Dawgs enjoy bye week after touch schedule
Quarterback Dillon Chafin looks down field as his offensive line gives him time.
BURNET — After entering District 8-3A play with only one win and recording heart-wrenching losses to Wimberley and Liberty Hill, the Burnet High School football team is currently riding a two-game winning streak, its first of the season.
That makes for a nice bye week, head coach Doyle Walker said.
“These kids came in (Oct. 20) with smiles on their faces,” he said. “They had a good weekend.”
Following a convincing 21-7 win against Fredericksburg Oct. 17, coaches gave the players the weekend off. The team watched film Oct. 20 and rested the remainder of the day.
The rest of the week was spent working on two areas.
“We worked on fundamentals and technique,” Walker said. “We gave them the weekend off and then on Oct. 20 we hit it hard for the next week against Ingram.”
The Bulldogs reach must beat the Warriors Friday and Canyon Lake Nov. 7 to qualify for the playoffs.
Walker was happy to be in a position of reaching the postseason again considering the Bulldogs suffered through a three-game losing streak in the pre-district season.
“I told the kids going into the season our non-district schedule was going to be tough,” he said. “Somewhere down the road it was going to pay off for us.”
It almost did in the the losses to Wimberley and Liberty Hill, considered the top two teams in the league.
In the loss to the Texans, freshman running back Dennis Smith scored three touchdowns and passed for another in a 27-21 victory after Burnet led, 21-7, at the half.
Against the Panthers, the Bulldogs led 29-28 thanks to a 32-yard touchdown pass to Chandler West from Dylan Chafin. Chafin found Brandon Jacque for the two-point pass to take the lead.
But with four seconds remaining, Brandon Fickel threw a pass to Joshua Woodbury in double coverage for the 36-29 win.
“Our first eight games were against some very good opponents, very well-coached teams,” Walker said. “We’ve gone through some tough defenses, injuries and heartbreakers. A lot of people would have folded the ship after losing to Wimberley and Liberty Hill like we did.”
The Bulldogs unleashed their frustration on Llano in a 35-12 victory and then pounded out a 21-7 win against Fredericksburg.
“We were stressing getting better every week,” the coach said. “They believe in themselves and believe in the coaching staff and the coaching staff believes in them. We’ll finish putting all the pieces together, and we will accomplish our goal.”
Walker said the players never stopped believing they would reach the playoffs, even after they suffered setbacks that might have demoralized other teams.
“I don’t think I could be prouder of a group of kids than these kids right here,” he said. “We’re blessed with hardworking, good kids who want and strive to do the right things. Good things are going to happen to good people. I honestly believe that.”
Photo by Tom Suarez/www.tomsuarez.net