Canyon Lakeville Beat Bellville at Smithville, 3-1

                                             Area Champs in Win over Bellville, 3-1        (Photo by Lynne Carpenter)

Canyon Lake continued their trek in their UIL Soccer Playoff bracket after taking care of District 25-4A Champion, Bellville, 3-1 in a Tuesday night skirmish.

               Way to Go Hawks!

“This game tells you that soccer is growing and they (the team) like being in this atmosphere,” Head Coach Ryan Tierney said. “They (Bellville) had a low pressure and was forcing us to be precise and we finally broke them down.”

This was the Brahmas first loss since a 2-1 setback to Sealy on January 21st where Bellville had crafted a decent, 10-0-3 record.

CL would be all business when taking a 1-0 lead into halftime as The Lake never trailed in this match-up in winning by 2 goals.

Matt Bell scored off of a Joshua Szcech assist and that broke the ice with a quick goal within 4 minutes into this battle off a corner kick and that lead would stand for the remainder of their first half of play.

Then during the halfway mark of the 2nd half, Michael Carpenter took a Brahma pass 70 yards from his net and with a burst of speed pushed his pass to Trenton Lorett at the 25 yard line that was passed back to Carpenter who had not stopped and as the Bellville Goalie came to stop this advancement would soon have CL’s second goal.

Carpenter celebrating after an assist from Lorett.

“I got the ball with lots of space and I knew I had Matt (Bell) to cover for me in case I had a mess-up and would be here to cover me,” Carpenter said. “We had some huge energy and that was how we worked in practice…to carry on.”

“I knew he (Carpenter) can do that,” Coach Tierney said calmly. “From our center back, he is our best player…this was our best back-line game this year.”

Lorett would be the instigator for that final goal with 14 minutes remaining as he was inside the box when Brahma’s Goalie sat on Lorett like a Brahma as the ball was loose and near the goal. After a tussle, Lorett would finally get free, for the Hawks final goal and 3-0 lead.

Lorett has a way with getting the most from his heading the ball, “I was just flicking it backwards and that is stuff you pick-up along the way…it just takes a lot of practice. On that score the ball was volleyed and their goalie got on top of me and everything happed so fast so I just got up and kept going….and I was able to get the goal and that would be a valuable lesson that you get up and keep going.”

Lorett knows that wins smell great!!

This would be Canyon Lake’s 69th win in the programs history and this Senior Class has been part of 53 of those victories or 77% when looked at statistically.

On what it has meant as a Senior to be at this stage, Lorett would assess, “There are a lot of memories from that first year but there is more history to be made and it is great to see and get this far and see this side of a ballgame.”

That is an impressive accomplishment and on the flip side, CL has built up 112 losses all-time and these 4 year athletes have added a minuscule, 24% of those contests. If you took away that freshman season, that number would be even more dominating with a 15% percentage of losing games.

Offensively, this year’s group is only trailing CL’s 2017 team in team goals, 74 to 63. Canyon Lake needs one more win to match that 2017 club and is guaranteed the best win percentage since the Hawks can only add one more loss to their record.

                            Year    Wins  Loses  Ties       Pct.
                            2017     17     7      2       .692
                            2019     16     5      2       .739

The Hawks will be back in action this Friday when they will have a clash with Austin Eastside Memorial in Hays High School (Bob Shelton Stadium) starting 7:00pm.

Way to Go Hawks!!