Burnet football beats Marble Falls

The Burnet High School football team defeated Marble Falls 35-14 Oct. 10 in the District 4-4A Division I opener.

“It was such a hard fought game like you expect from a rivalry,” Bulldogs head coach Ben Speer said. “I just felt like we never could get comfortable, and they did a good job with that. And Just when you thought you could extend it out a little more, they were trying to climb back in it.” 

“Our kids played really hard, thought our kids made big plays at times but we we couldn’t consistently make the small details, and I think that’s the difference,” Mustangs head coach Keri Timmerman said.

The Bulldogs (3-4, 1-0) seized control of the contest from the start. Deferring to receive the kickoff until the second half, Burnet junior Marco Campos kicked the first of four touchbacks to put Marble Falls (3-4, 0-1) on its 25.

Sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox ran for four yards then fumbled on second down and threw incomplete when the ball went through the receiver’s hands on third down. The Mustangs punted.

Burnet came out throwing. Sophomore quarterback Fisher Powell hit senior receiver Matthew Williams for a 20-yard pass then senior receiver Cohen Jorpeland for a one-yard pass. Junior quarterback Bryan Johnson ran for three yards and two yards then Powell found Williams for the 24-yard touchdown. Campo added the point after for the 7-0 lead with 8 minutes and 2 seconds left in the opening stanza.

Marble Falls began its next drive on its 25 with a heavy dose of the Aguilar brothers. Senior Joaquin ran for five years, while freshman Diego added three yards. On third and 3 from the Mustangs’ 42-yard line a bad exchange between Mattox and senior fullback Doak Timmerman resulted in a fumble recovery by Burnet junior linebacker Rigo Valdez.

The Mustangs forced the Burnet offense to punt. But the Bulldogs caught the first of two Marble Falls interceptions in the first half thanks to freshman safety Ethan Sanchez.

Six plays later Burnet senior running back Josiah Coronado scored the first of his two touchdowns, this one from two yards out and a 14-0 lead with 11:57 left in the half.

After a Marble Falls punt, senior linebacker Joaquin Aguilar caught an interception to give the Mustangs a first down on their own 45-yard line. On second and 2, Mattox ran 41 yards and was tackled on the Burnet two. But the Mustangs were called for a delay of game on first and goal to move the ball to the 7. Joaquin Aguilar ran for a yard and a yard. After a Mustangs timeout, Mattox ran to his left on third down to give himself the option of running or passing. He threw an underhanded pass that was caught for a second, but Burnet senior defensive back Williams knocked the ball loose to force the incompletion.

On fourth down from the five-yard line, Mattox ran for three yards.

Burnet took over at its two-yard and ran for 10 yards. But the ball was fumbled and recovered by Marble Falls senior linebacker Doak Timmerman.

On fourth and 11, Mattox threw a backwards pass to Timmerman, who passed to sophomore tight end Olen Dalton in the left side of the end zone for the touchdown. Joaquin Aguilar added the extra point to trim the deficit to 14-7 with 1:50 left in the second quarter.

“Our whole coaching staff does a good job of thinking how to do that stuff,” Keri Timmerman said. “You get to a point where it has to be at the right spot the right time. And you got to have the right momentum. Great start by the coaches and the staff. It’s fun to get see our kids execute that; we just need to be more consistent so we can use those more effectively.”  

Burnet took over at its own 35-yard line. Coronado ran for 16, 11 and eight yards to set up the Bulldogs at the Marble Falls 25-yard line. A screen pass from Powell to Coronado was called back because of holding. Then Marble Falls senior defensive end Kaleb Bielfeldt blitzed, and Powell threw the ball backward, which rolled out of bounds. On second and 32 Coronado ran for 10 yards and Williams caught a six-yard pass on third down. The drive ended on an interception and a facemark penalty against the Bulldogs.

Officials awarded the Mustangs a play with a second left. Marble Falls took a knee to end the half trailing 14-7.

The Bulldogs began the second half with a nine-play, 69-yard scoring drive leaning heavily on Coronado, Powell and Williams. Coronado had five runs of seven, eight, six, 11 and a three-yard loss, while Powell found Williams for a 32-yard pass. Johnson scored the touchdown on a seven-yard run and a 21-7 led with 8:51 left in the quarter. The drive took 3:09 to finish.

The Mustangs answered, going 75 yards in eight plays and 3:23. Though Burnet senior defensive end Riley Howell sacked Mattox for a seven-yard loss, the quarterback hit senior receiver Kaden Langbein on a screen that went for 32 yards on third and 14. Crawford added a nine-yard run then Diego Aguilar ran for 28 and three yards. On second and goal from the Burnet three, Crawford ran for two yards then scored from the one when his teammates pushed him in to cut into the deficit 21-14 with 5:28 left in the third stanza.

