CL Hawks Battered the Badgers, 21-17
Matthew Soza next step will be a tackle in Hawk’s 21-17 comeback win over Lampasas, 21-17
Canyon Lake out scored Lampasas, 7-0 in the 3rd quarter that gave the Hawks a lead to begin their 3rd quarter and put an exclamation point by keeping the badgers without a point during that same stanza.
Go Hawks Go!!
Why is that so important? Before this game, your Hawks, had been outscored, 58-13 to start the 2nd half. Which was one of those main causes in losing more games than needed this season.
“We played a tough non-district schedule for seeing us play games like this when we reached district,” Head Coach Charley Drum stated. “We knew we could come back and we are wanting our offense to play with poise and execution because that cost us in our loss to Freddie. We won the 3rd quarter and we had all of our timeouts and did not panic on our last drive.”
Lampasas came into this game averaging 46 points per game in district and over 40 for the season. The Badgers were able to scratch up just 259 yards which was 200 yards less than their average for the season.
Defense wins football games and that was certainly a truism in this battle as the defense gave enough rope for the offense to lasso Lampasas and securing a win with 14 seconds remaining in regulation.
So far this year, CL’s defense is averaging 7 less points per game compared to last year’s group which has helped on the hit or miss offensive showing during this season.
The Drive was set up with a defensive stop that left 2:52 left for the offense to drive 89 yards for a clinching score.
A 13 play drive that took 2:38 and the winning touchdown. This set of downs had 7 passes and 6 rushing plays. Four completions on those 7 throws that covered 58 yards with 6 running plays going for 31 yards of precious real estate.
The Drive had one 4th down conversion on a Helijah Johnson 11 yard rush for a play needing only 2 yards. There were just 3 plays that went more than 10 yards, the Johnson run above and a Johnson 23 yard reception and an 18 yard reception for Blayne Carnes.
There was only one set of downs that had more than 2 snaps to convert for a first. Every other play was a first or second down play.
“We had to turn the page,” Johnson said when asked about the drive and how the team responded during that 3rd quarter. “The whole team needed to turn the switch on and we were thinking touchdown and to get out of bounds more on that last drive.”
Chase Anderson, Helijah Johnson, and Hunter Anderson now get ready for Burnet.
This Badger team scored on their first and last possession of the first half as the Hawk defense was able stop 4 LHS drives in-between those scores.
That last, first half Lampasas drive, was helped with a Hawk lost fumble on their 48 yard line after forcing a Badger punt. The Home Team took 5 plays covering 48 yards and finished the half with a, 10-7 lead.
A game of reckoning would present itself to start what has been a forgettable 3rd quarters this season. This drive would be the second, The Drive #2, scenario with a Hawk team that was able to wipe out all those 3rd quarter miscues with a 72 yard scoring drive and wrestle the lead back to the good guys.
This Drive would have 12 plays and a huge 3rd down conversion after the two first plays garnered no yardage and had the Hawks looking at a 3rd and 10 needed. A 10 yard pass to Chase Anderson from Hunter Anderson would be that jump-start needed to help erase those bad vibes that had haunted this offense during the third quarter.
Bade Holland started this drive with a 15 yard run that moved CL past the mid-field stripe and a first down on the Badgers’ 40 yard line.
James Bates’ 20 yard run 4 plays later would have the Hawks in the red-zone at the Badger 12 yard line but two one yard runs that followed had CL needing 8 more for a first down.
Way to stay Cool Hawks!!
Hunter Anderson would bury those 3rd quarter woes and deposit them in the end zone on his 10 yard run which would give CL a lead, 14-10. This drive drained half the quarter and had both schools exchanging punts before a Badger 80 yard drive and taking the lead, 17-14.
“This game was for our city,” Hunter Anderson quipped. “We work hard in practice to play like this and the key was seeing Helijah (Johnson) with his first down catch and the rest of our offense coming together for the winning drive.”
This Lamp scoring drive was helped on a 44 yard pass play that converted a 3rd down and 6 yards needed. The Badgers still needed 9 yards for a score and it took all 4 downs to convert their last play for a one yard score and lead early in the fourth quarter.
CL could not get any traction with just one first down on their next possession and a punt that had Lampasas setting up shop at their 30 yard line.
A quick 29 yard run to start the Badgers’ drive which was the longest running play for LHS on this night that would put this contest in a heightened state for the Hawk Nation. With another explosive 16 yard run which moved Lampasas down to the Hawk 13 yard line.
