Hawks Shoot Blancs in Loss to Blanco, 14-0
Tough going for Hawk’s offense
Blanco was able to reload much quicker than Canyon Lake as the Hawks could not find their revolver in time for the game and when they did it would not shoot in their opening loss, 14-0.
“I loved the effort,” Head Coach Charley Drum said. “We were just not finishing and had crucial mistakes.”
Canyon Lake rebounded last season after having an offense that looked similar to this year’s start.
“We will get better and this game was night and day different from last year,” Coach Drum continued. “I am proud of these young kids and we just have to get better every week as many of them found out about Friday night lights and our confidence will get better.”
With two relatively young teams taking the field to open this year’s football season, one of the questions would be finding out which team would be more advanced in starting this year’s campaign, or reloading with the young guns.
The game started slow for both teams as the score was still tied up until the final play of the first half, when Adrien Dominguez was able to sneak it in from the one inch line with no time left on the clock.
Senior Gordon McCleary was poignant as he assessed the situation of what had happened on this night.
“The Seniors will have to be another Coach,” McCleary said. “I lost my voice out there telling the players to get their head up and act like they are not rookies anymore…..after the first play they were no longer rookies but veterans.”
That score would ultimately be the winning tally in a game that saw Canyon Lake suffer their 4th shut out game and second at the hands of the Panthers.
Sophomore Sam Sheppard was able to recover a Panther fumble on Blanco’s first drive giving CL the ball 45 yards from paydirt on the first drive.
On the 8 plays the Hawks had the ball, two penalties would be the culprit in stalling any chance for a score.
A penalty on a Matt Adams run inside the 10 yard line was lethal and the Hawks would not be able to capitalize on that opportunity for a score.
Blanco would have a 10 play drive that stalled to start the second quarter and the Hawks would take over on their side of the field at their 20 yard line.
Driving 51 yards to Blanco’s 29 yard line would be the extent of this opportunity with a stout Panther defense not allowing the Hawks to advance.
With a little over 5 minutes left in that first half, the Panthers would take a 15 play drive for 71 yards scoring with no time on the clock.
The ref’s delayed that touchdown signal as the Hawks were leaving the field only having to stay for the extra point.
An interference call was the play inflicting the most pain, on a 4 down and 6 yard play for the end zone, that had Blanco with enough time with the ball on the Hawk’s 2 yard line.
A chess game of time outs was played out by both coaches trying to get their right personnel on the field for this pivotal play.
CL did have one of their best drives to start the second half as they reached Blanco’s 18 yard line, then had two penalties totaling 20 yards that stopped another chance for a score.
Senior Punter Mike Thorpe had a splendid punt inside the 2 yard line still leaving hope for a comeback needing only one score for a tie.
The Hawk defense held and after a shank on the Blanco punt, Canyon Lake would still have another quarter to get into the contest.
Three plays later, the Hawks would fumble this chance away as they were stopped once again deep in Blanco’s territory on the Panther 28 yard line.
Before that fumble, Sophomore Quarterback Ben Fulton scampered for a possible tying touchdown, only to have another costly penalty, which wiped out the 38 yard run, to be counted as a 16 yard first down scamper instead of that precious touchdown.
“I was feeling pretty excited until I saw the yellow flag and I knew the touchdown would not count,” Fulton said. “I have to start thinking as a veteran and improve my communications and be more vocal….I can be more established as a leader.”
Sophomore quarterback Fulton was commenting on how it was in starting his first game on the varsity squad.
Blanco would seal the deal on their next drive traveling 72 yards on 10 plays scoring with a little over 6 minutes left in the game.
A pass play for 23 yards on a 3rd and 6 was the big nail driver on this series of downs as the Panthers would have 3 consecutive explosive plays over 11 yards to help putt this game away.
It was just another game where Blanco’s defense, once again, thwarted the Hawks as Canyon Lake is now averaging, 10.1 points per game against Panther teams.
The Hawks will go on the road for the next two weeks as they will once again try to rebound after hitting a Blanco wall.
Reloading can sometimes take longer than expected and with this group of young guns the future is still attainable with more games ahead.
Now we need to hope the ammo is in the guns for a better result as this season continues.
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final Blanco 0 7 0 7 14 CL Hawks 0 0 0 0 00 Scoring Summary Blanco-Adrien Dominguez 1 yard run (Requesnes kick), 0:00, 2nd Blanco-Adrien Dominguez 5 yard run (Requesnes kick), 6:10, 4th Game Stats Panthers Hawks Total Yards 261 147 First Downs 15 9 Rushes Yards 41/230 33/126 Comp/Att/Int 3/7/0 2/7/0 Passing Yards 31 21 Punts/Average 2/22.5 4/36.8 Fumbles/Lost 1/1 2/1 Penalties-Yards 6-30 11-102 TOP 25:47 22:13 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Ben Fulton 2 7 .286 21 0 0 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Robert Woods 9 37 4.1 11 0 Tanner Faris 6 28 5.0 8 0 Matt Adams 6 25 4.2 8 0 Micah St. John 8 19 2.4 6 0 Ben Fulton 2 12 6.0 16 0 Austin Brennan 3 5 1.7 3 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Heath McDonough 2 21 10.5 14 0
