Building on their win

MARBLE FALLS — With two games left in the 2008 football season, Mustangs head coach Cord Woerner wants to make sure the players are focused on the task at hand.

“We have a couple of games left,” he said. “We need to put as much into the last couple of games as we did the first.”

The Mustangs will travel to face Pflugerville Hendrickson, which is tied for third with Killeen at 2-2 in District 25-4A play.

Meanwhile, Marble Falls is 1-3 and coming off a win against Lampasas, 42-15, last week.

Thanks to first-year coach Dwayne Weirich, the Hawks have been more of a running team. 

“It’s a mix of Wing-T, Slot-T and Straight-T,” the Mustangs coach said. “They have three backs who run the ball very well.”

Those backs are Kenny Williams, who has 102 rushes for 536 yards; Marquese Dunn has 100 carries for 445 yards; and Jordan Harris has 26 rushes for 319 yards.

“(Harris) has a lot of speed,” Woerner said. “(Dunn) is big and fast. (Williams) is supposed to become re-eligible this week. They have several threats.”

The Mustangs skipper concedes the defense cannot over pursue, especially since the Hawks will have several receivers line up on one side to set up blockers, so they can run the football. 

“They want to run at you and through you,” Woerner said. “That’s what they like to do.”

Facing an offense that wants to run more than throw does not worry coaches, he said, because Marble Falls has faced many teams that are run-oriented such as Hutto, Fredericksburg, Lampasas and Burnet.

On the other side of the ball, Hendrickson plays a basic 4-3 defense with four defensive backs. 

“Physically, they can play a basic defense, not that they won’t stunt on occasion,” Woerner said. “We feel pretty good about what they do defensively.”

The Mustangs will run behind its offensive line using fullback Austin Sparks and quarterback Thor Woerner as the workhorses. 

The quarterback has rushed 113 times for 625 yards, while the fullback has added 615 yards on 104 carries. 

If the running game is contained, Woerner will look to pass to Justin Garcia, Cooper Bowen and David Morgan.

As for special teams, the Hawks can be dangerous because of who is fielding punts and kickoffs.

“Speed on special teams is the main thing,” Woerner said. “We spend an incredible amount of time getting to the football.”

The win against Lampasas last week for the final homecoming game at Mustang Stadium, 1511 Pony Circle Drive meant the community could say goodbye appropriately, the coach said.

“It’s tough to move out of that arena,” he said, “but it’s also a great deal for the kids to be able to have a new place and start a new tradition and not have to give up the memories and the things that happened in that old stadium.”  Photo by Virgil Belk/Hill Country Sports Images