Marble Falls looks to change season-opener trend against Cedar Creek

JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER

MARBLE FALLS — After two weeks of fall training camp and a scrimmage, the Marble Falls High School football is focused on Bastrop Cedar Creek, its opponent to start the 2016 season.

Marble Falls welcomes the Eagles with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Aug. 26 at Mustang Stadium, 2101 Mustang Drive. Listen to the game on KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune or at KBEYFM.com starting with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. The broadcast goes live at 7 p.m.

The Mustangs haven’t won their season opener since 2012, a trend head coach Matt Green wants to end this year.

“Game one is not going to break our season, win or lose,” he said. “Kids have to keep it in perspective, win or lose. We’ve been 0-1, and our kids have fought back and won the second game both years. I want our kids to be 1-0. That is a statement for our kids. That is a goal. It’s a high priority.”

It’s such a priority that Green said coaches and players have talked about the opener since the spring semester because they believe a victory sets the tone for the season.

Marble Falls (District 26-5A) has been in the midst of a quarterback competition that dates back to spring football in May. Green chuckled when asked who the starter is.

“I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t,” he said.

Sophomore Andrew Stripling and junior Zach Rangel have both performed very well and have not separated themselves. Green noted neither have played in a real game outside of last week’s scrimmage at Georgetown East View.

“A real game is definitely going to offer the opportunity for somebody to step forward or give them what they’ve done so far for them both to play very well,” the coach said. “I don’t want to guess and speculate. I want the chips to fall where they do. In a game, you’re going to have more stress than they’re used to, they’re going to get hit hard at times. Kids react to that very differently, and they’re both going to make mistakes that could actually result in problems for our football team. How will they respond to that? Bottom line is this: Until they get in and play in a real game where the scoreboard is changing every time we score or the other team scores, you’re not going to know what you really have.”

So fans should expect to see both play throughout the contest.

Cedar Creek (19-5A), however, doesn’t have a quarterback competition. Ssenior quarterback Tristan Hendrix had 169 rushes for 819 yards and completed 61 of 176 passes for 1,020 yards last season. The Eagles finished fourth in their district in 2015 with a 4-3 record (4-7 overall) and lost 61-7 to Leander Vandegrift in the first round of the playoffs.

Green said Hendrix is a dual-threat quarterback who looks to run first.

“They run the ball so much their play action is great,” Green said. “They call runs to him; it’s not like he scrambles around. He is the best at running the read game. They want him to pull the ball and take off with it, and he will hurt you.”

Cedar Creek junior running back Brock DeShay is the featured runner, while junior receiver Peyton Tuggle, who caught 17 passes for 342 yards last season, is the primary catching threat.

“They scare you to death,” Green said. “They have good-looking athletes, and they have, what I think, is one good running back, who’s a very strong running back.”

Cedar Creek is led by junior defensive lineman Randall Reyes, a player Eagles head coach Jon Edwards compared to J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans.

“On every play, he goes as hard as he can,” Edwards said.

Senior defensive linemen Caleb Zuniga and Cory Cathey and junior linebacker Connor Kelly also will be relied upon to control the line of scrimmage for Cedar Creek.

Green said those players, including senior safety Stevie-Rey Olsen, have speed and are big.

Otherwise, he added, the Eagles defense is a mystery. Cedar Creek played in only one scrimmage, against Del Valle, whose base offense is the Slot-T, a system that uses misdirection and confusion to run the football. So Marble Falls coaches don’t believe they have an accurate view of their primary defense.

So the Mustangs coaches called other area coaches and did their research other than from videos.

“We’ll have to figure that out on the fly, and we will,” Green said.

To Green, this game will come down to turnovers and which special teams unit can make a momentum-shifting play that’s unexpected.

“We’re glad to have football season back,” he said. “The excitement from our kids and coaches is at an all-time high. We’re ready to play football.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com