Canyon Lakes Cross Country teams have been off to the races as practice and

Distance Runner Chris Neiland

The ReSporter had an interview with Head Coach Mary Beth Gallagher and Senior Chris Neiland.

The ReSporter: What are you wanting to accomplish this year with the team?

Coach Gallagher: Well, we have already accomplished my first goal which was to increase the number of kids that came out for Cross Country.

We have 24 on the roster and they are all great kids. However, out boys team missed a birth to regionals by one point last year as a team, so we want to change that and we do have a good young talent pushing those older boys for those top spots.

For the girls it’s more about steadily improving from week to week. We do not have real strong girls but we are deeper than we have ever been.

The ReSporter: Tell us about some of the newer athletes for this year.

Coach Gallagher: We have two freshman boys that are consistently one to two minutes off the pace of our top boys and that is very exciting.

The ReSporter: What type of training are you doing?

Coach Gallagher: When we kicked off the season, we were not in the kind of shape we need to be in and therefore we are a little behind the pace of some larger programs.
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Bracken Christian Warriors came out of the blocks while blocking their opponent in a Mercy

Davis Scott and Eli Achilles

Game, beating Austin Hill Country Knights, 56-6 last Friday night in Austin, Texas.

The Knights lost all of their starting offense and all but one defensive starters from last year’s team.

Bracken made them pay for their youth with enough fire power to run away from AHC. This win was the 22nd in a row on the road.

BCS has a lot of new players with different responsibilities and Running Back Davis Scott made his presence known with his first carry going for 13 yards and a score.

Of course, Bracken’s defense did not allow the Knights much in the way of yardage as AHC’s first set of downs netted minus 19 yards.

Next set of downs had an Eli Achilles interception and 40 yard return for another score.

“They had a botched snap and that made the quarterback a pass only situation,” Achilles surmised. “I knew he was going to throw and he only had two options and Preston (Koch) had his guy covered.”

One offensive play and a 12-0 lead would tell you how much Austin Hill Country would want to go get players from last season to come and help out again. TAPPS would have something to say about that and so the route was on.

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Canyon Lake wins Nail Biter over Blanco, 26-21 in the opening game of the

Running Back Eduardo Covarrubias getting some valuable real estate

Canyon Lake played a close game against Blanco again. What else is new?

The last four games have all been by seven points or fewer.

“Typical Blanco game,” Head Coach Charley Drum sighed a breath of relief. “This team is tough, tough, tough and they proved that they have a solid football team that can execute.”

“This was an ugly win, but it is better than a loss. A lot of kids haven’t played much and have not been in these situations.”

Blanco was Canyon Lake’s first loss five years ago and now Blanco was the game where the Hawks reached the .500 winning percentage.

Coach Drum has now won his inaugural game.
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Canyon Lake Junior Varsity lapped the Blanco Panthers Thursday night at Hawk Stadium, winning

Running Back Hayden Dubois

their opener 38-14.

Running Back Hayden Dubois took the reins on the wagon and darted for 212 yards. The Blanco team was grabbing air as Dubois averaged over nine yards per carry with several impressive runs.

“It takes a good line to make a great back,” Dubois started. “All I see is the first down marker and then go for it.”

Go for it he did as Dubois did one better by also looking for the flags in the end zone too.

“When I’m running, I look for the hole and then just cut back, but without the upfield blocking I would not of had that.”

“My head is not on the yards I get, it is the team effort,” Dubois said eloquently in response to looking surprised when he heard how many yards gained in the game.

Dubois had his first scoring run come about in that manner when he reversed his field and cut threw the grain for 39 yards.
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The Canyon Lake Freshman football team was all business as they sent the Lago Vista Vikings home without their boat in an 18-0 win last Thursday night at Hawk Stadium.

This Lago Vista club beat the Hawks last year and it seemed like this group of boys had not forgotten that game.

“We wanted to come out with a victory,” Running Back Cody Davis said. “They got us last year.”

Davis finished the contest with 134 yards on 21 carries as the Hawk offense methodically took control of this game and grounded the Vikings.

“I was just trying to follow my blocks,” Davis commented about the amount of yards he had accumulated for the evening.

The half-time statistics would give you an idea of the dominance of CL’s defense.

Lago Vista only had one first down and 22 total yards and for the game finished with 49 yards and yes, they got just one first down in that half also.

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Canyon Lake will have Coaches with new job descriptions this year, but you

Defensive Coordinator Cody Means

When Coach Matt Monzingo left for the Comal Athletic Director job, the brass was pretty careful on how they replaced the dominoes that fell based on that empty position.

Head Coach Charley Drum slid into his new office seamlessly and then the Hawks had to replace their Offensive and Defensive Coordinators.

Job completed and this Friday you will have a chance to see how no bumps in the road make for a smooth ride.

Defensive Coordinator Cody Means started with responding to the number of points scored on the Defense last season, “Just looking at the points scored is misleading, when we get ahead in a game, then we will let people in, kids getting to play is more important to me.”
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Canyon Lake Volleyball (10-7) finishes a three team round robin, 1-1 in La Vernia on Tuesday night.

Head Volleyball Coach Nicole Creek

Their first match was a win over San Antonio McCollum in four games. A second game disappearance was the only flaw.

The Hawks did win the next two games convincingly, 25-16 and 25-19.

Senior Marisa Ellis once again had a triple double leading the team with 14 kills and contributing 14 assists and 11 digs in this battle.

Freshman Halley McKnight lead the assist count with 19 and Sophomore Hayley Melone finished with 24 digs.

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Coaches Corner will now be known as Drum Beat in honor of Head Coach Charley Drum.

Head Coach Charley Drum

ReSporter: How are you feeling about your first game as Head Coach?

Coach Drum: “It is a nervous energy. it has taken forever for Friday to get here.”

ReSporter: Where is the team right now as the season looms?

Coach Drum: “I think we are further along than where we had been this time last year. Scrimmages can be a good indicator, but sometimes they’re not.

ReSporter: Tell us about this week’s game with Blanco.

Coach Drum: “They always play us tough…Tim Goodman and Colton Childress will be hard to handle in the backfield. Blanco is basically a run base offense. We are looking for football fundamentals in our game this week.”

ReSporter: How do you try to handle the beginning of this season starting with Blanco?

Coach Drum: “They will always throw a few wrinkles into the game. They do a good job of trying to keep our offense off the field with their offense, conversely we want to do the opposite.
Last year we played well for the the first two downs but we would make a mistake to help the team we were playing to keep a drive alive.”

ReSporter: Good luck Coach and we look forward to more insights this season.

WARRIORS (0-0) VS. KNIGHTS (0-0)
 Game Time: 7:30pm August 31st
 History: Bracken Christian leads the series 5-2
 2006 BCS 16 AHC 64
 2007 BCS 54 AHC 48
 2008 BCS 44 AHC 16
 2009 BCS 64 AHC 72
 2010 BCS 54 AHC 21
 2011 BCS 68 AHC 48
 2011 BCS 60 AHC 42 (Playoff Game)
 This Year's Scores: First Game for both teams.

Bracken Christian will start this year on the road as the Warriors will try to finish this season with one more extra game.

The Warriors are playing a team that has beaten them two times. There are only two teams that have won two games against Bracken since they started play in 2006.

Austin Hill Country did finish last season in fourth place and will have a hard time having a better season.

Why? The Knights lost all six of their starters from last year’s team on offense and only one player returns on their defense.
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