Marble Falls welcomes Devine in final non-district game
CAPTION: The Mustangs’ defense looks to keep the Devine Warhorses in check by controlling the line of scrimmage and forcing numerous punts and turnovers. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls high School football team faces Devine at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at Mustang Stadium in the final non-game contest of the season.
The Warhorses (1-4) enter the contest on a four-game losing streak. They beat Universal City Randolph 28-26 Aug. 29 and lost to Jourdanton 50-47, Natalia 27-24, Hondo 63-27 and San Antonio Christian 41-28.
That’s why Mustangs head coach Keri Timmerman noted the scores don’t reveal what he has watched when studying game film on Devine.
“The Hondo game got a little out of control,” he said. “And (Devine) had injuries that week and were down. But they’ve had several throughout the year, and so that hurts them. And the grind – 1-4 can wear on a team. I have not seen them stop playing hard. Offensively, they’re difficult.”
The Warhorses operate the wing-T, the slot-T and the spread offenses engineered by senior quarterback Karter Brown, a three-year letterman, who has completed 24 of 57 passes for 427 yards and four touchdowns and has 18 rushes for 72 yards and a score.
Sophomore running back Enoch Hall, a two-year letterman, has 133 carries for 919 yards and 14 touchdowns and has caught eight passes for 168 yards and two scores.
Senior running back Mario Vicente, a two-year letterman, has 30 carries for 211 yards and three scores and nine receptions for 227 yards.
“They have two really good backs in the backfield that do a good job,” Timmerman said. “They’ve done a really good job of holding people in check. So they’re just a solid unit across the line offensively.”
Marble Falls will counter with senior defensive back Gregory Lemon, who has 43 tackles, caused two fumbles, recovered one, has three pass deflections and an interception, sophomore linebacker Clayton Thompson, who has 36 tackles, senior linebacker Doak Timmerman, who has 33 tackles and a fumble recovery, senior Quincy Alexander, who has 31 tackles and caused a fumble, and senior defensive end Kaleb Bielfeldt, who has 30 tackles, an interception and five sacks.
“You have to be sound on the edges, be sound in play action, sound on toss, sweep and trap,” the coach said. “So all those things come into play, and then you also have to be ready for them to spread the field and run the ball. So they’ve got good skill kids. Their line is strong.”
Devine’s defense wants to do what other teams on that side of the ball want to do – keep offenses off schedule, tackle well and recover turnovers.
Marble Falls sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox, who returned to start last week after missing two games, has completed 23 of 50 passes for 225 yards, a touchdown and four interceptions and has 21 carries for 63 yards.
Senior running back Joaquin Aguilar has 71 rushes for 438 yards and seven scores and five catches for 46 yards. Younger brother Diego Aguilar has 26 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns in three games. Senior receiver Atreyu Machacek has 16 catches for 181 yards and a score, while senior receiver Kaden Langbein has 14 receptions for 140 yards and two score.
“Defensively, they do some good things up front,” Timmerman said of Devine. “They’re a little bit less man (coverage) than they were, which created some matchups for us last year. They’re a little bit younger in spots than they’ve been last year. They were a pretty senior heavy laden team, and so they lost some depth there.”
The Mustangs have deemed this game Max Copeland Night in honor of the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Marble Falls, who watched thousands of games throughout his decades of service. Red chairs at Mustang Stadium and the varsity gym named in his honor are there to recognize him. Fans can donate money to the scholarship named in his honor.
“(We’ll) celebrate his family and his legacy,” the coach said. “You can see here at Marble Falls all the incredible things. I had the privilege of meeting his daughter, who spoke last year at our Breakfast of Champions on Max Copeland Night and shared a little bit about her dad’s heart and love for athletics and reasons why we have the red chair. We chose last year that every season we’re going to have a red chair (decal) on our helmet so that wherever we go we’re taking that with us.”
Against La Vernia last week, a 63-21 loss, the Mustangs faced a deficit right from the start. The Bears scored on their opening drive for a 7-0 lead. But Marble Falls answered, going 71 yards in 10 plays on a drive engineered by Mattox that finished when Joaquin Aguilar scored on a six-yard run. Aguilar also added the extra point to tie the contest at 7-7.
Timmerman said the ability to answer “says a lot.”
“Obviously it’s a very good team,” he said of La Vernia. “And then for us to get the ball back and a sophomore quarterback who’s back for his first game to drive us down the field and run it and throw it, it shows, again, what our kids versus good competition (can do). I think it shows the maturity of what they’re starting to do and understanding the offense.”
The Mustangs showed they can play complementary football against a quality opponent. The defense put the Bears in third and 33 and Bielfeldt caught an interception and was tackled on the La Vernia one-yard line. Five plays later, fullback Doak Timmerman, in a run-pass option play, pushed his way into the end zone to trim the deficit to 21-14 early in the second quarter.
“It was early in the game, it kept us in that one-score, two-score range,” the coach said. “For a quarter and a half, we looked like a really good football team that can play with a really good football team. And then once you start giving up some of those explosive plays and can’t match that, you kind of wonder how the kids are going to react. And it’s been great. We’re locked in. We’ve made adjustments. I think our kids played above what a lot of people thought they could do.”
Timmerman said offensive coaches made it clear what they wanted to see from that unit.
“We’re going to run the ball, we’re going to (give quarterbacks run-pass option plays), we’re going to take shots when we see it,” he said. “What we saw was the ability throughout the game to have drives and finish and get in the end zone and making some smart decisions and also learning from some poor decisions.
“I think there was a lot of good in all of the games,” he said. “That’s a really good football team. And when you’re not on the same physical level yet, you have to play perfect; you can’t give up chunk yards. Now you have to be able to keep the ball and not get it in third and longs. It’s one of those that gets hard because if you sit back and hand the ball off, they’re gonna eat you alive. And if you take shots and miss, it puts you in third and long and in a position (that lets them) bring pressure.”
CAPTION: Junior offensive lineman Madden Hernandez holds still as the ball is about to be snapped to sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox (5), who waits until senior running back Joaquin Aguilar resets before shouting the snap count. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
