Canyon Lake Pre/Game versus Blanco Panthers
History: Blanco series is tied 2-2 2008 Hawks 00 Panthers 63 2009 Hawks 21 Panthers 14 2010 Hawks 07 Panthers 12 2011 Hawks 14 Panthers 07 This Year: First Game
This has been a home field advantage series thus far in games played.
The last three games have all been decided by seven points or less and this year could be in that same vein.
Canyon Lake comes off a very disappointing season in that their record (8-2) was the best ever, but there was nothing to show for all the accolades. Two losses in district play kept the Hawks out of the playoffs by five points in the tie breaker rule.
What type of team will come through the Hawk inflatable this year remains to be seen.
There will be several new players not seen running to the sidelines and the loss of Zach Henshaw a player that eclipsed the 2000 rushing total last season. Matt Magness will also be missing as a go to receiver, not to mention key losses on the offensive line.
Canyon Lake will have several players that are looking to take the spotlight as they have been waiting for this chance to shine.
Running Back Eduardo Covarrubias is needing only 57 yards to reach 1000 on the ground for his career. The stable of running backs also has Casey Coffee ready to contribute.
Receivers Doug Hubnik and Daniel Camarillo will bring a lot of speed to the field and should help in opening the game up for the running game much like what happened in last week’s scrimmage against Lehman.
Defensively the Hawks have some speed in the secondary with the two players mentioned above along with Kyler Huff and a linebacker core that, if they stay healthy, could wreck havoc on opposing quarterbacks.
Isaac Pruna and McGuire Johnson have played significant time off and on the past two seasons and having them back this season healthy can translate into a solid defensive unit.
Justin Monfils, Wes Dicks, T.J. Gregory, Trevor Duty, Luke Saenz and Logan Felch will anchor the trenches to establish a run as well as keeping Quarterback Branson Belcher’s jersey clean.
Belcher returns taking snaps and will look to improve on his passing and running skills for a deep run into district play.
Blanco started playing at the right time last season as they went three rounds into the 2A playoffs.
The season did not look good starting off, but a turnaround near the end caused our friends to the Northwest with another solid season.
Blanco will have five offensive and six defensive starters back from last year’s squad.
The bad news for Canyon Lake is how slow the Hawks have come out of the gate in previous years. Blanco held the Hawks to just 14 points last year for a team that averaged 35 points.
CL will have to get the cobwebs cleared quickly to take this home crowd out of the game. Blanco has two defensive lineman, linebackers and defensive backs returning and those players had a hand in Canyon Lake’s slow start.
Fullback Tim Goodman will be one of the Panthers main prospects that will need to be stopped. Half back Colton Childress will also need to be in the Hawks crosshairs.
The Panther defense will be where the Hawks will need to take care of business. Canyon Lake has never scored more than 21 points against Blanco and are still winless on their field.
A win will will give CL an overall record of 22-22 and that is saying something based on being in the hole eight games after the first season.
There are only two teams in Class 3A that has a longer winning streak than Canyon Lake. They both won State Championships last season.
The countdown is less than a week now as this next game can represent that playoff game that was lost in the shuffle last year. You just had to wait 42 weeks for a chance to root for your Hawks, now don’t get lost driving to Blanco.
