CL Hawk’s Season is Finished after Loss to La Vega, 33-14
Running Back Tristan Chacon goes airborne for Canyon Lake’s first score in La Vega contest. (photo by Karen Holmes)
Canyon Lake’s season is finished after establishing some higher bars for future Hawk teams to aspire to attain. This year, CL has had a motto that was simply one word, ‘Finish’.
This team would have rather had more weeks to keep that word (finish) adding more fuel on a ride that had Canyon Lake winning their first district championship while going to the 3rd round in the playoffs.
We are Proud of the Hawks!
This contest was not a result your Hawks not finishing, it was simply meeting a superior opponent and if you could deduce any one thing as this game reached the final stages, was a group of players that were still engaged in playing to their motto, finish.
La Vega was the real deal and controlled the line of scrimmage by halting CL’s bread and butter dive play throughout while the Pirates’ offense opening holes for their quick running backs in this loss, 33-14.
“We could not make mistakes,” Head Coach Charley Drum stated. “They are well coached and have great talent and they took advantage of teams when they make mistakes.”
That was evident on the Hawk’s first drive and had a simple motion penalty of 5 yards, but that one mistake turned a 3rd down needing 3 yards to 8 yards in getting a first down. This LV defense would be the best group played this season and those little mistakes would add up to larger consequences, hence this 19 point loss.
La Vega would take that penalty and strike first with a 44 yard pass and run that capped a 55 yard drive that took 5 plays and a Hawk deficit of 6 points.
The Hawks were not finished when they had a 21 play drive that covered 72 yards, after converting 4 fourth down plays, on this time consuming slot-t touchdown. Tristan Chacon had a beautiful 1 yard dive for the score that would make the CL Swim team proud that capped this drive. CL had one 11 yard run from Chacon but 14 of those other snaps were 5 yards or less.
CL’s fullbacks, Micah St. John and Jacob Ruff, would total 27 yards on 14 plays that would average right at 2 yards per tote. Those numbers would not be good enough for ganging momentum as the slot-t will work much smoother when that average rush play goes for 3-5 yards. St. John and Ruff averaged 6 yards coming into this contest.
Canyon Lake’s, 7-6 lead did not last long as the Pirates’ 61 yard kick-off return set up a short yardage situation for their next touchdown.
On this 14 yard drive, a 6 yard Williams run would put La Vega back in the driver’s seas after converting a 2 point conversion for a, 14-7 score.
A fumble would be the culprit on the next CL possession as that play lost 3 yards and then another 5 yard penalty had Trenton Lorett out for a punt.
La Vega would score on a 10 play drive that was more conventional having plays that did not take double digits, but the end result was a touchdown putting the Hawks down, 20-7 for the halftime score.
Proud of the Hawks!!
Canyon Lake would start the second stanza in good shape as the kick-off had LV pinned down on their 5 yard line.
The Pirates were not bothered as they would continue with another quick TD to start the 3rd quarter and a 20 point advantage. Two plays is all it took, one pass play for 25 yards and then QB Jamal Williams would rule the sideline with a 70 yard gallop, 27-7.
A Hawk finish was still in the making as the Hawks still had a second half comeback in mind. A Jacob Neel interception helped give the Hawk defense their first stop and this time, Canyon Lake had a 45 yard Faris run that would be CL’s most explosive play in this game. This was a 5 play 68 yard drive to pay-dirt and, 27-14 score.
The Hawks would hold La Vega on their next time with the ball and while driving for a score to pull the game to a single digit deficit, a hook and lateral pass play was fumbled and a 30 yard return. This set of downs did show promise with CL knocking on the door residing inside the red zone at the Pirate 19 yard line.
Two more mistakes would finish this drive when Canyon Lake scored on a Ruff 19 yard run, but a holding penalty would cancel those points. On the Hawk’s next snap a pass play for 7 yards would end with a fumble and 34 yard return and would finish what chances CL would have in staging more games in the month of December.
Except another defensive stop by Canyon Lake would still give the Hawks the ball with a whole quarter to put a scare in this Pirate team.
Hawks Flying High
This was still a banter year for this Hawk defense as there were several players that played and set the stage for future teams.
“It is all about team,” Defensive Tackle Sam Sheppard said. “We played our heart out on every single play….I loved this team and we did a great job out there. “We had good chances and we were successful….it is sad that it is over now but we have done things here that had not been done.”
The Hawks were not finished and would move from their 22 yard line on a 15 play drive that was halted on La Vega’s 16 yard line. This drive was another clock draining possession and taking the wind out from under the Hawks for this years schedule after failing on a 4th down try by QB Ben Fulton.
Hill Country Furnishings says Go District JV Champs!!
La Vega would control the rest of this contest as time would become an enemy for a slot-t offense in getting back into a battle with a chance of pulling off an upset. LV was controlling the middle of the Hawk’s offense and with their speed on the edge giving Canyon Lake problems in getting those needed explosive plays would not materialize.
A year where this Hawk team would blaze a trail for future teams to shoot and break for larger prizes in the future.
CL would finish with their longest winning streak, most wins in a season, and now experiencing a District Championship while getting to the 3rd round of playoff games while playing into the month of December.
Thanks for this finish and way to Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final La Vega 6 15 6 7 33 CL Hawks 0 7 7 0 14 Scoring Summary: LV-Taequan Tyler 44 yard pass from Jamal Williams (kick failed), 7:04, 1st CL-Tristan Chacon 1 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 9:42, 2nd LV-Cameron Henry 6 yard run (Williams run), 8:21, 2nd LV-Kemoche Hobbs 6 yard run (kick failed), 2:18, 2nd LV-Jamal Williams 70 yard run (Cummings kick), 11:31, 3rd CL-Tanner Faris 6 yard run (Trenton Lorett kick), 6:21, 3rd LV-Kemoche Hobbs 23 yard run (run failed), 3:06, 4th Team Stats Pirates Hawks Total Yards 367 233 First Downs 16 14 Rush/Yards 32/280 51/214 Comp/Att/Int 4/6/1 3/10/0 Passing Yards 87 19 Punts/Average 2/31.0 4/32.3 Fumbles/Lost 0/0 2/1 Penalties-Yards 14-115 8-60 TOP 21:01 26:59 3rd Down Conversions 5/8 62% 3/21 14% 4th Down Conversions 0/0 00% 6/8 75% Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Ben Fulton 3 9 .333 19 0 0 Tanner Faris 0 1 .000 0 0 0 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Tanner Faris 12 97 8.2 45 1 Tristan Chacon 16 57 3.8 14 1 Ben Fulton 7 28 4.0 8 0 Jacob Ruff 13 26 2.0 6 0 Joseph Ruiz 3 3 1.0 1 0 Connor Rose 1 2 2.0 2 0 Micah St. John 1 1 1.0 1 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Caimen McDonough 1 13 13.0 13 0 J. T. Greene 1 7 7.0 7 0 Jacob Ruff 1 -1 -1.0 0 0
