Alamo Heights 42 Kyle Lehman 35 October 11, 2013

Mules Step on Gas to Take Care of Business in Kyle in 42-35 Drama

- Alamo Heights remains unbeaten in district play to maintain share at the top of the table

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(Kyle, Texas)—It took a half to sort out the combination, but the Mules cracked the code last Friday at Bob Shelton Stadium against a scrappy Kyle Lehman Lobo team with a gritty 42-35 performance ran their win streak to five games and kept them atop District 27-4A.  A halftime regroup and a jolt of second half voltage from the Mules proven formula of execution in the “three phases” of the game put a stop to Lehman’s surge. 

Photos courtesy of Mary Candee-Dulce Design Photography

The Lobos’ offense woke up for the first time this season in the first half against the Mules as they put up tough rushing yardage from quarterback Jeremy Schilhab and running back Malcom Turner en route to 21 first half points which was a touchdown more than their game average to that point of the season.  It didn’t start that way as Mules defensive back Tommy Tyng stopped the Lobo’s opening drive with an interception.  A short time later the Mules got on the board as special teams collected another merit badge when Robert Schuler returned a Lobo punt 79 yards for the Mules first score.  AH’s QB Dalton Banks and receiver Scotty Uhl linked up for an 18-yard post route TD early in the second quarter.  Lehman capitalized on three grinding first half drives out of an offensive set, which the Mules had not seen in scouting film, and a recovery of a muffed punt to take the halftime lead. 

Mary Candee doesn't use an iPhone for these shots!

A collection was taken up from the Mules’ faithful in the stands at Bob Shelton Stadium for a quick run to the firefighter supply store to buy some flame-retardant suits for the players in anticipation of a ‘not so festive’ halftime Alamo Heights locker room.  This is a textbook example of how armchair quarterbacking can get you into trouble.   What the Mules had encountered in this first half was a sneak attack from the Lobos who ran out of defensive AND offensive sets that they had not used all season.  So Alamo Heights had to adjust on the fly to knuckle balls and splitters out of what had appeared to be an “all fastball staff.” (Sorry for the mixed sport metaphors.  It’s MLB playoff time and it leaks into our every move.) This was not easy to spot for the average fan let alone people who had been tailgating for an hour and a half.  Indeed it took a fascinating Monday Film Night to enlighten us all. Alas, (Note: Mule Fan editors have never been permitted by management to use the word ‘alas’ in our writing just after using an ‘indeed’ so there is some risk now of punitive action up to and including suspension from these dumb yutzes for whom we toil.) a quick survey of the players was conducted which revealed a rare case of “bus lag” and “what the…” after the arduous journey up IH 35 and high jinks and trickery from these near-Austinites.

Clearly the AH coaching staff made the right adjustments and any Mules’ cobwebs were shooed away for some field level lightning in the second half.  Lehman successfully game planned a way to close off Byron Proctor’s running productivity in the first half.  However Proctor dialed up four second half touchdowns including runs of 30 and 45 yards on his way to another triple digit rushing night of 112 yards on 10 carries.  One of Proctor’s short touchdowns came after a breathtaking deep throw and catch from Banks to Scotty Uhl that finished on the Lobos 2-yard line.

The second half was an impressive air show for Alamo Heights.  The offensive line provided good protection as Banks used an array of underneath routes mixed with some sneaky deep balls to push out big yardage and controlling drives.  Banks finished the night with an impressive line of 18 for 23 attempts for 364 yards and a TD.  Big receiving nights were had by Scotty Uhl with seven catches for 131 yards including the aforementioned second half dazzler, tight end Christian Lalinde four catches for 117 yards and Robert Schuler’s four for 69.

Defensively the Mules got a lot of players into the game particularly in the second half including some young fresh faces. Defensive end Ben McSween had a huge second half sack coming off the edge with Lehman facing 3^rd & 6 late in the game which preceded one of the Mules big offensive drives. Rocky Tips was in on many stops.  Mule Fan observers were also impressed with defensive lineman Juan Alvarez and a less than gentle body slam of a Lobo runner. We don’t remember which half it occurred in but this is why mouth guards were invented-we are sure of it.   Jacob Clifone was an ingredient in many pileups. 

So a gutsy fifth straight win under some challenging circumstances and the Mules move to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in district play. 

“His Inside Voice” 

A weekly discussion with Coach Mike Norment

Mule Fan:  The Mules pulled off an impressive come from behind win last Friday.  You told some of us at Film Night that what Lehman presented to you on the field from the very start of the game was different than what you had seen in film and prepared for all week.  How so?

Coach Norment:  You get film and prepare for a team based on what they have done in their five previous games.  Offensively they lined up differently lining up foot-to-foot.  They put all of their big guys on the offensive line and they decided they were going to pound the ball, which is a little bit different from what they had shown.  It took the defense a while to adjust to that.  On defense they ran a 4-3 with four down lineman and three linebackers and had been playing more zone and they come out basically a 3-4 playing man defense and it took us a while to adjust to that.  So it took the coaches and the kids a few series to figure out what was going on and get the adjustments.  Definitely in the second half we did a much better job of making those adjustments and both offensively and defensively played much better.

Mule Fan: With only 25 seconds in between plays, how hard is it to make those changes on the fly while you’re in the middle of a half of football and they’ve put different sets out on the field than what you’ve prepared for?

