Football: Pre/Game for Canyon Lake and Blanco

Hawks will be reaching for every yard available this Friday for their season opener. (photo by mjrphotog.com)

           Blanco        @     Canyon Lake      Fri. Sept. 1st 7:30pm
           Panthers 0-0        Hawks 0-0

           Series Record: Panthers lead series 5-4.

           2008   CL Hawks  00   Panthers  63
           2009   CL Hawks  21   Panthers  14
           2010   CL Hawks  07   Panthers  12
           2011   CL Hawks  14   Panthers  07
           2012   CL Hawks  26   Panthers  21
           2013   CL Hawks  06   Panthers  13
           2014   CL Hawks  07   Panthers  35
           2015   CL Hawks  00   Panthers  14
           2016   CL Hawks  40   Panthers  07

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Canyon Lake will need a win tonight to even their series with the Blanco Panthers as the Hawks will enter their 10th year of competition and presently have a 4-5 record against our friends on the Blanco River.

CL has had a problem in scoring points in these 9 previous years as last season’s 40 points was the most ever.

In fact, the previous 4 games before last year’s game, Canyon Lake, had amassed 39 points total in those contests. It broke a 3 game losing streak and before that 33 point win, the Hawks had not won any previous Panther game by more than a touchdown. (21-14 in 2009)

Blanco JV team lost by 6 points last year and won the year before that, so those indicators might show how this could be a much closer game than might be expected.

The Panthers are similar to Canyon Lake in that throwing the ball is not how they move the ball on offense.

With just 400 yards passing last year, Blanco, would like to control the contest on the ground. QB Kelby Cox will be returning and ready to have a better start than last year’s game.

       Beat the Panthers!

Blanco has 6 offensive and 5 defensive starters returning as RB/LB Jeff Hood will be in the backfield while having snaps as a starting linebacker. How the offensive line performs will let you know how the offense will stack up to a loaded CL Hawk team.

Canyon Lake will have a loaded offensive team as most of those students are back from a team that averaged 39 points per game last season.

QB Ben Fulton will be behind center for his 3rd year in a row and that will hopefully pay dividends as Tanner Faris and Micah St. John will be entering another campaign as running backs.

The Hawk offensive line will be anchored by 4 year starter Jacob Foster and this formula could be lethal as CL, by not losing a lot of offensive players, will have a significant amount of snaps with the same cast for two years running. (pardon the pun)

Rebecca Creek Golf, says Go Hawks!

Defensively, Canyon Lake had an up and down year and will be working on a plan to get this group of players up to speed quickly this year.

There will be games that an offense will not always be on their ‘A’ game and having a defense that has the ability to shut down teams will be a must.

Defense will build champions and Blanco will certainly vouch for that sentiment as this club has been top notch each of their long playoff runs.

Hence, Canyon Lake, has a 4-5 all-time record and not counting last year’s 40 point output, the Hawks averaged 10 points In those previous battles. That will attest to how well the Panther’s have played defense during this series.

Go Hawks!