Hawks Ready for Prime Time after Scrimmage
Canyon Lake last pre season scrimmage was staged on a Thursday in front of a home crowd that had a chance to grasp what type of entertainment will be performed starting next Friday in Blanco.
Serious Junior Robert Woods
Medina Valley was our guest this Thursday evening and from a Varsity stand point both teams seemed pretty even as these two clubs finished their battle with two live 12 minute quarters.
Canyon Lake won that part of scrimmage with a 7-0 score after scoring in the second quarter when Senior Josh DeVries broke a 45 yard run around the right end helping set up a score four plays later moving16 yards.
More importantly might be how the defense played in those two live quarters, as they did give up some yardage but prevented Medina Valley from scoring.
“We have to get better at tackling,” Head Coach Charley Drum started. “Offensively our offense is two to three weeks ahead of last year and that is a big difference.”
The defensive backfield lost some players to graduation and families moving from the area and it will be a concern this season.
“They (defensive backs) have gotten better every week,” Drum said with confidence.
One of those defensive backs was hurt late last season and almost snagged an interception in that first open quarter.
“I was so excited that I squeezed the ball too much,” Clark said while recalling his near interception. “I am stronger and it feels good to get a hit.”
One part of the game that will be a strength will be Junior Mike Thorpe’s kicking as the crowd could see Thorpe’s live leg as he hit several field goals during the scrimmage part of this night.
Thorpe did have a chance in the open quarter with a 40ish yard field goal try, “I leaned a little bit and missed it (field goal) by inches.”
Three years ago you could see and feel a buzz when talking to that group of players and The ReSporter is starting to get glimpses of those same thoughts that this might be a special year.
“Oh yeah,” Thorpe said. “I’m ready for this season to get started and I want to make the playoffs and go further and into the 3rd round.”
Robert Woods will have a chance to play both ways as he will take snaps as a halfback and will hold down the defensive end position.
“I feel confident in playing both sides,” Woods chipped. “I will just try to be prepared and be ready to step in when coaches call on me. As a team we have to give 100% and we all need that mindset to get that extra punch to get into the end zone.”
Offensive Coordinator, Coach Moses was also candid after this contest, “Our execution is pretty good right now and we performed like we were in week one. We are way ahead of where we were last year, we can work on coaching instead of teaching like we were last year.”
Canyon Lake’s offense has the ability in helping the defense when they work on having some long drives while eating up the clock. Last year that one downfall early in the season was not capitalizing in the red zone after those long drives.
“I am more excited about our progress and it is more fun to coach,” Moses parted. “We will work on our techniques and have time to work on the little things.”
If you were able to show up early, then you were welcomed by a Freshman class that had their way with Medina Valley as both sides of the ball was dominated by this group of players.
With over 50 freshman, both teams were able to have two scrimmages starting with both school’s A squad squaring off with their B squad.
Canyon Lake’s A team graded out with an A+ while the B squad also showed that they could not only hang with Medina Valley but would have a chance of winning in a game situation against there A team.
Watching this team will be the worth the price of admission.
Blanco is right around the corner and a little history will tell you this game will be a good barometer and a chance of a low scoring affair.
Not counting that first year this series has become a slobber knocker. 2009 Hawks 21 Blanco 14 2010 Hawks 07 Blanco 12 2011 Hawks 14 Blanco 07 2012 Hawks 26 Blanco 21 2013 Hawks 06 Blanco 13
Highest score for CL and Blanco during this time frame is 26 & 21 points for the Hawks and Panthers respectfully. A five year average have the Hawks scoring 14.8 and Blanco 13.0 or less than two points difference.
Canyon Lake has averaged 287 yards of total offense and giving up 261 yards during those five years.
“Blanco will be a hard nose smash mouth football game,” Coach Drum said. “This will be a good game to start the year and this will be an eye opener for us.”
A short drive to the north and if you leave early enough, then you can also catch a slobber knocker Volleyball game too.
Go Hawks!!
