Hawk Soccer Starts Season in Pleasanton

Canyon Lake Boy’s Soccer finishes 1-2 in Pleasanton Tournament. (Picture by Lynne Carpenter)

Canyon Lake Boy’s Soccer finish the Pleasanton Tournament 1-2 after winning their final game against the host, 2-0.

Julian De La Paz and Mike Thorpe scored a goal a piece in the win while Luke Justis and Thorpe each chipped in with an assist.

Goalie Brayden Damico had three saves on shots from goal in this first shut-out win.

Canyon Lake lost the first two games in the last seconds as they were in position for wins.

“The team is still trying to find its identity,” Head Soccer Coach Warren Graham stated. “We lost our goalie, our starting four defenders, and a defensive sub to graduation last year.”

CL has several athletes making a stand as this Pleasanton tourney seemed to indicate that being and competing in games will be accomplished.

“This tournament gave me a chance to see a few boys at several positions and allowed me to see what options we might have on mixing and matching as we move forward,” Coach Graham assessed. “There are several boys who are stepping up to fill those shoes.”

A better phrase might be how long will it take for those shoes to fit as this season prepares for the start of district this February.

“The games we lost were extremely close,” Coach Graham continued. “Progresso scored the game winner in our first game with just under 2 minutes left in the game. We had a 2-1 lead going into the half and played very competitively until the very end.”

Progreso made it to Regional Quarterfinals last season so playing this well this early in the season has to be a shot in the arm for confidence.

A team that had their way last season by beating teams with some degree of authority and not allowing that same scenario to materialize has to be a good early sign to this season.

Coach Graham also commented in the second loss to Somerset, “They are a 5A school and they won this game on a free kick with just under 40 seconds left in the game.”

“The boys could have hung their heads after losing such a tough set of games but they worked hard and showed they were not going to back down and Pleasanton played us very tough, so it was nice to get that win after having been so close the previous two games.”

Canyon Lake can now prepare for Burnet this Tuesday as the Junior Varsity kicks off at 5pm and then the Varsity gets started at 7pm.

 Game Stats:
 Somerset  1   CLHS        0
 4 Saves on 5 Shots for Brayden Damico

 CLHS      2   Pleasanton  0
 1 Goal for Julian De La Paz
 1 Goal and 1 Assist for Mike Thorpe
 1 Assist for Luke Justis
 3 Saves on 3 shots on goal for Brayden Damico

 Progreso  4    CLHS       3
 2 Goals for James Alexander
 1 Goal and 1 Assist for Mike Thorpe
 1 Assist for Jordan Sczech
 1 Assist for Luke Justis
 6 Saves on 10 shots for Brayden Damico

Go Hawks!!