Llano football defeats Marble Falls
CAPTION: Marble Falls defenders Noah Ortiz (left), Brody Graham and Jamir Garcia tackle Llano junior quarterback Luke Davis. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Llano High School football team beat the Marble Falls Mustangs 50-18 Sept. 12 in a non-district contest.
“Can’t give good team opportunities,” Mustangs head coach Keri Timmerman said. “Can’t miss the ball here or get to the third or fourth down and you know that you’ve got to finish. And I think our kids played really hard. We had kids go down. We had kids that were out. We had kids step up. You have a sophomore quarterback that we claimed from the (junior varsity) last week that kept us in different things. And I’m really proud of our kids’ effort. I want them to be successful. We just have to find a way to make the play when it shows up. I think that’s what we’re going to see on film – a bunch of inches.”
“I’ll credit Marble Falls,” Llano head coach Matt Green said. “I’ve said it all week. They’re a good football team. They have a lot of pride. Last year we were fortunate to beat them. And I knew tonight coming over here was gonna be tough. Our first road game and it was it was everything I thought it would be.”
The Mustangs (1-2) took a 3-0 lead after the Yellow Jackets (2-0) fumbled on the first offensive play of the contest.
Marble Falls senior Joaquin Aguilar ran for 11 yards on the first play of the series then three more on the next play. But the Yellow Jackets didn’t yield another yard. Aguilar kicked a 35-yard field goal for the 3-0 lead with 10 minutes and 13 seconds left in the opening stanza.
The two teams exchanged punts then the Mustangs got a turnover when the defensive back took the ball away from the Llano (3-0) receiver.
But the Jackets held and forced the Mustangs to punt.
The Jackets got on the board thanks to a 10-play, 81-yard drive that ended when junior quarterback Luke Davis hit junior receiver Cash Lynch on a go route on the Marble Falls sideline for the 25-yard score. The perfectly thrown ball hit Lynch in stride. He stutter stepped to allow the Mustangs to fly by and then went to the end zone untouched. Davis threw the two-point pass to senior tight end Brady Kelly for the 8-3 advantage with 9:57 left in the half.
Green said he wanted to run the swinging gate and installed a play he believed would work.
“I wanted to show it, we had a great play we didn’t think they could defend, and we were right,” he said.
On the Mustangs first play of their next possession from their 29-yard line, Llano senior defensive back Jose Sillas caught the Marble Falls pass and ran to pay dirt. Senior kicker Francisco Parravano’s extra point was good and Llano led 15-3 with 9:44 left in the half.
After a Marble Falls punt, Llano took over at the Mustang 23-yard line. Four plays later senior running back Sillas scored on a 12-yard run for the 22-3 lead with 6:41 left.
The Mustangs went on a six-play drive that covered 31 yards and called for a go route on the Llano 35-yard line on fourth and 13. But the pass was just out of the receiver’s reach. He was open and had a lane to paydirt.
Llano took over and needed six plays to cover 61 yards. On fourth and goal from the Mustang four-yard line, the Jackets’ field goal attempt was blocked. Still, Llano led 22-3 at the half.
The Yellow Jackets forced the Mustangs to punt on the opening possession of the second half.
Then Llano senior Brayton Shaw ran for 12 yards in two plays, while Sillas ran for one. Davis found Lynch for a 59-yard pass to set up Sillas for a five-yard rushing touchdown and a 29-3 advantage with 7:43 remaining the third quarter. The five-play drive covered 77 yards.
The Mustangs got on the board thanks to a 47-yard scamper by senior running back Doak Timmerman. Senior Jace Williams added the extra point to cut into the deficit 29-10. The two-day drive covered 53 yards in 56 seconds.
But Llano got the score right back thanks to Davis and Kelly. The two connected on a pass in the middle that covered 42 yards and a passing touchdown from 15 yards. The quarterback, who saw an untouched Mustang coming, stood in the pocket and still delivered the ball on time to where only Brady could catch it for the score. The three-play drive went 55 yards in 1:18 for the 36-10 lead.
After a Marble Falls punt, Davis found Lynch for a mid-range pass on the Marble Falls sideline that the receiver turned into a 76-yard score by outracing the Mustangs to pay dirt. The one-play drive took 12 seconds for the 43-10 advantage with 2:53 left in the third quarter.
Marble Falls added a touchdown of its own when sophomore quarterback Anderson Liscum, who made his first start, hit senior receiver Kaden Langbein on a 21-yard reception on fourth and 21. The eight-play drive went 65 yards and took 2:56 to complete.
The Jackets answered with a 34-yard touchdown throw to senior tight end Konrad Zwicke from Davis for the 50-18 lead with 8:25 left in the contest. The 11-play drive covered 55 yards in 3:26.
“We wanted to start fast and did everything but,” Green said. “I was proud of our defense for getting stops as we continued to struggle (offensively). I think we go score. And then our defense gets a turnover touchdown, and then that was a huge play because it was two scores, and you could feel a little air go out of the Marble Falls side. I’ll give (Marble Falls co-) defensive coordinators (Austin Silva and Ryan Craven) credit. They did some off the chain stuff. They were running some really wild things in the box up front that we had not seen – I don’t know if I’ve ever seen. And they did a good job of doing that and keeping us off guard.”
Marble Falls senior running back Joaquin Aguilar led the Mustangs with nine rushes for 38 yards all in the first half and freshman Diego Aguilar had eight rushes for 18 yards all in the second half. Liscum completed 9 of 25 passes for 105 yards a touchdown and two interceptions. Langbein had five catches for 66 yards and a score, all unofficial.
“We’ve got kids going down, and when you lose a kid in a corner, you lose them at receiver. You lose a kid at running back, you lose them at linebacker,” Timmerman said. “You lose Joaquin, who is having a really good night and you know is about ready to pop again. And that’s a big weapon for us. We’ve just got to have depth. We’ve also got to develop, and that’s one of the big things. We could rob our JV and throw people up here and have bodies, but they’re not going to be ready. And we’re not going to be developing them for what we need for long term.”
Davis completed 15 of 18 passes for 359 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. Lynch had six catches for 212 yards and two scores, while Kelly had three catches for 65 yards and a touchdown and Zwicke finished with a 34-yard touchdown reception. Sillas had 14 carries for 48 yards and two scores.
“What really we leaned on was the passing game, and it took a while,” Green said. “But in the end, they were really doing some wild things up front to stop our run. And it was effective at times, but we finally locked in on a few things. And we hit some big passes on them.”
The two coaches indicated this contest revealed plenty about their own teams that will help them moving forward.
“There’s plenty of things for the Jackets to work on and improve upon defensively,” Green said. “I thought we were strong all night long, but I will give Marble credit. They hit us in the back end a little bit late and hit some big passes. We’ve got to firm that up. We’ve got to be better. So I’ll take the win always. And it was a convincing win once it was over, but we have plenty of things to get better at.”
Timmerman smiled when it was pointed out that when the Mustangs can excel in all three phases for four quarters, the scoreboard will look different.
“That’s the goal,” he said. “It’ll be fun. But I can’t argue with effort. The kids are doing everything they can for us. I think that’s the biggest thing is just execution consistently. One player being off for some people, is OK. One player being off for us – we’ve got to overcome that. And we just don’t have the depth to go do that.”
Marble Falls will travel to San Antonio Brackenridge (1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19 at San Antonio Sports Complex.
Llano is at Jarrell (3-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19.
CAPTION: Llano senior running back Jose Sillas had 14 carries for 48 yards and two touchdowns against the Marble Falls Mustangs. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
