The Herald-Zeitung

Canyon Lake coach Matt Monzingo had no where to run when his players drenched him in ice water in celebration on Friday night.

The Hawks weren’t perfect, but they came through in the clutch to beat Fredericksburg 14-7 to clinch their first-ever playoff berth in school history in front of the home fans.

“This is an exciting time to be a Hawk right now,” Monzingo said. “It wasn’t pretty, but fought hard and our defense came up huge when we needed them tonight.

“We bent tonight, but we didn’t break. This is a great feeling.”

The Canyon Lake students rushed the field to celebrate with the Hawk players after the seconds ticked off the clock.

“It feels great,” Nelson said. “Our defense was nearly unstoppable tonight. I know a lot of people didn’t expect us to do very well this season. I think we proved them that the Hawks are for real.”

Nelson caught a 30-yard pass from senior quarterback Ross Wagliardo for the first touchdown of the night to highlight a very drab first half for the Canyon Lake offense.

“We wished we could have been better on offense tonight,” Monzingo said. “(Fredericksburg) is the kind of team that scares you.”

The fear comes from a team with just one district loss playing with the reckless abandon that the Billies showed during the game.

Fredericksburg’s Blake Durst picked off Wagliardo’s pass to give the Billies the ball near midfield with five minutes left in the first half.

But the Canyon Lake defense turned to stone to force a punt to give the Hawks a 7-0 lead at halftime.

Canyon Lake forced its second fumble of the game moments into the second half and the Hawks marched down the field 61 yards to set up sophomore Zach Henshaw for a 4-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.

Henshaw had 25 carries for 86 yards against Fredericksburg.

The Billies put the pressure on Canyon Lake when running back J.C. Hickman scored on a 13-yard run with five minutes left in the third.

A bad punt by Canyon Lake on its next possession gave Fredericksburg the ball at the Hawk 31-yard line.

But the Hawk defense held strong and kicker Ansel Berber-Thayer missed a 30-yard field goal attempt to keep the Canyon Lake lead at seven.

The fourth-quarter was a see saw battle with the Hawk defense held firm despite a roughing the passer penalty that gave new life during the Billies’ final drive that ended with a pair of incomplete passes with 2:36 left to play to seal the victory.

“I’m speechless right now,” Drew Riccio said. “We worked our butts off all summer and we knew that if we beat Blanco that it would set the tone for the season. This wasn’t our best game tonight, but we showed that we wanted it more. We believed in ourselves and knew that we could win.”

The Hawks travel to face Burnet at 7:30 p.m. next week to end the regular season.