repa Dakota 2011 42.32 Devin Coco 2013 16.85 Luke Steward 2011 42.44 Joe Marple 2015 17.44 Gerrit Wilkins 2015 43.50 JC Glowka 2015 45.67 8th Grade
With Courtney and the other Hurdlers, the learning curve, might be shorter as their hurdle IQ will only help a team in clearing and helping to make this the best season ever for Canyon Lake.
25 days and counting till the Hawks start in their quest for getting serious for a great year of football.
Go Hawks!!
