Smithville Tigers  @  Canyon Lake Hawks      September 5th 7:30pm

 History: Hawks and Tigers have not played.

 This Season's Games:
 Canyon Lake  7  Blanco  35       Smithville  0   Rockdale    49

The Hawks will try to get a bad taste out of their mouth this week when they take on Smithville.

The Tigers did not have a good start to their season either and with two schools starting on the wrong foot, you will have two teams that will come out with a strong desire to change and get on the winning side of the ledger.

First Smithville, the Tigers were not very good on their opening day as they finished with no points, with no completions in their passing game, and a running game that could only muster two yards per play.

QB Garrett Mathis finished with negative 25 yards which would translate to enough sacks that HEB might be missing their allotment and not giving customers a paper or plastic option.

Running backs, Austin Green, Sean Moyer, Dameon Zepeda and Jake Dawson all finished with 18 to 35 yards rushing. Moyer had the best night of the four, with over five yards per carry.

Smithville’s defense had their problems too, in giving up over 500 yards with the majority of that real estate being gained through the air (414 yds).

When your best weapon is in the form of the punting formation, then you know it was not a good night. The Tigers had a 39 yard average per punt but that really just translated to more yardage that Rockdale could cover on their way for a score.

Canyon Lake is not in a position that they can snicker at those numbers as the Hawks were not much better with their game with Blanco.

Smithville ended with 92 total yards compared to the Hawks 158 yards.

Six of the seven touchdowns scored on Smithville was through the air and if CL can find a passing game, then that might be a way of breaking the Tigers’ for this night.

Rockdale had just 95 yards running which might suggest that Smithville’s best unit would be against the run.

Smithville had just one turnover and that bodes well as this team made their opponent play the whole field with no short scoring drives. Rockdale had just one score that did not cover more than 10 yards on those scoring plays.

Can the Hawks be opportunistic and make some long plays?

Last week the longest play covered 40 yards on a pass play to Evan Schuller with CL’s longest run covering 13 yards.  That run happened on their scoring drive which had Blanco guessing on defense for the only time during the game.

Last year, Canyon Lake started in a similar fashion against Blanco only to break out of their funk with a whale of a game in Somerset.

The big three of McGuire Johnson, Hayden Dubois, and Josh DeVries ran for 199, 79, and 92 yards in that game. That allowed your Hawks to score 35 points and if not for an electrical storm, might have translated into a win.

Momentum was lost in that delay but the simple fact is that Somerset had that same delay. No excuses, but the main point was how much different Canyon Lake looked compared to their opening game just a week earlier.

Canyon Lake needs a win and with the injuries, this game will be huge in establishing a team that can improve as District 14-4A comes a calling next month.

Go Hawks!!

Bracken Christian started another year in familiar territory, a win, as the Warriors took care of

Senior Running Back Noah Boriack had a busy night in Temple

business in beating the Temple Holy Trinity Celtics in Temple last Friday night, 45-18.

“Emotionally we played well but we still had too many mistakes,” Head Coach Lloyd Fields fielded. “I had to keep reminding myself that we were playing three freshman on offense, but we will improve the most this week between our first and second games.

Thomas Johnson, one of those freshman, started at center and contributed with two catches for 29 yards.

“I started pulling the ball down for my runs and start taking off,” Senior Noah Boriack said. “But they (Celtics) would leave him wide open and he just did his job.”

Boriack was also responsible for the first six tackles on defense and then decided to play some offense just to get a good work out.

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CL Hawks ready themselves against Blanco

Canyon Lake had a rough time in Blanco Friday night as the Panthers spanked the Hawks into submission by controlling every facet of the game in a resounding 35-7 win.

“They beat us physically,” Head Coach Charles Drum said. “We had played two spread teams in our scrimmages and we met a team that was just more physical than us.”

The Hawks went to Blanco to eat steak but only brought their butter knife, as this game showed that they will need to sharpen their weapons.

“I’m disappointed,” Coach Drum finished. “But this is a long season and we proved last year that we can come back.”

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Quarterback Ben Fulton zeroing in on Braden Duke

Canyon Lake’s Freshman class opened with a bang as the Hawks scored 22 points in the first quarter providing more than enough cushion to coast to a win over the visiting Lago Vista Vikings.

CL Freshman busted out like a caged Hawk but could not keep that momentum offensively.

The Defense and Special Teams were a different story as these two units controlled this game from start to finish.

CL gave up just three yards per play for the game while the special teams was successful with two onside kicks and a punt return for a touchdown giving this Viking team looking for the North Star for a way get back home.

If you arrived five minutes late for this party then you were absent for all the festivities as Canyon Lake opened all the presents and had eaten the cake before they would blow out the candles.

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CLJV, relishing an after game talk, after a solid win

This might be a good year for Canyon Lake football as the CLJV finally got that long awaited win as they took the Blanco Panthers to the wood shed on Thursday night winning, 27-8.

“They got after it this week against the Varsity and it showed,” Head JV Coach John Barthels said. “This year, the Offensive Line knows where to go.”

That was an understatement as Canyon Lake rushed for over 300 yards while averaging a lofty 9 yards per carry.

With all that being said, this game was won as the Hawks were clinging to a 13-8 lead to start the second half.

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Coaches Corner with Bracken’s Lloyd Fields

The ReSporter: Hey Coach have you had a chance to get that ‘blahh’ feeling after last week’s scrimmage during this week’s practices out of your system?

Coach Fields: “Yes and no, today’s practice was better but the bottom line is that we are still young and we are just trying to fight through it.”

The ReSporter: Is it hard for a crowded field football team to transition to 6-Man?

Coach Fields: “I don’t know, I have never been in that position but many times it is hard for an 11-Man to play 6-Man with 11-Man tactics.”

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Bracken Christian Warriors           @         Temple Holy Trinity Celtics      August 29th   7:30pm

 Game: Hawks and Celtics

 This Season's Games: First Game

 Series History: First Game

Bracken Christian will be going into the twilight zone to start this season as this Warrior team will be facing off with a school that has played in a crowded field arena and is moving down to 6-Man game.

That would usually not be that big of a deal, except that BCS is not playing with a full deck as they have in previous years.

In last week’s scrimmage, Bracken had just three players keeping Head Coach Lloyd Fields company on the sideline.

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            Canyon Lake @ Blanco   Friday August 29th   7:30pm

 History: Hawks and Panther's series is tied 3-3
 2008 Hawks  00   Blanco  63
 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

 This Season's Games: First Game

Canyon Lake starts their seventh year and seventh contest against Blanco this Friday night.

When taking that first game out of the formula you have a series that has been within 7 points after that final gun has sounded.

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