Champion received the opening kickoff and consumed a big chunk of the first quarter clock on a 14 play offensive drive behind the ground game of running back David Rogers and quarterback Kyle Poeske. But on 4th and six from the Mules 28 yard line, Poeske’s pass was intercepted by Mules cornerback Garrett Voss, stopping the Charger’s drive and giving the Mules offense the ball at the 32-yard line. The Mules offense had early success moving the ball as Andy Brooks and his crazy feet had a big run of 21 Yards and QB Wes Yancy scrambled for good yardage. But the Mules drive stalled at the 32-yard line due to an illegal procedure penalty, which forced the Mules to punt. But the punt was a good one, and the Chargers found themselves pinned at their own 2-yard line.
The Mules defense sensed an opportunity and held the Chargers to only 4 yards and Boerne found themselves punting as well, from deep in their own end zone. As the ball was snapped, Alex Cisneros came around the left side and blocked the punt into the waiting arms of Mules linebacker Skylar Nelson who gave the Mules offense the ball at the Charger 2-yard line. But two consecutive penalties by the Mules pushed the ball back to the 12 yard line and kept the offense from getting into the end zone. The Mules were forced to attempt a field goal but the kick was off the mark and the Mules walked away empty handed from a missed opportunity. Having a first down on the 2 yard line and letting mistakes keep you from scoring was a tough moment for the Mules. The Chargers offense took the field and again they chewed up the clock with another 14 play series that took the Chargers down to the Mules 17 yard line. But just when it looked like Champion might put the first points on the scoreboard, the Boerne drive was interrupted by Mules cornerback Kevin Kujawa who intercepted Poeske's pass at the 10 yard line. Now the offense was fired up and they weren’t about to make the same mistakes. 
Behind QB Wes Yancy, the Mules marched down the field as Yancy hit Garrett Iverson on two tough catches and Andy Brooks filled in the gaps with great running to advance the ball down to the 13 yard line. But making plays got tough inside the red zone and the Mules found themselves with a 4th down and 7 at the 13-yard line. On 4th down, Yancy coolly dropped back and hit a wide-open Truman Biggs across the middle for the first score of the night and the Mules took it to halftime with 7-0 lead.
The halftime speech must have been a good one as the Mules started with the ball, and on their first play of the 2nd half, Yancy hit Truman Biggs, who out-jumped the defender to make the 25 yard catch and then sprinted the remaining 48 yards to the endzone. Suddenly the Mules had a 14-0 lead and it appeared that the Mules had the game under control. Our defense was stuffing the Chargers and we had just put up touchdowns on the last two offensive drives. But things were about to change. After the Mules defense once again held the Chargers to a quick 3 and out, Yancy came back in to continue his leadership of the offense. On 1st down, as Yancy scrambled to his right, he was horse-collared with his left leg in an awkward position near Mules sidelines, causing him to dislocate his hip. This was an emotional blow to the Mules. It was also when Boerne Champion decided to throw the ball vs. run the ball. Up to that point the Chargers had had limited success running against the Mules defense. The 3rd quarter came to an end with the score still 14-0 Mules. The Chargers came out passing to begin the 4th quarter and quickly found an open receiver in the endzone and the Mules lead was cut to 14-7. Boerne was then able to quickly capitalize on a Mules fumble and the Chargers again went to the air, scoring on a 28 yard pass to tie the score 14-14 early in the 4th quarter. 
With time running in the 4th quarter the Mules defense stepped up once again and held the Chargers on a critical 4th and 1. Kevin Kujawa, helped out by Skylar Nelson, held the Charger running back to no gain, giving the Mules offense the ball on the Boerne 41 yard line. QB Dub Yarborough then led the Mules down field on six consecutive runs by Coby Bailey who punched it in from four yards out to give the Mules the lead again with only 3:00 minutes left on the clock. That should have taken the wind out of Boerne’s sails, but this is the playoffs and Boerne wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. After receiving the kickoff, the Chargers proceeded to drive the ball downfield behind the running and passing of Boerne QB, Kyle Poeske. Twice the Chargers converted on 4th down to keep the drive alive. With 54 seconds left on the clock, Poeske found an open receiver in the endzone to take the score to 21-20 Mules. Would Boerne go for the win on a two-point conversion attempt or would they kick the extra point and take their chances in overtime? The fans on both sides of the stadium waited in nervous anticipation. Boerne elected to kick the extra point. And as fate would have it, a seam opened in the line of scrimmage, which allowed Skylar Nelson to burst through the middle practically untouched. Nelson blocked the extra point! All the Mules had to do was take a knee and run out the clock. But the referees were determined to confuse the situation and stopped the clock after the Mules downed the ball on 2nd and 3rd down. So when all the Mules had to do to end the game was take a knee, they now found themselves punting the ball on 4th down because of the clock confusion. But again, fate was with the Mules, and Boerne Champion ran into Mules punter Zander Komet, drawing a roughing the kicker call which gave the Mules an automatic first down and one more play to end the game and take home the victory 21-20.Chirps From The Byrd – Head Coach Byrd, That Is:
