Football: Canyon Lake is 4th Seed after Loss to Liberty Hill, 31-7
Canyon Lake High School Quarterback / Linebacker Brandon Robinson (#4) and Fullback / Linebacker Patrick Almond (#5) collaborate to bring down the Liberty Hill back. rr[Photo Credit: Mark Robinson / MJR Photography / www.mjrphotog.com]
Canyon Lake was a no-show in their game with Liberty Hill as the Hawks closed out their regular season with a resounding defeat at the hands of the Panthers, 31-7.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
“They are a good team and we just caught them at the wrong time,” Head Coach Charley Drum stated. “They stuck it to us but we did play a better 2nd half.”
The Hawks could not stop LH’s slot-t while the Panther defense seemed to be in The Lake’s huddle in limiting a less than impressive outing to close this season.
Canyon Lake will now be pitted against 27-4A Champion, Needville next Friday in hopes of continuing their season.
This same type of scenario played out 6 years ago when the Hawks snuck into the playoffs as a 4th seed and proceeded to hand a first seeded Waco La Vega a first round defeat, 49-26. Canyon Lake entered that Bi-District contest wounded and a two game losing streak.
Now this Hawk team is sporting a 3 game skid as they will meet up with a 6th Ranked Needville Blue Jay according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football web-site.
That same ranking system has Lampasas ranked one slot higher as 7th in the State, to give you an idea of where this team might be in comparison to a known opponent.
Liberty Hill accomplished their goal as this win will have the Panther’s as a 3rd seed and based on The Lake’s earlier win over Burnet allowing Canyon Lake finishing as a 4th seeded school.
Signature Homes says, Go Hawks!
This Panther team started fast as their first drive covered 95 yards in 14 plays that had 7 of those plays covering 10 or more yards. Even with two 15 yard penalties, Liberty Hill, did not slow down and continued to grind out huge chunks of yardage for that first score, 7-0.
CL was not as efficient on their first possession as the Panther defense had the Hawks with a 4th down needing 22 yards to continue a drive. A 32 yard punt and LH would use 2 plays for that next score, 14-0. That would be all these Visitors would need as Canyon Lake was only able to scratch off one touchdown in this humbling loss.
That Hawk scoring drive was set up by a Ryan Rivali 44 yard run to LH’s 25 yard line. Five plays later a trick play would have Jeremy Greene finding Kyle Yuill in the back of the end zone for what would be CL’s only score.
Canyon Lake finished that first half with 76 yards which would show just how important that Rivali 44 yarder turned out to be.
Canyon City Grill says Go Hawks!!
Liberty Hill continued their blitz as they finished with 255 yards of offense during those 2 opening quarters of play. Two 4 play drives that sandwiched a Hawk fumble would bury The Lake as the Panthers would end the half up by 21 points, 28-7.
The Hill was not shy in getting penalties but that lost yardage would not be a problem on this night as those penalties would allow more yardage to be added to their cache.
“They were more physical than us,” Defensive Back Brandon Robinson said. “We have a history of turning games like this around….we will have to get focused this week as this is it for the Seniors as we must be ready and we will be ready.”
Canyon Lake’s game was part of that roller coaster season as this contest was a down when compared to the loss to Lampasas that has the best defense in District 28-4A play.
Yes, the Hawks do not fare well when pitted against slot-t teams, as Navarro along with Liberty Hill continue to look as if they already know the play while CL’s defense struggles to find the ball.
Of the 124 games, The ReSporter has recorded, Canyon Lake has not performed well since their slot-t has been installed.
Bottom 7 Games Ranked Yardage Year #118 Liberty Hill 126 2015 #119 Liberty Hill 121 2018 #120 Liberty Hill 117 2019 #121 Brandeis 111 2009 #122 La Grange 108 2012 #123 Wimberley 107 2012 #124 Sealy 74 2010 CL Rushing Yardage rankings against Panthers #111 Liberty Hill 79 2019 #112 Liberty Hill 77 2018 #113 Liberty Hill 76 2015
The Lake will be searching for a way in getting motivated for another chance to advance in next week’s Bi-District battle. The good news is Needville does not run the slot-t.
Let’s Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final Liberty Hill 14 14 3 0 31 CL Hawks 0 7 0 0 07 Scoring Summary: LH-Blake Simpson 8 yard run (Shipley kick), 5:00, 1st LH-Trey Seward 53 yard run (Shipley kick), 1:53, 1st CL-Kyle Yuill 9 yard pass from Jeremy Greene (Nash Young kick), 4:08, 2nd LH-Seward 30 yard run (Shipley kick), 2:42, 2nd LH-Blake Simpson 7 yard run (Shipley kick), 0:40, 2nd LH-24 yard field goal, by Shipley, 5:21, 3rd Team Stats Panthers Hawks Total Yards 387 117 First Downs 19 7 Rush/Yards 55/364 28/79 Comp/Att/Int 1/3/0 4/7/0 Passing Yards 23 38 Punts/Average 3/39.3 6/38.5 Fumbles/Lost 0/0 1/1 Penalties-Yards 14-170 6-60 TOP 29:10 18:50 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Peyton McMullen 3 6 .500 29 0 0 Jeremy Greene 1 1 1.000 8 0 1 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Ryan Rivali 7 46 6.6 44 0 James Bates 7 28 4.0 20 0 Ethan Slater 3 9 3.0 5 0 Jeremy Greene 2 3 1.5 3 0 Helijah Johnson 5 2 0.4 4 0 Peyton McMullen 4 -9 -2.3 4 0 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD Jeremy Greene 2 22 11.0 10 0 Kyle Yuill 2 16 8.0 9 1
