Big comeback not enough for Marble Falls football

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — Just when it looked like Burnet was going to crush the Marble Falls High School football team in the teams’ season opener Aug. 29 at Mustang Stadium, new head coach Matt Green had a chat with his players.

That talk led to the Mustangs scoring five consecutive touchdowns.

The Bulldogs (1-0), however, eventually won 51-45 in overtime to snap a three-game losing streak to their Burnet County rivals.

Green said he could tell the Mustangs (0-1) were mentally packing it in toward the end of the third quarter.

Burnet took a 17-10 lead with a touchdown on its last possession of the first half. Then, the Bulldogs scored another touchdown to begin the third quarter.

The Bulldogs’ confidence was on display on their next drive. After recovering a Marble Falls fumble, Burnet called for a double reverse with a flea flicker. Junior quarterback Austin Moore found senior receiver Cody Jones for a 54-yard touchdown. Moore capped their next drive with a 58-yard touchdown to junior receiver Joel Johnson. By then, Burnet led 38-10 with three minutes 42 seconds left in the quarter.

So Green pulled his players together.

“I told those kids this is a defining moment for this program,” he said. “We can quit or we can play. We challenged them as a staff. My gosh did they respond.”

Indeed.

Marble Falls scored five consecutive touchdowns: a two-yard run by senior running back Royale Brown, an eight-yard run by sophomore running back Davin Manning, a 19-yard catch by junior receiver Eric Cauble from junior quarterback Brennen Wooten, a 25-yard catch by sophomore receiver Aaron Wooten and a 34-yard catch by junior receiver Jacob Metcalf. That touchdown capped an 11-play, 98-yard drive that took 2:16 off the clock, leaving 50 seconds in the contest.

After the last score, the Mustangs needed a two-point conversion to tie the contest.

Brennen Wooten rolled to his right to pass but came up against a wall of defenders. So he reversed his field and outran the Bulldogs to the left corner of the end zone.

Still, the Bulldogs marched to the Marble Falls 17-yard line and missed a 34-yard field goal as time expired. That sent the contest into overtime.

In overtime, the Mustangs had the ball first but were unable to get a second first down. On fourth-and-one, they were called for a false start. Green called for another field-goal attempt, but the ball went through the holder’s hands.

The Bulldogs won the game when senior running back Eric Walker jumped over the top of the pile from two yards out for the victory.

In eight first-half Marble Falls possessions, the Mustangs turned the ball over on downs, threw two interceptions, dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone, fumbled the ball on the Burnet one-yard line, failed to execute a fake punt, scored a touchdown and made a 38-yard field from senior Melvin Sanchez. In all, Marble Falls had four turnovers to Burnet’s three.

Green said that while both teams made mistakes, the Mustangs’ errors simply killed drives. He noted the Bulldogs did not make errors that killed drives.

“You’ll never be a good team turning the ball over like we did,” he said.

He could hear his players talking about small things on plays, especially on the last series, he said. But the Mustangs were out of timeouts, so he couldn’t help them by doing more than directing from the sideline. That’s the result of spending three weeks to learn a new scheme, he said.

Still, Green left Mustang Stadium encouraged.

“I’m proud of them,” Green said. “I’ll never accept losing. It was a defining movement for our kids. They didn’t believe until they had something to believe in. Tonight, they had something to believe in.”

Marble Falls travels to face San Antonio Jay at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, at Farris Stadium, 8400 N. Loop 1604 West in San Antonio.

jfierro@thepicayune.com

SCORING BY QUARTERS

Burnet: 10-7-21-7-6 — 51
Marble Falls: 3-7-7-28-0 — 45

FIRST QUARTER
MF – Melvin Sanchez 38-yard FG, 4:56
B – Alex Melvin 29-yard FG, 2:34
B – Cody Jones 14-yard pass from Austin Moore (Melvin kick), :44

SECOND QUARTER
MF – Davin Manning 31-yard pass from Brennen Wooten (Sanchez kick), 8:58
B – Eric Walker 15-yard run (Melvin kick), 2:02

THIRD QUARTER
B – Walker 2-yard run (Melvin kick), 8:44
B – Jones 46-yard pass from Moore (Melvin kick), 7:17
B – Joel Johnson 58-yard pass from Moore (Melvin kick), 3:42
MF – Royale Brown 2-yard run (Sanchez kick), :27

FOURTH QUARTER
MF – Manning 8-yard run (Sanchez kick), 7:14
MF – Eric Cauble 19-yard pass from Wooten (Sanchez kick), 6:35
MF – Aaron Wooten 25-yard pass from B. Wooten (kick no good), 4:36
MF – Jacob Metcalf 34-yard pass from Wooten (B. Wooten two-point run), :50

OVERTIME    
B – Walker 2-yard leap

TEAM NUMBERS

BURNET

FIRST DOWNS: 26
TOTAL NET YARDS: 487
RUSHES-YARDS: 39-211
PASSING: 315
INTERCEPTIONS: 3
COMP-ATT-INT: 18-26-3
FUMBLES-LOST: 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS: 7-39

MARBLE FALLS

FIRST DOWNS: 34
TOTAL NET YARDS: 696
RUSHES-YARDS: 43-298
PASSING: 463
INTERCEPTIONS: 2
COMP-ATT-INT: 34-60-2
FUMBLES-LOST: 2-2
PENALTIES-YARDS: 7-65

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Burnet, Eric Walker 19-101, Steven Gallardo 3-25, Austin Moore 5-12, Brock Foster 12-73. MF, Davin Manning 12-100, Royale Brown 13-139, Brennen Wooten 11-48, Tyler Ryan 5-0, Jacob Metcalf 1-3, Peyton Emery 1-8
PASSING — Burnet, Austin Moore 18-26-3-315. MF, Brennen Wooten 34-60-2-463
RECEIVING – Burnet, Eric Walker 4-76, Brock Foster 1-10, Cody Jones 5-65, Steven Gallardo 1-2, Joel Johnson 5-150, Cory Cavender 1-12. MF, Aaron Wooten 7-87, Eric Cauble 9-120, Royale Brown 4-49, Daven Manning 4-88, Jacob Metcalf 4-72, Tyler Ryan 17, Peyton Emery 4-30