This Year’s Hawk Offensive Make-Up
The Hawk Nation will be filling the stands soon as CL prepares in less than 2 weeks.
Canyon Lake Football will have a chance for repeating as District Champions after last year’s team raised a conquering flag with an unblemished district record.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
Achieving that goal will not be an easy task after seeing 27 Seniors graduating and leaving holes to be filled this season.
The ReSporter will have a 3 article series with Head Coach Charley Drum for a more in depth evaluation of the offense & defense.
Now this 2nd edition will concentrate on offense and those skill players.
The 2022 Hawks amassed 4579 yards during an 11 game schedule. The Lake lost 73% of those yards to graduation which will give a wealth of opportunities for those returning skill players.
On the rushing side, C-Lake does have Junior James Garza and Senior Justin Abbott who combined for 1105 yards and 4 touchdowns returning. Garza continued what he started during his Freshman campaign when he finished with 918 rushing yardage and just missed that 1000 yard milestone after suffering a game ending injury in CL’s final contest.
Team wise, the CLJV’s 2021 team won district which has most of this year’s seniors. That group averaged 37 points during a 5 game district run.
Can’t Wait HAWKS!!
Players that excelled were Caden Rodriguez (696 yds rushing), Abbott (370 yds rushing) and Trevin Cutrer (158 yds rushing) with a bulk of those yards.
Rodriguez and Cutrer also had valuable yards receiving from QB Steven Crowder who passed for 450 yards and 6 touchdowns with one interception during that campaign.
It will be Crowder’s turn to take the reins as he served as a back-up season. Not a lot of plays but certainly enough learning opportunities and hopefully capitalizing from those nuances needed for continuing with some continuity.
“Crowder throws a good ball,” Coach Drum beat. “He is a good leader and we will utilize his strengths as they are different than what Hunter (Anderson) had.”
Canyon Lake’s offense did have an uptick throwing more last season but the slot-t was still dominant mode of transportation.
Slot-T’s Passing Attempts/Yards Ave. Yds Att Yards Games Per Game 2022 124 1130 11 102.7 2020 124 964 11 87.6 2019 97 812 11 73.8 2017 92 1020 13 78.5 2021 89 554 11 50.4 2015 74 467 11 42.5 2016 73 829 11 75.4 2014 71 721 12 50.1 2018 69 746 11 57.8 2013 67 440 12 36.7
Go Hawks!!
“We had our ups and downs last year but we definitely have talent there,” Coach Drum continued. “I’m excited for our skill kids and they’ve got to contribute. We will use our split ends by a committee.”
Quarterback Crowder has waited for his time to shine and be opportunistic in getting the rock in the right hands to forge points.
This year, CL has a chance to see more of what 3-sport star Carter Williams might bring to the offensive table.
Last year Williams primarily played on defense due to the abundance of running backs. Carter had 3 carries but those opportunities did have an 16.3 yards per carry result that gives a glimpse of what more touches might produce.
In recapping Coach Drum’s comments on the receivers showed that there were 10 players that caught a pass as seniors which left only 3 non-seniors with a reception.
Williams had one reception based on his above rushing line and that passing play resulted in a 27 yard touchdown.
Suffice to say this year’s offense will certainly have bullets to use in scoring points and how the coaches can maximize those weapons will be a key point in seeing how The Lake can win those battles.
The Hawks have a 10 year playoff streak and will be looking to continue that ritual.
Next up will be Lake’s defensive strengths in a final edition before this year’s team starts pre-season workouts.
Let’s GO HAWKS!!