Mule Fan: Congratulations on last Friday’s win against Boerne Champion! That was a close one!Coach Byrd: Yeah a little closer than I wanted it, but I wouldn't change a thing right now. I was real proud of the boys effort. Boerne always brings a lot of excitement when we play them. We used to be in the same district with Boerne before they split into two high schools. It's Boerne Champion now, but it's still the same community. They are a good team. They were 5-5, but they lost a lot of games when their quarterback was hurt. Defensively, they probably played their best game in a lot of ways. We weren't hitting on all cylinders and then when Yancy got hurt it threw us off for awhile. We knew we could run the ball the 2nd half but then we got a holding call that threw us off, and then we fumbled. That killed two of our drives in the 2nd half when we really needed those things to go. In the first half, we got a good turnover when we blocked the punt and Skylar caught it at the two. Then we made the two offsides and we couldn't get into the end zone. So we had some situations where we just didn't execute. But hey, we're still playing and that's a great thing. But it was a crazy game. And what a great finish when Skylar came in and did a great job blocking that kick at the end. It was a great overall effort. Kevin had a good game. Frankie Alvarez had a good game. I thought our offensive line all in all did a pretty nice job. It's kind of funny because especially on offense the week leading up to the game, we didn't have as good of a week as I wanted practice-wise. I think after the Boerne game they now see that it's for real. It’s like I told them yesterday; before the playoffs, half of the state has already put up their pads and then now half of the teams that are left have already put theirs up. At this point in the season you're not going to run into any bad teams. So if you don't want to practice hard, then you will also be putting away your pads as well. And this week we've had two good days of work. Dub hasn’t said much about it, but against Canyon he got his elbow hit pretty hard, and since then you can see that sometimes he's throwing the ball well and sometimes it takes off on him. It’s just been hard to rotate his arm. But he's through with that now and he's had two good days of throwing the ball this week. I'm proud of Dub. He's had a great year. And we're going to win with Dub. And I’m glad we’ve got a guy with experience. Yancys injury - boy I hated to see it. But what a great kid. What an outstanding kid. I'm so proud of where he has come since his freshman year to where he is this season. I’m so proud of him. There wasn't anything illegal about the tackle. The guys spun him around and kind of grabbed him by the neck, which some people say is a horse collar. But it wasn't that. He just got his foot caught funny when he got pulled around.
Mule Fan: What happened with the referees and the clock at the end of the Boerne game?
Coach Byrd: Well I got a page email from the timer up in the pressbox and he said a couple of times the box stuck and that they had some problems getting the clock to start. But I told the official that hey, that’s not our problem. And then that last call that the ref made I have never seen called before. The official said that after we downed the ball that our guys were getting up slow. Usually the official will momentarily stop the clock and wait for everyone to get up off the ground and then he will start the clock again. But the referee called an official timeout and wouldn’t start the clock again. That could have been a game changer. I kind of think personally that he was mad and he thought that the next play was third down. And so he called the timeout to show us he was boss and then when he realized it was 4th down, not third down, he looked pretty nervous out there. I have never seen that call before and I wasn’t happy about it. And I have since talked to other coaches and none have seen the official stop the clock and not restart it because of players getting up slow. But we got the roughing the kicker call on the next play, which I thought was his other bad call, because our kicker took a couple of extra steps which would have established him as a runner vs. a kicker. I think it was a makeup call. So we came out even (laugh).
Mule Fan: Do the guys seem confident this week?
Coach Byrd: I think so I really do. I think they see now that they could have done a lot better against Boerne if they had had better practices. And this week we've had two great days of practices. I think they got a good enough scare that they're going to practice harder, take the little things more seriously, play with more intensity realizing that their is no more safety net. If you get called for penalties and you give up some passes and give up some third and fourth downs and you don't punt the ball well, then they’re going to be putting their equipment up. But if they do those things right then they can continue to keep playing. I think the close game was good, I really do. I'm glad they got scared a little bit. I wouldn't say that they are scared, but I think they are now thinking that I’ve got to start taking care of all the details and I better realize all the little things. I’ve noticed this week that if they drop a ball in practice, they are a little harder on themselves. They are getting on the scout team to give them a better picture. You hear people say that when you get to the playoffs you got to take it to a higher level. You, the parents and fans see it on Friday night, but I see it on Monday and Tuesday's practices. I saw it this week. I saw a sense of urgency but with confidence. The kids have embraced Dub well, knowing that he's the guy and were going to win with him. And Dub has worked his rear off and he's a good quarterback. People have to make plays now. You can't go along playing steady football and continue to win games. Somebody has got to step up and make an interception or cause a fumble or block a kick. These games from here on out will probably be left up to four or five plays. You don't when those plays are going to occur and you don't know who's going to be in position to make them. So you gotta play with the mindset that some opportunity going to be in front of me and I need to take advantage of it. And the the boys are seeing that now. They are doing everything they can to play their best game on Friday.
Mule Fan: Tell us about this week’s opponent – Dripping Springs.
