Countdown #1: CL Hawks Soccer Resume Win 2 Salado 1
Ty Daily was one of many Hawks that helped craft a magical season. (photo by mjrphotog.com)
Top Ten Countdown is now down to the number one game, in the mind of The ReSporter, for this past school season.
A Resume Building win for a team that has not had many highlights through the years.
Canyon Lake’s Boys Soccer win over Salado has to be the best win this season and if this countdown was including every Hawk game since that first year, then this game has enough accolades to be mentioned.
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The ReSporter would like to make a confession: Soccer is not one of those sports that has been part of a growing up or watched throughout a lifetime type of sport for this sports enthusiast.
When Head Coach Warren Graham mentioned that the game would be played on the north side of Austin, then it became obvious that making the game could prove to be a problem.
A Softball game was being played at home that night and the decision was made to not make the trip to Austin and stay home for an easier night of coverage.
That is not the whole story, however….as The ReSporter had done a lot of homework and knew a win by the Boys or Girl’s team would be hard if not impossible dream and not having the motivation to travel through Austin traffic to cover losses was not something that excited the ReSporter’s staff.
Salado had one of the best records with a combined 2 losses to go with 22 wins going into this contest.
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Salado Wins and Losses for their resume was quite impressive.
Beat Boerne 2-1 Speaks for itself.
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Salado’s losses were no slouches.
The two losses were against a Harker Heights team that resides in the 6A category and Harker finished with a 14-5-3 overall record and a 10-3-1 district record.
The other loss was to KIPP Austin Collegiate a private school that finished their season with a sparkling 18-0-2 overall record and an 8-0 district tally.
After seeing those scores, The ReSporter, was inclined to believe the drive and seeing a win would be fruitless.
Go Hawks!!
That night while composing the Softball article, The ReSporter went to the internet to see what the score might be for the Girls and Boys Soccer team.
CL’s Ladies game came up first since they played the earlier game and the results were not good, as Salado had won that 4A Second Round game, 6-1.
Then several minutes later, the game was posted for the Boy’s game and shock was the only way to describe the feeling of seeing that Canyon Lake was the winner, 2-1 over the State Ranked Salado team.
The ReSporter’s wife will attest to the yell of exuberance as the joy carried throughout the house on that night.
“I was concerned going into the Salado game because we had not played in over 2 weeks,” Head Coach Warren Graham recalled. “On the way there I told them that I wanted them to watch film, listen to music, or whatever it takes to get concentrated on the games but I didn’t want them talking or goofing around.”
Those were certainly good words for a team that had to be a long shot for a chance of winning this contest.
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Salado had an advantage as they had won their first round contest, 3-0 over La Grange, while Canyon Lake had that bye week.
Of the 22 wins by Salado, 16 of those conquests were by shut-outs. There were only 4 games played that the Eagles gave up 2 or more goals.
There were not very many items the Hawks could put on their side of the ledger that would indicate they would have a chance of winning this 2nd Round bout with Salado.
Coach Graham gave the following thoughts on this game: “The Salado game was significant for a number of reasons. It was our first playoff win ever and it was against the 4th best team in the state.
Grayson Rohrbacher helped lead CL in Goals scored during record year
We scored an early goal that was called back by an offsides call. Salado scored the first goal. I was concerned about what that would do to our moral because my boys new what Salado’s record was and how well they played throughout the season.
Grayson Rohrbacher scored his 32nd goal of the year to take us tied into halftime.
The second half was extremely tight. Richard Rosas played probably his best game of the year and helped solidify the midfield defensively.
Michael Carpenter, James Alexander, Lester Boehm, Ty Daily, Floris Georgi, and Mason James played extremely well in the back and were able to limit the number of scoring opportunities for Salado.
With just over 2 minutes left to play, Michael Carpenter stepped in front of a Salado player to win the ball, plays a pass into Jordan Sczech, and finds Nash Young by himself on the right side of the field. Nash hits the ball on his first touch from about 15 yards out to put us up 2-1.
Salado was extremely aggressive trying to even it up and send us to overtime but the defense provided them with few opportunities. Even with that, Salado was able to get off a great shot with about 15 seconds left that I thought was a sure goal. Brayden Damico somehow gets a hand on it and pushes it over the top of the goal to preserve the win.”
What a game that will go down as this year’s best while easily being ranked in the top 3 for the Hawk’s history.
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Brayden Damico had 7 saves on 8 shots on goal by the Eagles for this out of nowhere win and drive back home in that joyous school bus.
Coach Warren finished, “Due to the big win, the bus was very lively on the way back. Normally I do not let them use portable speakers to play music on the bus but I gave permission on the way home. They kept trying to find “victory” songs to play, like We are the Champions.”
Great Resume Game for a Hawk team that was two years removed from ever being in the playoffs.
The year ended with 16 wins and 24 the past two seasons, CL had accumulated 17 wins the previous 6 years combined.
Well deserved and congrats on being No. 1 for this year for all of the Hawk Sports!!
