CL Hawks Leave Badgers in Dust (mud), 35-21
Braden Duke, Jackson Neel, and Nic Rivera get ready for next kick-off. (photo by Karen Holmes)
Canyon Lake’s 2nd half defense shut out Lampasas while the Hawks offense scored 28 unanswered points for the, 35-21 win.
CL shut the door, in the second half, on the Badgers allowing just 97 total yards with 30 rushing and 67 yards through the air.
Canyon Lake erased a 14 point deficit with the scoring surge, as this Badger team had been a lethal outfit offensively this season and in that first half of play.
NS Pharmacy says Go Hawks!
“We challenged them at halftime,” Head Coach Charlie Drum said. “They had a packed house and played a good first half but our defense had some stops.”
Coach Drum continued, “We were here two years ago and they embarrassed us in that game and was a hard fought game that we needed after those two close losses.”
Lampasas had the first possession and did not waste any time in traveling 62 yards in 7 plays for the first score.
Freshman QB Ace Whitehead was surgical in the drive carving up the Hawks all over the field.
The Badger’s running back, Sean Williams was quick on his feet with 45 rushing yards on that scoring drive.
CL was up to the task with a 13 play drive to tie the game as Micah St. John scored from one yard out. The Badgers were fed 6 of those plays with St. John running the dive play for 41 yards and a tied score, 7-7.
Both schools were forced to punt on their next possessions as the game was now in the 2nd quarter.
The Hawk’s punt was from their 10 yard line, that would give Lampasas great field position, as they set up shop on CL’s 23 yard line. It took two plays for the Badger’s to score to claim their second lead, 14-7.
With a Hawk infraction on the pat, Lampasas would be teeing it up on Canyon Lake’s 45 yard line.
Joseph Ruiz makes the corner for a 45 yard run. (photo by Karen Holmes)
A perfect onside kick by Whitehead had the Badgers setting up shop again for what would be a one play pass for 35 yards. This time it took just 10 seconds and the home team had raced to a, 21-7 lead as the Hawks were looking bewildered.
The Badgers were all in for stopping the Slot-T ground game and the Hawks made them pay after the kick off. A 62 yard strike to a wide open Trenton Lorett would get Canyon Lake back in the game, 21-14 with still over 9 minutes to play before halftime.
“I acted like I was going to go block and just juked outside and left him (defensive back) in the dust,” Lorett recalled on the pass play. “He just thought I was going to block.”
That dust looked more like mud on Lorett’s jersey as this young man played both sides of the ball and special teams. That proved to be a good night’s work.
In a span of 49 seconds there had been 3 touchdowns as the pin-ball machine game looked like it might be racking up points for the rest this evening.
The Hawk defense would respond with two consecutive stops.
“We knew we were the better team and were more physical,” Linebacker Michael Harwell stated. “We kept our spirits up and just came together and said, let’s roll…we needed to keep our heads up and play with high intensity.”
GO HAWKS!!
That would come to fruition for the remainder of this contest for the defensive side of the ball.
Canyon Lake would force two more punts when your Hawks would take 5 plays for 33 yards and an important TD right before the halftime horn.
Lampasas did threaten again after CL tied the score, when the Badgers put themselves in a good position with 1 minute left on the clock with the ball on Canyon Lake’s 10 yard line.
This drive had Lampasas snapping the ball on a first or second down as there would not be a 3rd down play as their offense was clicking again.
That was when Caimen McDonough would use his 6’6” height to intercept a pass from a hurried Whitehead as several Hawk Defensive Lineman were within striking distance.
The INT would stop a scoring opportunity and secure a tie going into their halftime strategy time.
Canyon Lake sacked Whitehead 4 times and 3 of those were in the second stanza helping cap this victory.
The Hawks would score twice in the second stanza as Lorett would score, this time rushing and diving to the end-zone, while stretching his hand with the ball over the pylons for a highlight score.
Go Hawks!!
“That was a sweep play and I had come up to make a move and he (Badger defender) went for the fake and my eyes just lit up,” Lorett remembered bringing back childhood memories. “I have dreamed about making a play like that for my whole life…so, my eyes were on the goal line as I made my dive for the score.”
Good times for a team that had a rough start, but having success with finishing a contest will bode well as the Hawks will work on more wins.
CL would stop Lampasas on downs three times going down the stretch as Canyon Lake would put the finishing touches to the Homecoming festivities when QB Ben Fulton would bull his way over the goal line for the final score.
A tough and good win for a team digging out of a two week snafu and getting back in the air for a smoother time home as this Hawk Team would Fly High for this win.
Canyon Lake will now have some home cooking as they will have two straight home games welcoming Austin schools to the Hawk Nest.
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final CL Hawks 7 14 7 7 35 Lampasas 7 14 0 0 21 Scoring Summary: LH-Ace Whitehead 3 yard run (Whitehead kick), 8:58, 1st CL-Micah St. John 1 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 1:54, 1st LH-Ryan Fesler 23 yard pass from Whitehead (Whitehead kick), 9:43, 2nd LH-Brandon Pierino 35 yard pass from Whitehead (Whitehead kick), 9:33, 2nd CL-Trenton Lorett 62 yard pass from Ben Fulton (Trenton Lorett kick), 9:06, 2nd CL-Micah St. John 1 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 2:23, 2nd CL-Trenton Lorett 11 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 4:29, 3rd CL-Ben Fulton 4 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 2:32, 4th Team Stats Badgers Hawks Total Yards 286 385 First Downs 12 14 Rushing/Yards 32/107 43/293 Comp/Att/Int 17/24/1 2/8/0 Passing Yards 179 92 Punts/Average 4/35.0 2/38.5 Fumbles/Lost 2/0 0/0 Penalties-Yards 6-70 9-60 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Ben Fulton 2 8 .250 92 0 1 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Micah St. John 20 105 5.3 36 2 Joseph Ruiz 8 82 10.3 45 0 Trenton Lorett 6 56 9.3 31 1 Ben Fulton 5 27 5.4 16 1 Tristan Chacon 4 23 5.8 14 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Trenton Lorett 1 62 62.0 62 1 J. T. Greene 1 30 30.0 30 0