Coach Byrd: Dripping Springs is not very big but they're very quick. By contrast, Boerne Champion’s line was huge. I've learned over the years that you can’t really worry about the other team’s size. There is nothing we can do about it so you don't dwell on it. You just tell your guys that they have to play with more intensity and be quicker than them. Dripping Springs is a well-coached team. They play with a lot of intensity. They have a receiver, #3, that makes plays every game. He ran back a kick against Lake Travis. I saw him play against Cedar Park and he made some huge plays against them. He's a complete ball player. Their quarterback gets it done. He's not like the Boerne kid and he’s not going to make huge plays to beat you. But he’s going to get the ball in the right guys hands. Their offensive line blocks well, but they’re not real big and they’re not real physical. They’re not going to blow us off the line. Their defense is very quick. I mean they're very quick. Their two defensive ends, #43 and 30, are very athletic. They make a lot of plays. #25 in their defensive secondary, he's a safety, he's had seven interceptions. Their defense already has 19 interceptions in11 games. They are very athletic. They can really go up for the ball. We’ve got to make sure we don't throw the ball up for grabs, because these guys can come down with it. Their kicking game looks very adequate. They are probably not going to beat themselves; Alamo Heights is going to have to come out and execute better than they do. We can’t have turnovers and we’ve got to have guys that step up and make a play when the opportunity is there.
Mule Fan: How did we end up playing this week at Vandegrift Stadium, which is even north of Dripping Springs?
Coach Byrd: I didn’t want to play in Dripping Springs. We played Killen there a few years ago and you have to go through a parking lot to get to their dressing room facilities. And we were the home team and the facilities weren’t very good, so I can imagine what the visitor’s locker room is like. So we started looking for sites and I was pulling for Ferris Stadium here. I would have loved to play there. There is nothing good south of Austin. There are a couple of the inner city fields. They’re nice but their turf has some sand in the base of it and it’s harder than most fields and I didn’t want play on that. So the Dripping Springs coach offered Vandegrift. It’s a brand new stadium and it’s only 12 miles farther than Dripping Springs. So I agreed to Vandegrift and he agreed to Ferris and I lost the flip so were on the road again. The boys were bummed that we weren’t getting to play closer to home, but I said hey, you get to play in cool stadium and you get out of class earlier! So now they are all excited about that! So I’m back to being the hero I think on that one! It’s nice to play in nice stadiums.
Mule Fan: Thanks so much Coach and have a great game on Friday Night! Go beat Dripping Springs!
Looking Ahead:
AH Mules vs. Dripping Springs Tigers
Round 2 - Area Championships, Division II - 4A State Playoffs
Friday, November 18th - 7:30 PM
Vandegrift Stadium, Northwest Austin
Woa! Hold the phone! Don't make plans to leave town just yet for the Thanksgiving holidays. Our Mules are playing this Friday night at Vandegrift Stadium in northwest Austin against the Tigers of Dripping Springs in the Division II - 4A Area Championships! After an exciting win last week against Boerne Champion the Mules have had a great week of practice and are ready to tame the Tigers to keep advancing in the state playoffs. Dripping Springs comes from District 25-4A which includes the powerhouse teams of Lake Travis and Cedar Park. Vista Ridge, who the Mules played in Round Two of the playoffs last year is also from District 25-4A. So the Tigers are used to playing tough football, just like our Mules. They also have a matching season record of 8-3 (4-2 in district with their two losses coming from Lake Travis and Cedar Park). Last Friday, Dripping Springs beat Austin Lanier 48-0 in the first round of the playoffs. Offensive players to watch are #17, QB Kyle Johnson who leads the team in total yardage and receivers #7, Lane Kelley, and #3, Joey Herrick, a big-play receiver who is averaging 26 yards per reception. The Tigers also rely on running backs Derek McLemore #45 and Omar Pereyra #22, who have rushed for 542 yards and 521 yards respectively.
Dripping Springs runs a spread offense and they like to run a balanced attack of both running and passing. To date they have rushed for 1,571 yards and passed for 1,678 yards. That compares with 1,637 yards rushing and 2,093 yards passing for the Mules. Defensively, the Tigers are a very quick team that gets to the ball in a hurry. They have two very talented defensive ends and a strong secondary that has a nose for picking off passes.
It's Round 2 and every team at this point deserves to be in the playoffs. Fan support is a key and we encourage you to make the roadtrip to Austin to cheer on our Mules. We had a great turnout last week against Boerne Champion and we are looking for even greater fan support this week. We will see you there!
Go Mules! - Beat Dripping Springs!
Announcement:
Last week no one seemed to take my retirement announcement seriously as, so far, the Mule Fan has not received any suggestions for replacement volunteers. So if you Dads think that ignoring me will force me into staying on another year, that would be incorrect! This Mule Fan needs to hang up his cleats and hand the ball to someone with new and improved bull. So come on Dads - let us hear your voice! What a great opportunity to serve your school and become a rock star in your community. If you can't volunteer yourself, then at least secretly volunteer your friends! Send all suggestions to the Mule Fan at jeff@baileycommercial.com
Go Mules!
