Marble Falls loses to Stephenville
The Marble Falls High School football team lost to Stephenville 65-7 Oct. 17 in District 4-4A Division I play.
The Mustangs’ lone touchdown came on their final offensive drive of the night when sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox found senior receiver Atreyu Machacek, who took a step to the outside and worked his way back to the inside for the two-yard score. Senior Joaquin Aguilar added the extra point.
“They are good football team – well coached, well executed, kids play extremely hard, extremely physical,” Mustangs head coach Keri Timmerman said. “Kudos to them. (Stephenville head coach Sterling) Doty is a phenomenal coach. It’s good for us to rub up against that kind of stuff. It just shows us some of the things we’ve got to work on – strength, size, execution.”
The Yellowjackets (6-0, 1-0), who are ranked No. 2 in the Class 4A Division I poll, scored first thanks to junior defensive lineman Jackson Richmond, who jumped up, tipped a pass and ran it in from about 25 yards out 1 minute and 40 seconds into the contest.
“They’re very, very physical,” Timmerman said. “And they can do a lot. We knew that their ends were really, really aggressive enough. The kid made a great catch. He did a great job. They do the phenomenal job of coaching and hardening kids. We put the ball where somebody could touch it and can’t do that.”
After Stephenville forced the Mustangs (3-5, 0-2) to punt, the Yellowjackets scored on an 18-yard pass for a 14-0 lead with 7:24 remaining in the first quarter.
After another Mustangs punt, Stephenville needed one play – a 43-yard pass to senior receiver Brighton DeVivo from junior quarterback Trot Jordan for the 21-0 advantage with 6:13 left in the opening stanza.
Another Marble Falls punt and another Yellowjackets score. This one was courtesy of junior running back Tyler McClendon, who scored on a five-yard run to complete a seven-play, 68-yard touchdown drive and a 28-0 lead with 1:15 in the first quarter.
The Mustangs punted on their next possession and Stephenville drove 54 yards in five plays that ended when freshman receiver Caden Monk caught a nine-yard touchdown pass from Jordan for the 35-0 advantage with 9:08 remaining in the second period.
Marble Falls punted and Jordan hit McClendon on a 19-yard scoring reception to finish a six-play, 55-yard drive for a 42-0 lead with 5:35 left in the half.
Stephenville senior defensive back Briar Floyd caught an interception to set up the Yellowjackets on the Marble Falls 41-yard line. Seven plays later, sophomore running back Carter VanZandt ended the drive with a two-yard run and a 49-0 lead at the intermission.
Reserves took over the for the YellowJackets in the second half.
Though the Mustangs held and forced Stephenville to turn the ball over on downs on the Marble Falls one-yard line to begin the third quarter, the Yellowjackets got a safety on the Mustangs’ first offensive play of the second half then scored on the ensuing possession thanks to a seven-yard scamper by VanZandt for a 58-0 lead.
Midway through the fourth quarter Stephenville senior defensive lineman Elijah Rivera caught an interception to set up the offense on the Marble Falls 31-yard line. The five-play drive ended when junior receiver Rory McNeese caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Grayson Copeland for the 65-0 lead with 5:22 left in the contest.
The Yellowjackets had 220 passing yards and 214 rushing yards for 434 yards of total offense.
Jordon completed 11 of 18 passes for 161 yards and four touchdowns and had a 20-yard run. VanZandt had 14 rushes for 53 yards and two touchdowns, while McClendon had seven carries for 87 yards and a score and a 19-yard touchdown catch. Monk caught seven passes for 79 yards and two touchdowns, while DeVivo had two receptions for 55 yards and a score, and sophomore Landry Vosburg had a 10-yard touchdown catch.
Diego Aguilar had 11 carries for 40 yards, Doak Timmerman had five rushes for 8 yards, and Joaquin Aguilar had two rushes for 10 yards. Crawford completed 4 of 10 passes for 21 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. All Marble Falls statistics are unofficial.
Keri Timmerman noted some Mustangs are learning the physical differences from the sub varsity to the varsity.
“We had some kids that had to step up tonight,” he said. “We’ve been trying to leave our junior varsity alone as much as possible, trying to leave people down so they can develop and grow. We’ve got some sophomores that are up that are having to learn and play fast and grow fast. And so we try to leave as many kids we can on JV, so that they can be successful and they can get 10 full games. We had to move a couple kids up, and I think they did a good job. I think they were excited to see some of that growth from practice, and it’s good to see kids moving forward.”
And though the scoreboard may not reflect it, Timmerman said he saw the Mustangs play with maximum effort throughout the contest.
“Nights like this are hard because the kids fight their tails off and never backed down,” he said. “So you gotta find your wins in it. And I think my win for our kids is that they just played extremely hard and never backed down. You just get more under your belt of what good football looks like, and that helps you in the future. In week eight, we’re still finding out who are some of our kids. They’re still showing themselves, and that’s a good problem to have. Kids are making plays. It was a lot of good on good and some learning. The kids are fighting and not feeling success by getting in the end zone or stopping them. That’s hard on kids, but I’m proud of our kids. And I think that’s a big deal for the growth of our team and our program.”
The Mustangs have a bye Friday, Oct. 24, then travel to play at Lampasas at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31.
