Faith Academy football beats San Marcos Academy

CAPTION: Senior Adam Merlick made some big catches for the Flames in helping them win their second contest on the road. Photo by Stennis Shotts

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls football team scorched San Marcos Academy 61-16 Oct. 24 in the Division II District 4 opener of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.

“This is a real good game for us,” Flames head coach Jay Silvers said. “We have some stuff we have to clean up, but we’re definitely moving in the right trajectory. The boys are playing really well together.”

The contest ended after a series in the third quarter, but it didn’t begin that way.

The Flames scored in two plays highlighted by a 21-yard rushing touchdown by sophomore Landon Silvers. Senior Ben Strmiska added the two-point kick for the 8-0 lead.

Then the Bears (1-7, 0-1) answered with at least a 10-play drive that chewed up a lot of time. The result was tying the game on a passing touchdown at 8-8.

Silvers answered with an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for the 16-8 advantage.

But San Marcos Academy responded with a 10-play, time-consuming drive that resulted in a rushing touchdown and a 16-16 tie going into the second quarter.

“Our defense was making some good stops,” Jay Silvers said. “We had a couple of penalties that helped them. We made some good adjustments.”

At that point, Faith (7-1, 1-0) coaches made the decision to flip players to different defensive positions. That resulted in zero Bear points the rest of the game.

“(Defensive coordinator Garrett Cole) did a great job moving some guys around,” Jay Silvers said. “It was move moving personnel around on the field, trying to eliminate some of their passing stuff. After that, we shut them down.”

Meanwhile the Flames were off to the races offensively.

Senior Andrew Houy completed a drive with a 14-yard rushing touchdown for the 24-16 lead.

Landon Silvers scored on a 43-yard scamper. Sophomore Nick Zarob found senior Adam Merlick on the one-point pass for the 31-16 advantage.

Landon Silvers scored on a 10-yard run for the 39-16 lead.

Houy hit Merlick on back-to-back passing touchdowns: 19 and 52 yards for a 53-16 advantage at the half.

The contest ended when junior Wade Dillard barreled his way into the end zone from five yards out early in the third quarter.

“The offense was running,” Jay Silvers said. “They did a great job moving the ball. Once we shut them down, we made them turn it over twice and then we just scored real quick on them. You could see the fire just left them at that point.”

Houy finished with three rushes for 38 yards and a touchdown and completed 4 of 6 passes for 132 yards and two scores. Landon Silvers had six rushes for 129 yards and three touchdowns and a 22-yard catch. Merlick caught three passes for 74 yards and two touchdowns, and Dillard had two rushes for 27 and a touchdown and a 39-yard reception. Strmiska made all six of his two-point kick attempts.

Not bad for an offense that only had 18 plays, scored seven times and had 11 first downs.

“So that’s them just being efficient,” the coach said. “We were getting big chunks of yards when we did run and pass the ball. Andrew did a great job throwing the ball, especially on a pretty breezy night. If he’d thrown it up in the air, it was going to float. But he kept it low and hit his targets. So the offense did a great job.”

Defensively, Houy had eight tackles and blocked a field goal attempt, while junior Price Rosamond had seven tackles and sophomore Egan Barnes had two tackles and two pass break-ups.

“Having Price out on the field helps a lot because Price is very good at being able to generate everything out there,” the coach said. “He knows what everybody is supposed to be doing. So he gets everybody situated. Everybody out there has a general idea of what their job is. Having Price and Egan out there, they understand where everybody is supposed to be and what their job is.”

The Flames welcome Bulverde Bracken at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, in their district opener.

CAPTION: Senior kicker Ben Strmiska did his part to ensure the Flames made quick work of the San Marcos Academy Bears. Photo by Stennis Shotts