CL Hawks Come up Short in Loss to Wimberley, 20-13
QB Ben Fulton fighting for yards in loss to Wimberley. (photo by Karen Holmes)
Canyon Lake could not hold on to a 13 point lead as Wimberley had two explosive plays that blew up the Hawks Homecoming, 20-13.
The Texans came into this contest averaging over 500 yards per contest as they had run roughshod over their opponents during their first 3 games.
This match would not be as easy as the Hawks jumped out to a quick 2 score lead after the first two CL drives of the game.
Go Hawks
Wimberley’s 48.7 scoring average would not materialize either, as the visitor, scraped across their first score with just seconds left in the first half of play.
That score would turn out to be all the momentum the Texans would need as their defense would rule the second half and keep the Hawks out of their end zone for the Battle of the Back-Bone Trophy.
“That was a playoff game,” Head Coach Charlie Drum stated. “Our effort was there but we need to find a way to score in the 2nd half.”
Canyon Lake nows finds themselves with the same record as last year’s team (2-2) as they get ready for a road game to Lampasas next week.
“That is a little different,” Coach Drum said while commenting on the record’s being the same. “We could have won those two games this year…..but if we play like we did tonight then we will be fine.”
The Hawks have kept the training staff working on overtime as another key injury during the first half had Linebacker Greyson Lee going to the bench.
RB Joseph Ruiz scoring in game with the Texans
On the flip side, Micah St. John was activated for this game after suffering an injury and this was his first game rushing the ball since the game with Blanco.
“We started out strong with some squash mouth football,” St. John recounted. “We came out with aggression and the line was giving us some good holes.”
You could also tell that St. John was biting at the bit for a chance to get back on the field for his Senior year of play. Finishing with 113 yards rushing was proof of his readiness for this rival contest.
St. John now rests at 1543 yards on the ground for his career as he inches up the Hawk rushing stats with a season still in full bloom.
The Hawk’s defense was stout for this evening after holding the Texan’s with 43 plays giving up two of those explosive snaps that would spell doom for Canyon Lake.
“We wanted to force them by putting pressure and make them uncomfortable,” Defensive Coordinator Brian Hooper said. “We were trying to create adversity but a couple of bad plays made us pay.”
Hooper continued, “Overall, we saw some good things that were encouraging….but we need to take the good with the bad and get better and we need to go into district play healthy.”
Senior Defensive End, Richard Rosas, was one of those Hawks helping to supply pressure on Wimberley’s offense.
GO HAWKS!!
“Honestly, the defense came into this game to not have Wimberley making plays,” Rosas defended. “Overall we were pretty solid.”
With the game tied, Canyon Lake, would start their 2nd drive of the second half on their 23 yard line with 4:31 left on the 3rd quarter.
A 14 play drive to Wimberley’s 3 yard line would not be fruitful as a 4th down would not go the Hawks way.
This drive was helped with two consecutive runs of 14 yards by Joseph Ruiz and then St. John’s 16 yard play that had CL on the Texan’s 30 yard line.
A Tristan Chacon first down run to the 9 had the Hawks with their best drive since the first of the game.
Only 5 yards of offense for the next set of downs would still have the scored still tied and Wimberley needing 96 yards to get a score.
With two plays covering over 20 yards, the Texans would need 10 plays to score what would end up being the winning touchdown when Jo Jo Weeks found Stoever for a 21 yard pass on a diving catch in the end zone.
There was still plenty of time as CL would start their final drive with 5:48 on the clock.
Hawks Flying High
This last chance was helped by an interference call and then a bench 15 yard penalty giving the Hawks life on Wimberley’s 40 yard line.
CL’s balloon started losing it’s air after Ben Fulton was sacked for an 8 yard loss and a desperation throw on fourth down that turned the ball back over to Wimberley.
Canyon Lake was not picked by any of the prognosticators in this game and that prediction would turn out to be good, however, the Hawks did raise some eyebrows as the Texans found themselves in a hard fought battle as they loaded their bus after keeping the Back-Bone Trophy for another year.
The Hawks will be back in action next Friday when they travel to Lampasas as this season will reach the half-way mark.
This time last year, Canyon Lake would start a 6 game winning streak and would end up fighting for a District 14-4A Division I championship.
Hopefully that can be realized this season as the Hawk’s strive to finish.
“We have to work on the little things on both sides,” St. John closed. “We will need to come up stronger and finish and keep attacking throughout the game.”
Rosas would also chimed in, “These last two games have been like district games….both of the teams were phenomenal but we have to make plays and we be like ‘Land Sharks’ and get some TFL (tackles for loss).”
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final Wimberley 0 7 6 7 20 CL Hawks 6 7 0 0 13 Scoring Summary: CLH-Micah St. John 1 yard run (kick failed), 7:20, 1st CLH-Joseph Ruiz 5 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 11:46, 2nd WHT-Mann 39 yard pass from Weeks (Kohls kick), 0:40, 2nd WHT-Carruthers 40 yard run (pass failed), 9:40, 3rd WHT-Stoever 21 yard pass from Weeks (Kohls kick), 5:48, 4th Team Stats Texans Hawks Total Yards 299 245 First Downs 13 19 Rushes/Yards 18/116 52/240 Comp/Att/Int 18/25/0 1/4/0 Passing Yards 183 6 Punts/Average 2/35.5 1/43.0 Fumbles/Lost 1/0 0/0 Penalties-Yards 11-115 5-30 TOP 20:16 27:44 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Ben Fulton 1 4 .250 6 0 0 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Micah St. John 19 113 5.9 16 1 Tristan Chacon 12 49 4.1 19 1 Joseph Ruiz 5 29 5.8 14 0 Jacob Ruff 8 28 3.5 6 0 Trenton Lorett 3 23 7.7 25 0 Ben Fulton 5 1 0.2 5 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Tristan Chacon 1 6 6.0 6 0
