CL Hawks JV Celebrates a District Championship
CLJV destroys Burnet JV in final game to clinch District Championship!
The Hawk’s Junior Varsity finished their District 13-4A season undefeated for a year that started in Wimberley and looking like a team that would hopefully win one game this season. A no-show 27-0 blowout at the hands of Wimberley was anything but pretty.
Way to Go Junior Varsity Hawks!!
A similar game with East View looked just as dismal which was followed by a loss in the closing minutes to Alamo Heights.
CLJV had compiled a 1-3 record going into their final non-district affair against Blanco and needing a win in the worst way as district battles loomed.
That Blanco contest was when the light was finally turned on that saw with each passing week a team breaming with confidence.
What was the reason for this improvement?
“The biggest improvement we had on offense from the first game of the season to the last was pretty simple,” Head Junior Varsity Coach Daniel Lancaster remembered. “At the beginning of the year we were not winning the line of scrimmage and as the year went on our lineman started playing with better pad level and more aggression which opened holes for our backs.”
The life-blood for any team starts at the line of scrimmage and Coach Lancaster saw an offense that averaged, 37 points per outing with one of those blow outs resulting in a running clock.
Simple math had this year’s JV Squad averaging 292 rushing yards per game which for JV games has a 10 minute quarter compared to 12 minute periods for Varsity. That is 8 minutes that will not have any time to garner more yardage, hence a lower number.
“Wimberley is a tough draw for us in week one, they are well coached and have good athletes in their program,” Coach Lancaster said when asked which game would he like to have over. “But I feel like, if we played them right now the outcome would definitely be different than it was in week one.”
CLJV finished this season with a 6 game winning streak and that last loss was a heart breaker to an Alamo Heights team that scored late in that final period for their win.
Junior Varsity Champions has a Good Sound to it!!
That game seemed to be the time that gate was opened in a rodeo for riding a bronc knowing that these battles or for real and time to perform was imminent.
“Overall I am very proud of this team,” Coach Lancaster closed, They far exceeded my expectations of them, I knew we could compete for the district championship, but I never thought we would go 5-0 in district and really dominate our opponents for the most part. I told them after the Burnet game that we weren’t the most physically gifted team in the district, but we were the toughest and that’s what separates Canyon Lake football from other programs.”
There were several Juniors on this team who can now say that they have won a Championship for 5 years in a row. What makes this championship special was having the opportunity to bring a Sophomore group of players that fit like a glove (not an OJ glove).
Maybe that could have been a reason for the slow start but one thing will be for sure as next year comes calling will be two Junior Varsity teams to win district championships in a row that can hopefully continue as Seniors.
There were 7 players that amassed 100 or more rushing yards and scoring 34 touchdowns after Caden Rodriguez led the group with 10 touchdowns and right at 700 yards.
One of the deepest stable of running backs that will add more depth to next year’s Varsity team.
QB Steven Crowder found 7 different receivers that was led by Tyler Balderas’ 190 yards for a hefty 32 yards per catch.
Add an 8th Grade Middle School class loaded with talent should give the CL Nation some good dreams as Hawk Coaches have a plethora of players to watch as they compete for a chance to play Varsity in hopes of putting more wins in that column.
Congrats to the CLJV District 13-4A Champions!!
CLJV 00 Wimbo 27 0-1
CLJV 44 La Grange 36 1-1
CLJV 12 East View 28 1-2
CLJV 26 Heights 28 1-3
CLJV 24 Blanco 06 2-3
CLJV 35 Austin LBJ 22 3-3 1-0
CLJV 48 Taylor 06 4-3 2-0
CLJV 32 Billies 27 5-3 3-0
CLJV 24 Lampasas 06 6-3 4-0
CLJV 46 Burnet 06 7-3 5-0
29.1 18.6
Opponents Hawks
Total Yards 2133 2918
First Downs 116 153
Rush/Yards 293/1031 377/2495
Comp/Att/Int 85/162/6 18/43/1
Passing Yards 1102 413
Punts/Average 17/26.3 11/23.1
Fumbles/Lost 13/9 16/10
Penalties-Yards 50-389 47-413
Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD
Steven Crowder 18 40 .450 413 1 6
Tristan Roberts 0 2 .000 0 0 0
AJ Acosta 0 1 .000 0 0 0
Totals 18 43 .419 413 1 6
Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD
Caden Rodriguez 80 696 8.7 62 10
Tyler Balderas 69 384 5.6 26 2
Wyatt Bates 65 376 5.8 62 1
Justin Abbott 56 370 6.6 47 9
Chevy Standifer 24 259 10.8 45 2
Trevin Cutrer 11 158 14.4 76 2
AJ Acosta 12 128 10.7 36 1
Tristan Roberts 12 52 4.3 13 1
Rand Ahlman 7 41 5.9 19 1
Cole Cason 10 39 3.9 15 2
Ty Badger 1 2 2.0 2 0
Peyton McCormick 2 3 1.5 4 0
Steven Crowder 28 -8 — 18 3
Team 4 -11 - - -
Totals 377 2495 6.6 76 34
Receiving No Yds Ave Lg TD
Tyler Balderas 6 190 31.7 69 3
Caden Rodriguez 4 74 18.5 55 1
AJ Acosta 2 42 21.0 40 1
Jayden VanAusdell 1 34 34.0 34 0
Trevin Cutrer 1 33 33.0 33 0
Chevy Standifer 2 20 10.0 18 0
Dylan Wunderlich 2 20 10.0 11 0
Totals 18 413 22.9 69 5
