Great Things come in Small Packages in JV Hawk’s Win, 28-8
Braden Hight and Michael Harwell start lifting weights in Lee Stafford
Canyon Lake JV won their 2nd game in a row after a rain delayed affair at the Hawk Nest, winning, 28-8.
The game started slow as both teams could not muster any momentum as the Hawk offense had just 3 offensive plays for 7 yards and a punt.
For Marion Bulldogs, they had first crack with their offense and quickly moved down the field only to stall out at CL’s 5 yard line.
The Marion Quarterback was a master with the hand off as the Hawks defense could not figure who would have the ball.
“We made some adjustments talked to the players about who needed to stay and not pursuit, as we had everyone pursuing who they thought had the ball only to be wrong and leaving them (Marion) with a lot of room to run,” Head JV Coach John Barthels said. “Our weights and conditioning which has helped our toughness and that was the difference as we were able to get everyone a run or two.
That last statement by Coach Barthels was bared out by seeing 10 players able to have a chance running the ball.
After the Bulldogs first drive was when Defensive Back Lee Stafford took control of the CL Defense and had three plays in a row where he tackled the Bulldog runner and with those plays, Marion went backward 5 yards after reaching the Hawk 2 yard line.
Stafford is not the biggest player on the field but that really does not mean anything as this player can tackle with the best as well as take the rock in the backfield for some tough runs.
Stafford was the second leading rusher finishing with 40 yards.
“What I do on defense reflects on what I do on offense,” Stafford started. “I was lining up to close to the line to start the game and after I made some adjustments, then I could see how the lineman were opening up the holes.”
Great tackling during that set of downs and CL looked like they might be able to figure out what to do in stopping Marion.
Before those plays by Stafford, Marion had 6 plays that covered 64 yards or over 10 yards per snap.
The Hawk’s offense then had a nothing series and a short punt, once again, had Marion threatening to score like the clouds had threatened their downpour earlier in the day.
Neither one materialized as the Hawks recovered a Bulldog fumble on the CL 19 yard line.
Once again, Marion had reached the 12 yard line before the fumble, but on this set of downs, the Bulldogs best play was a 15 yard Hawk penalty that did most of the damage on this series.
Canyon Lake then awoke and scooted for 81 yards on 8 plays as Ross Snowden was responsible for the final 11 yards and a total of 38 of those yards on this drive.
“I have been working out all of last year and I wanted to get faster and stronger,” Running Back Snowden said. “The Coaches told us to watch for their quarterback more and turn up our intensity….they were really good at fakes, but our line did it all and a few times that I ran, I wasn’t even touched.”
Everything started to work as Canyon Lake had players out the ‘wazoo’ compared to Marion which would mean a fresh vs. a tired team as the game would progress.
“We had just happened to get our blocks and started double teaming their defensive tackle,” Offensive Lineman Braden Hight said with bellow. “We could definitely see that they were getting run down.”
Run down was the phrase as the Hawks would score their second touchdown with just 12 seconds before halftime for a 14 point lead going into intermission as the ground game started clicking.
CL would continue that scenario in the 2nd Half scoring on their next two drives icing the game with a comfortable, 28-0 lead.
Snowden with a 32 yard run on the first score after half was a run where the offensive line mowed down everyone as the run would have been good if the teams were playing touch.
Collin Todd had 34 yards on the next drive with Colton McDonald running it in from 15 yards out and that final score.
Marion did sneak one score in the fourth quarter, but by then the Hawks were just trying to stay healthy, mission accomplished.
This was also QB Michael Harwell’s first start and he was a maestro in running the offense as the game matured.
“It felt great when I first went out there, but I was nervous the first time,” QB Harwell stated. “I want to think the coaches for the opportunities and we finally got pumped up and got it down.”
Pumped up is what happens for a team that has cannon in the stature of Stafford which helped get Canyon Lake into the groove and ready to roll on this rainy night.
“A lot of hard work and hitting the weights has put us more in shape,” Stafford closed.
Great things can come from small packages and that turned into a big surprise for these Bulldogs!!
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final Marion JV 0 0 0 8 8 CLJV 0 14 14 0 28 Scoring Summary: CLJV-Ross Snowden 11 yard run (Lee Stafford run), 3:45, 2nd CLJV-Colton McDonald 6 yard run (pass failed), 0:12, 2nd CLJV-Ross Snowden 28 yard run (Joseph Ruiz run), 6:10, 3rd CLJV-Colton McDonald 15 yard run (run failed), 2:15, 3rd Dogs-Wallen 1 yard run (Murdoch to Wallis pass), 6:38, 4th Game Stats Bulldogs Hawks Total Yards 84 249 First Downs 7 13 Rush/Yards 23/72 33/249 Comp/Att/Int 2/4/0 0/0/0 Passing Yards 12 0 Punts/Average 1/27.0 1/13.0 Fumbles/Lost 3/2 3/0 Penalty-Yards 5-50 4-40 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Ross Snowden 6 75 12.5 32 2 Lee Stafford 6 40 6.7 14 0 Collin Todd 2 34 17.0 22 0 Colton McDonald 3 23 7.7 15 2 Joseph Ruiz 4 21 5.3 11 0 Nick McCormick 1 21 21.0 21 0 Anthony Jones 3 17 5.7 9 0 Rolando Maronge 4 12 3.0 5 0 Michael Harwell 2 8 4.0 8 0 Johnny Soliz 2 0 0.0 2 0