Burnet punted its next possession with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

Marble Falls took over at its 22-yard line. After an incompletion, Joaquin Aguilar had two runs of nine yards each to set up a first down on the Mustangs’ 40-yard line. But Marble Falls was called for two false starts and a delay of game to set up first and 25. The Mustangs punted.

“It’s huge,” Keri Timmerman said of what turned out to be Marble Falls’ final touchdown. “Our kids have the ability to be a good football team. We get a stop and we’re about to go and try to pull (even with) them. And leave ourselves backed up on second and 33 and third and 33, because of false start and delays. It’s things that we work all week, and we don’t see, and like I said, you (do that and) you can’t win big football games, emotional football games. When you are not disciplined, that’s the stuff that kills you. It was great to see them go down and answer then they get the ball back after our defense makes a big stop and have to punt it back and give them great field position because of it..” 

The Bulldogs needed only five plays to score, all Coronado runs including the 30-yard touchdown to take a 28-14 lead with 11:22 left in the contest. The drive covered 47 yards and 1:51.

After a Mustangs punt, Burnet took over at its own 49-yard line. And though the Bulldogs didn’t score, they kept the ball for nine plays included two holding penalties. They also had four false starts. By the time they punted, the Bulldogs had kept the ball for six minutes.

“All those penalties in a row,” Speer said. “But we ran off over five minutes with it. And so definitely not how you draw it up. But it worked out pretty well for us.” 

Marble Falls turned the ball over on downs after calling for a fake punt on its next possession.

Johnson scored on a 13-yard run in the one-play drive for the 35-14 score.

Burnet recorded 202 rushing yards on 32 carries led by Coronado’s 18 carries for 125 yards and two touchdowns and Johnson’s seven rushes for 46 yards and two scores.

“Again, we’re able to lean on the run again when it mattered,” Speer said. “They just get more and more confident up front.”

Powell completed 7 of 13 passes for 103 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Williams caught six passes for 102 yards and a score.

“I love the way the kids responded in the second half and really challenged them at half time,” Speer said, “and I think these kids came out and played. I thought they played pretty well in the first half as well, they were just put in some bad spots. They came back, and then when it when it came down to it, when we needed to get it done, they got it done.”

Burnet had 11 penalties that were a mix of holding and false starts.

But the Bulldogs scored touchdowns on their opening drives of each half, which are consideredered to be two of the three most most important drives in a game.

“Huge,” Speer said. “It gives everybody confidence and sometimes it just takes us taking a deep breath and settling down and I think also what helps is when you kick off and your defense stonewalls them and when we get the ball and (go score). That just gives you all the confidence in the world and coming back after half.” 

The Mustangs had 251 yards of total offense all unofficial. Mattox completed 4 of 11 passes for 50 yards and had 13 rushes for 60 yards and a touchdown. Joaquin Aguilar had 12 carries for 41 yards and a six-yard reception, while Diego Aguilar had nine rushes for 44 yards. Doak Timmerman threw a 13-yard touchdown. Dalton caught two passes for 35 yards and a score and Langbein had two receptions for 42 yards.

Of the 13 Marble Falls penalties, all but one were pre-snap: four offsides on the defense and six false starts and two delays of game on the offense.

“I think we had a lot of opportunities to create plays, and that creates success,” Keri Timmerman said. “And I think we did that at times.”

However, he added that the Mustangs’ “disciplined mistakes,” which include low snaps, are typically too much for most squads to overcome.

“That loses you games, and I think that’s what’s hard about a game like this as you’re already in the mental part of it,” he added. “It’s a physical game, it’s an emotional game, it’s a mental game – you’re fighting all that. And then you also have to fight the discipline. Low snaps, we’ve struggled with that all year, and it’s something that we’re working to correct continuously. But you can’t recover from first and 15 or second and 15. It gets harder and harder to do and especially when we’re playing a team that can bring pressure.” 

Timmerman said he thought the Marble Falls defense “played great,” adding that there were some missteps that allowed the Bulldogs to keep their drives going. He pointed out missed tackles where the Mustangs had “fallen off,” adding it was a mix of veterans and newcomers.

“We’re going to watch film and we’re going to see where that would have ended with two or three or zero gains,” he said. “Instead it became 15 or 20 or 30. It’s been something that we struggle with all year. We just got to finish. That’s just something we’ve got to continue to improve. I told the kids this is on me. I mean this is on me and I think the kids played hard. I’ve got to figure out how we help them move forward to be a playoff team. One, how do we finish tackles? How do we make plays? How do we help young quarterbacks, help young skilled players? I think it’s where we’ve got to work. So proud for those guys, for coach Speer and his coaches. They did a great job, their players did a great job.”

“Kids played hard,” Speer said. “Make some good adjustments and kind of made it simple. It doesn’t have to be cute. It just needs a work. So Impressed with (the Mustangs) playing really hard.”