Marble Falls hosts San Antonio Jay, dual-threat QB

JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER

MARBLE FALLS — The Marble Falls High School football team hopes the friendly confines of Mustang Stadium will propel it to its first win of the 2015 season.

The game against San Antonio’s John Jay (1-0) kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 4 at the high school stadium, 2101 Mustang Drive. Listen to the contest starting with a pregame show at 6:30 p.m. on KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune or at KBEYFM.com.

Marble Falls head coach Matt Green said his players, who experienced a season-opening 30-15 loss to Burnet on Sept. 4, have enjoyed a solid week of practices that included plenty of focus and effort, especially regarding the “finer details.”

And Green said that’s important on both sides of the ball as Marble Falls (0-1) prepares to host one of the best players in Class 6A Region IV: Jay senior Moses Reynolds, a 6-foot 2-inch dual threat  quarterback who also starts at safety.

“This young man is a difference maker for any football team he plays on,” Green said. “The thing the Jay coaching staff does a great job of is … giving him opportunities to handle the ball in space.”

And that means allowing him to run with the football, pass it and even line up at receiver.

Reynolds accounted for 406 of Jay’s 472 yards of total offense during its 54-13 win against San Antonio Brackenridge on Aug. 27. He completed six passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns, had 12 rushes for 216 yards and three touchdowns and caught one pass for 55 yards.

“He can throw it pretty well, but what he can do is run,” Green said. “And he is lightning fast. When he gets on the edge, the odds say you’re not going to catch him. He’s that fast. He is a very, very confident player. You can see that on film. He knows what he’s reading, knows what he’s trying to get accomplished. And if you do not contain him or wrap him up, he’ll score.”

Reynolds has received about 15 college offers, said Jay head coach Gary Gutierrez, including from Texas A&M University, Baylor University, Oklahoma State University, Texas Christian University and the University of California.

With Reynolds also starting at safety, Marble Falls has been preparing for an aggressive front seven that allows receivers to go one on one with the secondary.

“What they do is let them react to the ball once they see it in front of them,” Green said about Jay. “They can get there in a hurry. … They pack the box to stop the run, and they know that they have ball hawks back there deep that you’re not going to get behind them, and they will recover to the ball fast once they see where it’s going.”

Green said coaches and players watched film of the loss to Burnet and saw Marble Falls had some highlights beyond scoring touchdowns. He noted seven offensive players made their first starts on the varsity level and might need some time to adjust to the size, speed and strength of opponents.

The coach also said mistakes were made by a variety of players in various positions, but he credited his players for not giving up.

“Our effort was very good on the offensive side,” he said. “Our kids were not lazy. It was not that our kids weren’t focused. Our kids were focused, and they played hard, but we made a lot of mistakes.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com