Hawk Freshman Win, The Drive, The Play, The Game, 20-19
Hawks getting 1 more thought as they contemplate their 1 point win
CL Hawk Freshman team now have a 12 game winning streak after a thrilling comeback win over LH Panthers at the Hawk nest, Thursday night.
“I am proud of these young man,” Head Freshman Coach Bill Greene started. “We talked on how this game we would be setting our pads and this would be the first time someone would come back.”
Coach Greene was commenting on how most of the teams played this season have not challenged this group of players.
The Hawks had not had a team this year that has scored more than one touchdown against them and some of those scores were after the game had been decided.
Liberty Hill started the game with a first play fumble that was recovered by Hawk’s Cameron Hebert.
A 12 play drive by the Hawks where there were 3 fourth down plays was a good eye opener with some tough play being common.
The bad news was that Canyon Lake came up one yard short on that final fourth down play resulting in the Panthers taking over on LH’s 9 yard line.
The Panthers would respond with a 14 play drive covering 91 yards and the first score after Running Back Kyle Harrison took a 29 yard run to paydirt.
Tristan Chacon, Jacob Neel, and Trenton Lorett after win over Liberty Hill
Those 29 yards was the first play of the evening from both teams that was more than 8 yards. So, 26 plays by both teams and just one explosive play for that first score.
CL would answer with a 66 yard drive as Jacob Neel would snag a pass from Cooper Harris and take it to the house from 27 yards out for a Hawk lead after Trenton Lorett was good on the extra point for a CL, 7-6 lead.
“I did not think I would catch it and then when I got it (the ball) I thought I was going to get hit hard,” Neel recounted the catch. “After that I just thought don’t trip.”
There was no trip-up and the score was realized with less than a minute on the first half clock and Liberty Hill did not have a chance to respond when Neel would recover an onside kick.
“Chico (Triston Chacon) hit him (Panther player) and the ball went into the air and I just brought it down with me,” Neel said.
That first half had two titan’s battling as each combatant was taking and giving hits galore to get an advantage.
Liberty Hill has now been a victim twice in the Hawk’s 12 game winning streak which certainly will give some stewing for another year before these two teams would have another game to play.
The Panthers would start the second half trying an onside-kick that was not successful.
When two teams are run oriented like these two stalwarts then usually a team with more chances for their offense can result in a win.
Canyon Lake could not capitalize with their short field and turned the ball over on downs.
LH would then strike with a vengeance with a one play pass for 43 yards when Liberty’s Hill quarterback Naylor found Harrison for a play that took all of 12 seconds to recapture the lead.
With another failed point attempt after the score, Canyon Lake would find themselves in the arrears, 12-7.
“Coach (Greene) made an adjustment at half and he wanted us to hit the hole way quicker and earlier,” Chacon recalled the halftime talk. “They are a big team and that allowed our offensive line to help us get those yards.”
The Hawks would respond once again, this time traveling 69 yards on 9 plays that had a heavy dose of Running Back Chacon dealing out the damage.
Chacon would get the hand off for those last 6 plays and 49 yards, scoring from 2 yards out and a lead, 13-12.
That 2 yard touchdown run was Chacon’s shortest run of those six tries giving the Hawk’s a taste of great running and blocking.
“For us we tend to start slow,” Chacon said in response how this game started. “Then we just started to focus and we wanted to come down and work our tail off….we just wanted to do as much as we could.”
Liberty Hill would respond with a 2 play 49 yard drive that was accentuated when Running Back Justis Wise had a bruising run up the middle and breaking through for the last 42 yards.
With a good point after, the Panthers had taken a big step in putting pressure on the Hawks, 19-13.
LH would throw more wood on their fire when they sent a convoy up the middle of their next kick-off and out numbering Canyon Lake and recovering their own kick.
That put the Panthers now with an advantage having the ball and being able to milk the clock.
With the 4th Quarter beginning, Liberty Hill had a 2nd and 6 yards needed for a first at the Hawk’s 30 yard line.
That is when the Officiating Crew decided to give the Panthers another 4 yards and a 2nd down and only 2 yards needed to continue their drive.
This is not the first time an incident like this has happened this season at CL and this blunder would make all the math teachers shake their head in disgust.
On LH’s very next play a first down was made on a 3 yard run.
What would have been a 3rd down and 3 yards needed, the Panthers were now starting with a fresh new set of downs.
Next play? A Hawk defense that would shoot the gaps and stop the Panther’s with a 2 yard loss.
Going back to that math problem for the officials, this would have made a 4th down and 5 yards needed and just one more play to get the ball back for the Hawk’s offense.
A movement penalty on LH would make that a 4th down and 10 yards needed but the real time circumstances had the Panthers with a 2nd and 17 needed to keep the chains moving.
