Marble Falls football takes on Lampasas, Wimberley in scrimmage

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

LAMPASAS — Marble Falls High School junior quarterback Brennen Wooten predicted the Mustangs offense would score a touchdown in its first set of plays in a three-team scrimmage with Lampasas and Wimberley on Aug. 18.

But Wooten was wrong.

Marble Falls scored two touchdowns.

The first came on a 50-yard pass to junior receiver Eric Cauble. The other was to receiver Cade Cool from 15 yards away.

“It was very good for us,” head coach Matt Green said. “We had to prepare for two different offenses and two totally different defenses.”

On the flip side, Green was pleased with the number of three-and-outs the Mustangs defense forced, especially since there were no film studies or scouting reports on the other two teams before the scrimmages.

All three teams played two live quarters with a nine-minute running clock that featured the use of the 40-second play clock, something new for Texas high school football this year. The University of Interscholastic League approved changing the play clock from 25 seconds to 40 seconds with the countdown starting after officials deem the previous play is over.

During the live quarter against Wimberley, both teams played to a 7-7 tie in nine minutes. Wooten found Jacob Metcalf for the touchdown. The Texans’ touchdown was the result of the running back getting free after he was hit near the line of scrimmage. He ran in from 55 yards out.

In the live quarter against the Badgers, Lampasas ran its Slot-T offense, which is a run-based offense that utilizes misdirection, for a 7-0 lead on its opening drive.

Marble Falls reached the Badgers’ 20-yard line, but the drive stalled.

The Mustangs forced a punt after three plays but turned the ball over on downs.

Marble Falls took a break when Wimberley and Lampasas played during their live quarter. Green said that was helpful because it forced the Mustangs to get re-warmed up and gave them a glimpse of how the halftimes will go.

“Lampasas never cooled down,” the coach said.

Marble Falls stuck with base schemes on both sides of the ball on purpose, even slowing down Green’s offense.

He said the players got a feel for how quickly plays will be given from the sideline and how coaches will instruct.

One of his questions was how quickly can the offense read the signals to know which play to run, but he was pleased with how fast they digested and executed the information, he said.

The varsities took the field at 6 p.m. Marble Falls left the field at about 9 p.m.

“We’ll only get better,” Green said. “We’re going to get in shape.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com