CL Hawks Have Equinox Night in, 68-24 Win over the Rockets
JR Lindell on the receiving end of his 37 yard catch from Jace Wheeler in Hawk win over Kennedy. (photo by Daniel Clifton)
Canyon Lake’s battle against JFK Rockets was staged on Equinox Day which is celebrated across the hill country, as The Lake secured their first District 14 victim with a convincing, 68-24 win. Equinox is when the Sunrise was at 7:23am and sunset was 7:23pm settling behind the beautiful hills.
Way to GO LAKE!
What does the Equinox have to do with this game? Well, when Head Coach Sam Parker arrived at The Lake, he brought a new offense that used the forward pass more often as a weapon to succumb an opponent.
Looking back at Coach Parker’s previous teams, he did indeed, use a passing attack but The ReSporter noticed those school’s run game was also used to a great extent too. Well in this victory, Canyon Lake, came close to that balance attack with an offense that churned out 201 yards rushing and 200 yards via using the airwaves.
That is an Equinox phenomenon which gave these Rockets question marks on what they might like to shut down which turned out to be a balanced attack which CL was able to add some special team spice for this complete victory.
Coach Parker on what to expect as CL continues into district play, “My stance hasn’t changed…to keep us moving…we have a tough district and that was a good football team but again we will keep taking steps forward on offense-defense-special teams and the goal is to keep playing as long as we can and to do that we have to continue that and we have to get better every single week.”
Stay in Shape Hawks!
Based on the yardage given up through the air it does give enough to work on, “Sure 100% and that is what’s great playing these district opponents…nobody is just going to lay down and they didn’t the whole game but again there is enough stuff for us to get better and we need to continue to get better.”
CL’s defense was able to effectively stop the Rockets run game who ended this contest with negative 8 yards. In fact, JFK’s offense had 15 plays including 3 sacks that did not make the line of scrimmage due to pressure on their QB. That resulted in 4 interceptions which has never happened in a Hawk game before.
It took The Lake 2 plays for their first score when QB Jace Wheeler found Harris Gilliam for a 23 yard strike and a lead that was not relinquished.
A Ben Parma interception would start a series of plays that had both teams with turnovers but JFK did capitalized on a Hawk fumble and 37 yard field goal, 7-3.
It took The Lake only one play for an 87 yard run by James Garza to answer that 3 point play, “The hole was huge and I wasn’t even touched going through the line thanks to (Ryder) Hopper and the offensive line,” Garza recalled.
Top 5 All-Time longest running plays: Player Yds Year Team 1) Austin Brennan 90 2016 Blanco 2) James Garza 87 2024 Kennedy 3) Trenton Lorett 87 2017 Austin Reagan 4) Austin Brennan 87 2016 Fredericksburg 5) Josh DeVries 82 2014 Smithville
Tristan Alexander continued amassing those special plays when he recovered the next kickoff and your Hawks responded with a Wheeler to Carter Williams 17 yard pass play, 21-3.
Go Hawks!!
Another Hawk defense shut down on the next JFK drive would result in the 2nd one play drive on this half when Garza bulled his way for 38 yards at the 11 minute mark in the second quarter and Hawk, 28-3 lead.
A Luke Jeckell 65 yard interception return at the the goal line would lead to another score this time it was through the airwaves (equinox) when Williams caught Wheeler’s pass for 34 yards and a, 34-3 Hawk lead.
Jeckell would block the next Rocket punt and Garza marched in a 4 yard score giving CL a 40-3 lead before half.
JFK did put up some resistance when they converted 3 fourth down plays into a score with 2 seconds before halftime, 40-10.
‘Hawk’ Proud!
Canyon Lake kept up the pressure taking 3 plays to score their first second half drive. This set of plays followed a 52 yard kick-off return by Gram Simpson.
Wheeler dropped his pass to the waiting arms of Gilliam for a 39 yard play that effectively put this game in cruise control, 47-10.
Another special team score was next up when Jeckell had his second block and this time Isiah Eureste covering a 10 yard return for the score and, 54-10 lead.
JFK would score two more times using well timed passes during the 3rd quarter while CL had Nico Wyckoff score and a final pass to JR Lindell from 37 yards to end this Equinox night, 68-24.
A balance evening that will have another Equinox date coming March 23rd….Go and do something special and Go Hawks & Go Lake (had to give equal billing)!!
1 2 3 4 Final Kennedy Rockets 3 7 14 0 24 CL Hawks 21 19 21 7 68 Scoring Summary: CL-Harris Gilliam 23 yard pass from Jace Wheeler (Jack Stracener kick), 9:29, 1st KR-Rocket 37 yard field goal, 4:32, 1st CL-James Garza 87 yard run (Stracener kick), 4:13, 1st CL-Carter Williams 17 yard pass from Wheeler (Stracener kick), 3:20, 1st CL-James Garza 38 yard run (Stracener kick), 11:03, 2nd CL-Williams 34 yard pass from Wheeler (kick failed), 6:09, 2nd CL-James Garza 4 yard run (kick blocked), 4:28, 2nd CL-Gilliam 39 yard pass from Wheeler (Stracener kick), 10:45, 3rd CL-Isiah Eureste block punt 10 yard return (Stracener kick), 9:21, 3rd KR-Rockets 7 yard run (pat good), 8:40, 3rd CL-Nico Wyckoff 4 yard run (Stracener kick), 2:08, 3rd KR-Rockets 77 yard pass (pat good), 1:55, 3rd CL-JR Lindell 37 yard pass from Wheeler (Stracener kick), 8:30, 4th Team Stats Rockets Hawks Total Yards 331 401 First Downs 11 16 Rush/Yards 27/(-8) 26/201 Comp/Att/Int 15/31/4 11/15/0 Passing Yards 339 200 Punts/ Average 3/24.3 1/29.0 Fumbles/Loat 2/2 2/1 Penalties-Yards 7-49 3-45 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Jace Wheeler 11 15 .733 200 0 5 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD James Garza 7 143 20.4 87 3 Nico Wyckoff 14 70 5.0 13 1 Jace Wheeler 1 5 5.0 5 0 Lucas Schexnayder 1 4 4.0 4 0 Harris Gilliam 1 1 1.0 1 0 Team 2 -22 — — — Totals 26 201 7.7 87 4 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Harris Gilliam 4 72 18.0 39 2 Carter Williams 3 58 19.3 34 2 JR Lindell 1 37 37.9 37 1 Peyton King 2 24 12.0 14 0 James Garza 1 9 9.0 9 0 Totals 11 200 18.2 39 5
