Marble Falls football to play at Fredericksburg
CAPTION: Marble Falls junior athlete Hudson Salyers and the Mustangs will face another challenging opponent when the Mustangs travel to play Fredericksburg. Staff photos by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School football team will hit the road for the first time this season when the Mustangs face Fredericksburg at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11, at Battlin’ Billies Stadium.
Both teams are 1-1 after two weeks. Fredericksburg lost to Wimberley 28-3 Sept. 4 and beat Bandera 36-24 Aug. 28.
The Mustangs defeated Little River Academy 39-36 Sept. 4 after losing to Lockhart 46-29 Aug. 28.
“(The Billies) are really good football team,” Marble Falls head coach Keri Timmerman said. “They’re very balanced defensively. Their head coach is a defensive head coach. Coach (Bill) Wilder’s been the coordinator there for a long time before he was the head coach, and so they’re familiar with what they do defensively. He does a good job adjusting to the talent they have. They play really, really hard. It’ll be fun to measure up against that. I think it’ll be a good test for our offense and our defense and our special teams groups.”
Offensively, the Billies are led by junior quarterback Kress Mohr, who operates their version of the spread offense. He has completed 35 of 67 passes for 490 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions and has 19 carries for 121 yards and a score. Sophomore Christian Bermudez has 15 rushes for 45 yards, while junior Cody Helmers has 14 carries for 30 yards.
Twelve different Billies have caught passes this season led by Tripp Barnett, who has seven receptions for 145 yards and a touchdown, Chapel Herbert, who has seven catches for 109 yards, and John Moore, who has seven receptions for 73 yards and a score. All three are juniors.
“They do a good job distributing the ball and keeping you own your toes,” Timmerman said. “They have three pretty talented receivers in the back, and they utilize their personnel really well. They have kids that come in, and they’re pretty much lead blockers for their primary back.”
Fredericksburg’s sets feature a running back without a tight end, two-back and two or three receivers will line up on one side of the field.
“The vertical passing game is a quick passing game,” the coach said. “Their quarterback does a good job of getting the ball off on time. And then when he does it, he scrambles and he’s the dangerous runner. This quarterback will pull it down and once he pulls it down, he tries to stay lateral and tries to pop receivers open in the back end because (defensive backs) are stopping coverage, so he’s a threat for sure. I think the biggest thing is that they try to make you defend the field. You have to contain the quarterback, you have to contain the pass vertically and horizontally. They stress the defense in a lot of ways in how they call and they’ve had the same offensive coordinator for several years, and he does a really good job with them.”
CAPTION: The Mustangs defense, include senior linebacker Arnulfo Salazar (3) and junior defensive back Clayton Thompson (33), will face another spread offense led by an accurate and active Fredericksburg quarterback.
The Mustangs will counter with junior defensive backs Clayton Thompson, who has 32 tackles, including 22 solo tackles, and Braxton Dicken, who has 19 tackles, and linebackers Olen Dalton, a junior, and Arnulfo Salazar, a senior, who both have 18 tackles. Senior linebacker Branson Bunting has 16 tackles and two sacks.
“They have a talented quarterback and some skill that can hurt you if you don’t contain it,” Timmerman said. “They’re similar in some ways to Academy and how they play offensively, but I feel like with what we did last week containing a very dangerous quarterback and cleaning up a few things in the back end, I think that it’s going to be a good game on Friday.”
Defensively, the Billies are led by senior cornerback Davis Frantzen, and junior middle linebacker Eli King, who both have 17 tackles each, and senior Jack Edwards with 12 tackles. King also has a sack, while Frantzen has three pass deflections.
“They’re well coached, very disciplined,” Timmerman said. “They’re going to fit really well. They slowed Wimberley down at times, but once Wimberley kind of found their footing with two really good backs and a young quarterback and a couple of threats, they took advantage of some matchups. Definitely feel like they’re going to probably hone in on our two backs and our quarterback and try to stop that. So we’re going to have to take advantage of some things in different ways on the perimeter.”
Marble Falls will counter with junior quarterback Crawford Mattox, who has completed 23 of 38 passes for 279 yards, a touchdown and an interception and has 16 carries for 67 yards and three scores, junior athlete Hudson Salyers, who has 33 carries for 265 yards and a touchdown, caught five receptions for 58 yards, and completed 2 of 3 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown, and sophomore running back Diego Aguilar, who has 17 rushes for 64 yards and two scores and has seven receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
Senior receivers Gage Coleman has five catches for 51 yards and Greg Colver has six receptions for 76 yards.
This matchup will pit two head coaches who also are friends.
“We’ve known each other a long time, and he’s definitely a mentor of mine, someone that I respect a lot,” Timmerman said. “I’ve never played him, so we’re excited to get to play each other. It’ll be a good game, and I feel like we have to do a good job of coming out like we did against Academy and start fast and try to get on the board quickly and hold them off. It’s going to be a battle for sure. They’re going to come at us.”
CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore running back Diego Aguilar catches 39-yard pass from junior quarterback Crawford Mattox and has just enough separation to run to the end zone for the touchdown in the second quarter of the win against Little River Academy.
