Marble Falls looks to rebound in homecoming game vs. Killeen Chaparral
A homecoming tailgate was held Wednesday, Sept. 7, with the community gathering in a show of support for the Mustangs. Staff photo by Nathan Bush
Coming off a 55-16 loss to the Brownwood Lions, the Marble Falls Mustangs (1-1) need to turn things around in a big way as they take on the Killeen Chaparral Bobcats (0-2) in a homecoming matchup at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, at Mustang Stadium, 2101 Mustang Drive.
You can listen to it live on KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune, at KBEYFM.com, or via the free KBEY app starting with a 7 p.m. pregame show.
In an interview with KBEY, head coach Brian Herman spoke about what went wrong last week.
“(Brownwood) did everything they wanted to,” he said. “I think it was Mike Tyson that said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,’ and they took it to us for 48 minutes.”
“We lost discipline in our keys,” he continued. “We were out of position. There was some confusion. There were a lot of youthful mistakes from kids that are doing things for the first time that they aren’t used to.”
Herman’s squad has used the loss as a learning experience, he told KBEY.
“Once they learn to trust the process and planning and coaching, it’s going to get better,” he said. “It has to get better.”
As the team looks to rebound in its homecoming matchup against the Bobcats, it will need to remain disciplined and focused to prevail against Killeen Chaparral.
“It’s a challenge to get 15- to 18-year-old boys to settle in and focus and do what they’re supposed to do sometimes,” Herman said. “We’re working on trying to stay focused.”
Given the relative newness of the Killeen Chaparral team, Herman was surprised by the makeup of the startup program’s roster.
“I was actually shocked to see the roster,” he said. “They have more seniors than we do. By my last count, they had 23 seniors, 21 juniors, five sophomores, and a freshman. What I thought was a youthful team is actually a little bit older.”
Additionally, Killeen Chaparral’s head coach, Alan Haile, comes from the same coaching tree as Herman, meaning both schools run versions of the run-heavy Slot-T offense.
The similarity of schemes should prove advantageous for his squad, Herman said.
“They run similar stuff that we do,” he said. “It actually helps us in preparation that we get to scrimmage in practice a little bit more in practice because they’re going to run something similar to what we do.”