Leps Struggle Against Canyon Lake
The La Grange football team’s long trip to the Hill Country Friday turned rocky.
In the most points allowed by the Leps since the 2017 season opener to Argyle (a 70-0 loss back then), La Grange lost to Canyon Lake 61-23 Friday, as the Hawks racked up 663 total yards of offense.
“They were just more physical than us,” said La Grange senior defensive lineman Joseph Mueller. “We didn’t hit them in the holes we needed to. They beat us at the line of scrimmage and ran harder than us.”
Three different Canyon Lake players ran for more than 100 yards led by Jesse Horner, who ran for 177 yards and four touchdowns. But the Hawks were also much more proficient than your average Slot-T team at throwing the football too, passing for 125 yards and two touchdowns to go with those 538 rushing yards.
“They were really good, goodness gracious,” said La Grange head coach Matt Kates. “Watch out, they are going to make a run. They have too many weapons. A Slot-T team that can pass like that is dangerous in every way.”
Canyon Lake High School has just been open since 2007, but still, La Grange had never lost to the Hawks before, even beating them twice in one season back in 2013.
La Grange fell behind 15-0 early, then clawed their way back to trail just 22-16 after a 52 yard touchdown run by Canden Cooper and a 15-yard touchdown run by D.J. Taylor.
Canyon Lake got their lead back up to 28-16 right before halftime when a 72-yard run by their quarterback Peyton Mc-Mullen set up a touchdown with just 24 seconds before halftime.
La Grange started the second half by forcing a fumble on the Hawks first possession of the third quarter. Justin Lewis recovered that fumble and one play later, Taylor ran for a 43- yard touchdown that trimmed the Hawks’ lead to 28-23.
But from there, Canyon Lake scored five unanswered touchdowns.
For the second consecutive game La Grange struggled to hold onto the ball, losing three fumbles Friday.
Down 35-23, La Grange had a first and goal at the six yard line with a chance to make it a one-score game again, but ended up fumbling the ball away.
Taylor was a bright spot for La Grange, in addition to his two touchdowns he ran for a team-high 157 yards. In all, La Grange had 306 yards on the ground Friday and 49 yards passing, but that was not close to enough against this Canyon Lake team.
And things don’t get any easier this Friday as the Leps host La Vernia, which is coming off a 28-19 win over defending regional finalist Navarro. In Week 1, La Vernia beat Cuero 55-21.
“You look at everything (to try to turn things around),” said Kates, whose team lost to Rockdale 40-14 in the season opener. “You look at every single position, every single snap, every single step.
“Are we playing too many kids both ways? We suited up 31 kids tonight and two are kickers, we have 29 kids, six on the sidelines (injured) big ones. We’re not playing a bunch of weak people and there’s more (challenges) to come,” Kates said.
“We either cry about it, make excuses or find solutions – and we have to find solutions.”