Hurdle #4 for Canyon Lake’s Football Team

Micah St. John looks to help Canyon Lake clear some hurdles.

Hurdle One:  Get off to a fast start.
Hurdle Two: Take care of Wimberley.
Hurdle Three: Make a statement in District with win over Liberty Hill.
Hurdle Four: Continue with a Plus in turnover margin like last season.

The ReSporter has given three hurdles to this season that, if cleared, would help this year’s edition of Canyon Lakes chances for a decent season.

This next Hurdle will have a part of the game that was an actual strength last year.

The Hawks need to have another season with a + turnover margin.

So many close games last year and it could have been much worse if the Hawks had not been taking the lead in separating their opponents from the ball by fumble or interceptions.

One play, last year was the game in Fredericksburg as the Billies were going to the end zone but a fumble at the one yard line helped give Canyon Lake a chance to have a 14 point swing in this game and ultimately a convincing win.

Turnovers for the Hawks:
              Opposition                      CL Hawks
        Fumbles     Int     Tot        Fumbles     Int    Tot     Diff + (-)
2014       13       11      24            9         2     11      + 13
2013        7        6      13            8         6     14      -  1
2012        7        6      13            5         7     12      +  1
2011        4        8      12            8        10     18      -  6
2010       16       10      26           10        12     22      -  4
2009       15       14      29            5        18     23      +  6

Eight of the 11 turnovers that CL had,  happened in those losses.

Texas RV supports Canyon Lake Football

Last year’s team did a great job of keeping miscues to a minimum as the team had their fewest turnovers since they started playing in 2008.

The + 13 was more than double the first Hawk playoff team in 2009 which had the record up to last year’s team finished results.

Put this in a different light, Canyon Lake lost a fumble every 75 rushing plays, which is a great asset if you are running a slot-T or any type of offense for that matter.

Almost all of this carnage was during the Wimberley/Lampasas games as the Hawks had a total of 13 fumbles during those contests while losing the handle on the ball to those two teams 6 times.

This hurdle is attainable as you can see the proof with those numbers above.

Now this hurdle, sometimes, is not as pronounced as during the 2011 season when CL had an 8-2 record, this team was a minus 6 in this category.

That will show you just how good that team was as they overcame those give-a-ways and still had their best record ever.

You can also take from that team of not making the playoffs as in those two consecutive losses, Canyon Lake had 8 turnovers in those two contests while forcing a total of 3 from Boerne and Wimberley.

So, having a talented team did not translate those games to victories as the opponents on those nights were a different caliber of players.

If CL does a good job of clearing the first 3 hurdles, then continuing this low rate of turnovers would accentuate and embolden a team with more confidence.

This will be a young team as there were a lot of Hawk football players Flying over the graduation podium last month.

Gordon the Plumber Says, “Clear those Hurdles Hawks!”

Now there will be an abundance of opening spaces on the team for a healthy dose of competition as Coach Drum said earlier in the Tsunami article, “We have four seniors coming back that had played a lot and it will depend on the year and needs for who might make a jump next year.”

“This group will have 14 or 15 positions for them that are wide open, so this will be a competitive year for who might be taking those jobs.”

Predicting having or not having turnovers will never be an exact science, but in the two years, the Hawks have had multiple chances of cashing in on opponent’s miscues (2009 & 2014), those CL teams got the job done by both fumbles and interceptions.
Coaches will let you know that they teach their players to pry balls loose all the time, and if that is the case then, in those two years, it was taught well.
If Canyon Lake can take advantage of winning this battle and then add conquering the other hurdles talked about, then this would certainly be a good season for the hometown folk.
It takes more for that final result to equal a winning season and clearing these four hurdles put forth so far would help this team in realizing goals that translate into playing more than just two games after the last regular season contest is over.
Go Hawks!!