With the clock and game on the line, CL’s defense would respond by giving up one completion for 4 yards but the damage would be doused with two incompletions and CL taking over on their 11 yard line with only 3 yards needed for a Lampasas win.
CL’s defense was shutting down the Badgers running game which had the Lamps needing new light bulbs after being stopped on those two pass plays that were incompletions.
“Our defense were trying to hold down their big runs and that helped us out with our defensive backs as we were confusing their quarterback by disguising our coverage,” Defensive Back Chase Anderson deduced.
Which set the stage for, The Drive!
Way to Go Hawks!!
Now Canyon Lake will close their regular season this coming Friday when the Burnet Bulldogs come barking to the Hawk Nest.
A win could see CL securing a 2nd, 3rd or 4th seed between Canyon Lake-Fredericksburg-Lampasas trio.
The Badgers and Billies will battle it out next week and Canyon Lake would need a Lampasas win and then the size of that victory telling the soothsayers (or mathematicians) where each team would be seeded for Bi-District.
Quotes:
“We will need more poise and we are not done yet,” Coach Drum closed.
“We must win and this will be our hardest week that we have had,” Hunter Anderson said when asked how this team will prepare for Burnet.
“We are going to have a good week of practice and we will be going in swinging against Burnet,” Johnson prognosticated.
“Basically that 10 yard penalty just super fueled us and it helped to give us the fuel we needed to score now,” Offensive Lineman Sonny Bentley said in response of a play that had Johnson being jawed at after his first down play. “We have been pounding the basics and helping each other and now we will work hard in practice and come out with a win.”
Defensive Coordinator Brian Hooper:
“We had a good week of practice and we are getting our guys where we need them. All of our coaches came in with a good game plan and they (the team) executed and we keep talking about getting better and that will just take more work.”
Offensive Coordinator Bill Greene:
“The first thing I thought (on that last drive with less than 3 minutes left) was thinking about plays that would go to the boundaries. It was getting back to attacking the middle when it presented itself since we still had 3 timeouts remaining. But I wanted us to be focused. We took a shot with Helijah (the 23 yard pass play) after we had just missed a jet pass play.
It helped to narrow our focus and continue to do the ordinary things in an extraordinary way.”
Way to Go Hawks!!
Some Quick Stats:
Lampasas had 17 points and CL is 58-11 when holding opponent to 24 or less points.
Lampasas had 259 yards of offense and CL is 46-10 if holding opponents less than 300 yards.
Lampasas averaged 2.46 yards per rushing attempt and CL is 63-18 when holding a team to less than a 5.5 average.
Canyon Lake is 69-24 when outrushing their opponent and the Lamps were out rushed, 170-101.
1 2 3 4 Final CL Hawks 0 7 7 7 21 Lampasas 3 7 0 7 17 Scoring Summary: LB-Badger 34 yard field goal, 6:40, 1st CL-Jeremy Greene 18 yard pass from Hunter Anderson (Dalton Stanley kick), 6:50, 2nd LB-Badger 25 yard pass (pat good), 0:40, 2nd CL-Hunter Anderson 10 yard run (Dalton Stanley kick), 6:45, 3rd LB-Badger 1 yard run (pat good), 10:02, 4th CL-James Baker 9 yard pass from Hunter Anderson (Dalton Stanley kick), 0:14, 4th Team Stats Badgers Hawks Total Yards 259 286 First Downs 13 18 Rush/Yards 41/101 41/170 Comp/Att/Int 16/27/0 8/17/0 Passing Yards 158 116 Punts/Average 5/34.2 4/37.5 Fumbles/Lost 1-0 2-1 Penalties-Yards 5-50 3-35 TOP 25:15 22:45 3rd Down Conversions 5/14 34.7% 5/13 38.7% 4th Down Conversions 1/2 50.0% 3/3 100.0% Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Hunter Anderson 8 17 .471 116 0 2 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Helijah Johnson 11 70 6.4 15 0 James Bates 10 46 4.6 20 0 Bade Holland 5 22 4.4 15 0 Shayne Moss 4 15 3.8 6 0 Hunter Anderson 7 10 1.4 10 1 Jeremy Greene 4 7 1.8 4 0 Totals 41 170 4.1 20 1 Receiving No Yds Ave Lg. TD Jeremy Greene 3 38 12.7 18 1 Blayne Carnes 1 33 33.0 33 0 Heiljah Johnson 1 23 23.0 23 0 James Bates 1 9 9.0 9 1 Chase Anderson 1 9 9.0 9 0 Shayne Moss 1 4 4.0 4 0 Totals 8 116 14.5 33 2