Liberty Hill would move the ball for 16 yards on their next three plays and one yard short on the Hawk’s 18 yard line.
With 5:40 left in the game, Canyon Lake would now start their orchestration of The Drive.
Stats for The Drive:
Plays? 15 Yards Traveled? 82 Running Plays? Carries Yards Connor Rose: 1 5 Greyson Lee: 3 10 Triston Chacon: 4 11 Trenton Lorett: 6 61 Passing Plays? 1 Incomplete Penalty? 1 -5
Canyon Lake had just one time during this sequence of plays that The Drive needed The Play.
Play Yard line What happened 1-10 29 Lee ran play for a 1 yard gain 2-09 30 Chacon brought down going wide for a 2 yard loss. 3-11 28 Incomplete Pass 4-11 28 Movement Penalty 4-16 23 Punting formation and run for 20 yards.
“It was a called punt,” Coach Greene stated. “We wanted to get a good punt and then hold Liberty Hill deeper in their territory…we still had all of our timeouts left.”
Lorett would take the snap and looking to have a rugby styled kick, started darting down the middle of the field, like a ball in a pin-ball machine.
Being hit about 5 yards from the first down marker, this young man kept going and churning his legs for a 20 yard gain and a new set of downs.
“I was looking at the time left and this was ‘The Game’ (The ReSporter’s quotes) and I was going to give it all I had,” Lorett recalled on his decision to run for the first. “Whenever I run the ball I never look back and when I see an alley I want to keep on going and just keep going.”
CL still needed 57 yards for a chance to win this hard fought affair, but that 4th down conversion would be the only time on this drive the crowd would see a 3rd or 4th down needed to convert for a chance to keep the drive going and syphoning those precious seconds from the clock.
Canyon Lake had also instituted a hurry up offense which forced the Panthers into depleting their allotted 3 timeouts for the second half.
Ten of those last plays on The Drive would involve a Chacon or Lorett run which would set up a natural call with Lee getting the nod to take those last three yards and a touchdown.
“This meant a lot,” Running Back Lee said. “There was some trash talk and the run felt so great and I am so happy.”
Lee was mouthing thoughts from all of the Hawk family, “I was steamed and mad the whole game but in the second half we decided to not play for ourselves so we came together and played for each other.”
Canyon Lake still needed one more point for the win and Lorett kicked the ball right through the middle of the uprights and a one point win.
“You just have to stay calm and see yourself just putting it through,” Lorett recounted his thought process before that winning pat.
The Hawks almost doubled their offensive plays with LH and that would also tell you that the Panther defense was on the field for twice as many plays.
This would be a telling stat for CL’s last drive as this offense was churning out much more real estate and driving for that eventual win.
“It was not their (LH) first TD that got us going,” Lorett said. “We just needed to get back on our feet and get back at them…We knew we had to keep our body low and maintain our momentum and keep going forward and get every yard we could.”
Canyon Lake has cleared a huge hurdle for their search of another district title after last year’s 8th Grade crown and that accomplishment will certainly be realized by those last statements.
The ReSporter mentioned in a previous article that one weakness that could present itself might be in only having one punt for the year.
Well that was what won this game as a fake punt kept that number to 1 which is also the number this Hawk Freshman team is, #1.
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final Liberty Hill 0 6 13 0 19 CL Hawks Freshman 0 7 6 7 20 Scoring Summary: LH-Kyle Harrison 29 yard run (run failed), 2:39, 2nd CL-Jacob Neel 27 yard pass from Cooper Harris (Lorett kick), 0:50, 2nd LH-Harrison 43 yard pass from Naylor (run failed), 6:37, 3rd CL-Triston Chacon 3 yard run (pass failed), 2:05, 3rd LH-Justin Wise 42 yard run (Harrison kick), 1:20, 3rd CL-Greyson Lee 3 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 0:25, 4th Game Stats Panthers Hawks Total Yards 210 260 First Downs 10 13 Rushes/Yards 24/161 43/217 Comp/Att/Int 2/4/0 4/7/1 Passing Yards 49 43 Punts/Average 0/0 0/0 Fumbles/Lost 1/1 0/0 Penalties-Yards 4-20 5-45 TOP 14:12 21:48 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Cooper Harris 4 7 .571 43 1 1 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Triston Chacon 17 91 5.4 21 1 Trenton Lorett 15 90 6.0 20 0 Greyson Lee 7 38 5.4 13 1 Connor Rose 1 5 5.0 5 0 Cade Dunavant 2 4 2.0 3 0 Cooper Harris 1 -11 --- -- 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Jacob Neel 1 27 27.0 27 1 Trenton Lorett 1 10 10.0 10 0 JT Greene 2 6 3.0 5 0
