LA VERNIA — Seth Grubb led the festivities in La Vernia's homecoming victory over Canyon Lake on Friday.
Grubb rushed for 106 yards and all three touchdowns in the Bears' 21-7 defeat of Canyon Lake at Bear Stadium. The quarterback broke free on touchdown runs of 46, 25 and 16 yards in the win.
“He's good; we knew that going in,” Canyon Lake head coach Matt Monzingo said of Grubb. “They're a top-notch football team. For us to say that we stayed that close to them and were in it with a chance to win, it says a lot about our football team.”
Canyon Lake would have been more competitive, were it not for a laundry list of momentum-killing penalties and mental mistakes. The Hawks (2-2) finished with a pair of turnovers and nine penalties for 70 yards, including one costly mistake in particular.
On its first drive of the game, Canyon Lake marched deep into La Vernia's side of the field. On third-and-10, Ross Wagliardo hit Joe Shone in the deep corner of the end zone on a 22-yard pass in what would've been the game's first touchdown.
A holding penalty was called, and the touchdown was negated.
“The touchdown was called back,” Monzingo said. “That definitely sticks in your craw a little bit, but it just happens. That's the way it is sometimes.”
Monzingo praised the Hawks, growing by leaps and bounds in their second year of varsity competition, for hanging tough with the powerhouse Bears (3-1).
“We made a lot of mental mistakes early in the ballgame; they were lackadaisical mistakes,” he said. “We had a touchdown called back, and that hurt us. But we did well. We came over here and played a playoff-caliber program, and we had a chance to win the ballgame.”
Ross Wagliardo was 8-of-25 passing with 89 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Zach Henshaw led Canyon Lake's rushing attack with 59 yards on 19 carries as the Hawks totaled 152 offensive yards.
Despite the penalties and miscues that sabotaged several drives, Canyon Lake stayed even with La Vernia and kept the Bears under control until late in the second quarter, when Grubb exploded on a 46-yard touchdown run to give the Bears a seven-point halftime lead.
Grubb added his second touchdown on a 25-yard scamper midway through the third quarter, capping off an eight-play, 60-yard drive.
Canyon Lake rallied in the early moments of the fourth, when Wagliardo found Henshaw on a 15-yard pass through the middle of the field. Henshaw weaved his way into the end zone to cut the deficit to 14-7.
Grubb put the icing on the homecoming cake on the following drive, though, when he led a 65-yard drive to score his third touchdown of the evening.
Monzingo said the Hawks will look to pick the positives out of the loss to the Bears, who won last year's game by a score of 42-8, and use them to build for the future.
“I think when you come here for their homecoming - and with the way they kicked our tails around last year - we came over here and brought it to them and I can't say anything negative about the whole game,” he said. “The mental mistakes early hurt us - no doubt about it - we couldn't establish a drive that didn't have a penalty. Those are fixable mistakes. The hustle was there tonight. The focus is what we've got to work on.”
Canyon Lake will host Ingram Moore next Friday at 7:30 p.m. in its District 8-3A opener.
“We've got Ingram next week,” Monzingo said. “It's our first district ballgame at home and then we've got an open week and Wimberley coming after that. The road is tougher ahead, but for us to stand toe-to-toe with a heavyweight like this was a big plus for our football team.”
