Marble Falls football loses to Jarrell
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior quarterback Atreyu Machacek took led the Mustangs to a fourth-quarter score against Jarrell Sept. 5. Photo by Stennis Shotts
The Marble Falls High School football team lost to Jarrell 41-7 Sept. 5.
The Mustangs’ lone score came in the fourth quarter when senior tight end Noah Ortiz caught a tipped ball in the end zone from 19 yards out from senior quarterback Atreyu Machacek. The 15-play drive took 8 minutes and 17 seconds to complete. By then, the Cougars (2-0) had pulled their starters.
“It was a good offensive series, and we got lucky,” head coach Keri Timmerman said. “You get lucky sometimes, but it wasn’t executed. We just got lucky.”
The first play hinted at the type of night it was going to be.
The Cougars (2-0) scored immediately thanks to about an 85-yard kickoff return by senior Kenneth Johnson on the game’s first play for the 6-0 lead.
After a Mustangs (1-1) punt on their first possession, Jarrell went 56 yards in four plays highlighted by an eight-yard touchdown run by senior Jaysen Hobbs. The two-point run on the bad snap failed though the Cougars led 12-0.
Marble Falls senior corner back Machacek recovered a fumble on Jarrell’s second offensive possession to give the Mustangs a first down on the Cougars’ 24-yard line.
On first down, the Mustangs were called for a chop block. Senior running back Joaquin Aguilar caught a screen pass for six yards and ran for another four yards. But the next two pass plays went incomplete as the receiver couldn’t haul in the last pass in the end zone that was tipped.
The Cougars’ next possession ended in a 24-yard touchdown by Johnson, who capped a nine-play, 76-yard drive for the 19-0 advantage with 9:16 remaining in the half.
Then Jarrell junior Mariece Golden caught an interception and ran it back for a touchdown from about 60 yards for the 26-0 advantage, which turned out to be the half-time score.
Johnson added a one-yard touchdown run on the Cougars’ first possession of the second half and Jarrell scored on its second possession thanks to a two-yard run by Hobbs for a 41-0 lead.
Jarrell junior Brayden Morelock had eight rushes for 63 yards, while Hobbs had 10 rushes for 75 yards and three touchdowns, and Johnson had six rushes for 56 yards and two scores plus the 85-yard kickoff return, all unofficial.
Machacek completed 6 of 15 passes for 51 yards and a touchdown and had five rushes for 18 yards, while sophomore quarterback Crawford Mattox completed 4 of 12 passes for 35 yards and two interceptions and had eight carries for 14 yards.
Ortiz caught three passes for 42 yards and a score, and Aguilar had 14 rushes for 38 yards and caught 2 passes for 25 yards. Senior Kaden Langbein had 4 receptions for 10 yards, while senior Jace Williams caught 3 passes for 9 yards.
As he reflected on the contest, Timmerman pointed out several factors.
“I think that we gave them a lot of short fields, and we missed a lot of opportunities and special teams with balls on the ground and kicks returned and having a fair catch stuff,” he said. “I think that they’re a good football team and they took advantage of it. Kudos to them. Obviously they have good tailbacks, good defense. We’ve got to learn to answer that.”
Timmerman said one big step the Mustangs must take is being mentally engaged from the start.
“Making sure that we’re ready to play Friday nights, so that’s going to start on Monday and making sure that we’re ready to practice, and we’re focused,” he said. “So I think that there’s a lot of details that we’ve got to fix.”
The coach noted some Mustangs were learning new positions because not every player was available because of team violations.
“We (as a coaching staff) didn’t have some things ready that we should have, so we have to as a whole look at situations and go ‘OK, where do we go from here as far as adjustments, people in locations and positions?'” he said. “And then just making sure that our kids are ready on Friday night. So that falls on me. That’s clearly a head coach’s job and I’ve got to do a better job and make sure our kids are ready on Friday.”
The coach noted that losing a starter during the second quarter because of injury also didn’t help.
“And we got lucky on a couple (of series),” he said. “And that’s OK, but we can’t find a way to live on luck. We gotta execute, and that’s the biggest thing. We got points on the board, but the reality is we’ve got people who can execute, whether it’s a backup quarterback or (other starters).”
A year ago, what Timmerman may have called progress and a positive simply isn’t enough this season.
“We’ve got to progress. And that’s the reality of it,” he said. “If you had asked me at the beginning of the game, if we were going to give up 35 points and score once on a tipped ball, the answer would’ve been no. We clearly have got some execution issues that we’ve got to fix and that only can happen in practice, that can only happen with coaches, making sure we’re clean and clear on what we’re doing and expectationalize in the kids, and making sure they all understand them. That’s the reality of it. Those are the tools and the weapons. If they don’t know what’s going on then we don’t have a football team.”
Marble Falls welcomes Llano (2-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, to Mustang Stadium. The Yellow Jackets crushed Comanche 62-23 Sept. 5 and Lytle 55-14 Aug. 29.