Coach Norment:  Well you don’t do a whole lot of that while you’re on the field.  When you get them off to the sideline you’re trying to draw up some things real quick and really until you see a lot of different things you’re thinking “okay this is what they showed just then”.  You’re not sure.  So that’s why we’re making the big bucks because we can make the adjustments on the sideline and the coaches did a great job of conveying that to the kids.  We’re fortunate here at Alamo Heights that we have some smart kids that can pick it up pretty quick.  We were able to make those adjustments and come back and play much better.

Mule Fan:  For those of us in the stands, we were envisioning a different atmosphere in the halftime locker room than what was really probably happening which were more discussions, coaching and just catching up with what was going on out there in the first half.  Talk about what went on at halftime to make these changes.

Coach Norment:  At halftime, I didn’t need to get loud.  We had to get their focus back.  We’re also dealing with 16, 17 and 18 year olds.  They read scoreboards and they see that maybe Lehman wasn’t as highly thought of.  I’d been reminding them all week that these guys were good and you’d better not take anybody for granted.  I think there was a little bit of that.  You’ve got to take your hats off to Lehman.  They had a great game plan and they executed it pretty well in the first half and even parts of the second half.  What I like is that the kids did figure it out.  They did learn.  They played much harder with better technique in the second half.  It was a great win and a come from behind victory on the road.

Mule Fan:  Just to add to what you said about the game plan, clearly they were not going to let Byron Proctor beat them with the running game.  How did you finally break him loose in the second half because they had success shutting off the running game?

Coach Norment:  They were sending a lot of people to the outside.  So we decided that we were going to kick out their defensive ends and run inside.  We ran that a couple of times in the second half and had great success.  Also we just spread the ball out.  We went to a no back offense and spread them out a little bit and were able to throw and catch pretty well and move the ball up and down the field.

Mule Fan:  You’ve talked about overcoming adversity and to make these kinds of adjustments in a hard fought game against a team that was a lot bigger than the Mules.  How does a game like this help their confidence and what did you say to them after the game?

Coach Norment:  At halftime I said we were going to find out a lot about this team in the second half.  And I meant it.  I was insinuating that we were going to find out if you are able to suck it up and make the adjustments that we had been talking about and they did.  So they learned that they could when they have to.  Defense can “bow up” and get some stops even though they had a hard time doing that in the first half.  And offense was struggling a little bit and they did a great job in the second half, with the exception of one series, of going down the field and scoring and scoring quickly since we were behind.  So it can’t do anything but get their get their confidence up so that if we’re faced with a situation like this in the future we won’t feel apprehensive because we’ve been there before.

Mule Fan:  Let’s look at Tivy now.  Everyone knows our history with Kerrville as being one of our rivals.  We’re at home.  A win for the Mules will go a long way towards setting us up for a stretch to the playoffs.  They’ll be trying to get back to .500 in district.  What do the Mules need to do to keep them in the bottom half of the standings?

Coach Norment: We’re going to have to continue to get better and not make mistakes on offense. We were fortunate to get a win last week.  There were a couple of series we didn’t execute very well on offense.  Defense we’ll have to do a much better job on first down than we did against Lehman.  We got a touchdown on the kicking game, which was huge.  We’re going to have to continue to win the kicking game.  We’re just going to have to play hard because Tivy is going to come in here and probably give us their best game because they’re fighting of their playoff life so we’ll have to expect their best game and we’ll have to match their intensity. 

Photos by Mary Candee-Dulce Design Photography
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Mule Fan:  They have a lot of experience coming back on defense.  Is that their strength?

Coach Norment:  Defense does have a lot of people coming back.  Offense has struggled at times but in the last two games they’ve put up a lot of points. They beat Hays in a close game and lost to Boerne in a close game.  So they’ve put up some points in the last two weeks since they settled on a quarterback.  We’re going to have to play good defensively to slow them down.

MULE HOST KERRVILLE TIVY ON OCTOBER 18  7:30 P.M. 

These folks were missing from our schedule for a few years but it is our duty to remind the Mule Nation that we don’t like these hill country people too much either.  Your aging Mule Fan staff was around for some tasty wins including a big smash up here at home (maybe the last time we had them here in the big city) and a 2-0 record over that Heisman winner that plays for Texas A & M and is quick on the draw with a Sharpie.  Oh yes, and we haven’t forgotten the ripening dead animal strategically placed underneath our visitor stands one Halloween evening at their place and the band blaring at our offense from their end zone seats while former Mules QB Drew Allen stuffed a game winning drive down their gullets.  But that is all behind us and this is a new era and this game is a biggie.  Let’s be inclusive and welcoming to our guests with a large cheering throng and let the boys take care of the dirty work.

Freshmen will be playing Kerrville Tivy at 5:00 and 6:30 at Harry B. Orem on Thursday.  JV will be up at Antler Stadium in Kerrville at 5:00p.m.  Please drive safely.

Mule Notes:

Sub-5A area rankings have the Mules at #3 this week with 27-4A mates Clemens second and Boerne Champion at #4.  Brennan maintains the top spot…Running back Byron Proctor is 17^th in area rushing with 712 yards averaging 9.6 yards per carry and is second in area scoring with 15 touchdowns and 90 points…QB Dalton Banks is 15^th in total offense with 1,541 yards…Receiver Robert Schuler is 7^th in total receptions with 33 and 10.9 yards per reception.

Tivy Notes:

The Antlers are 2-4 overall and 1-2 in district.  Their wins have been against Hays and Del Rio. But they have taken on some tough 5A opponents like Steele and Madison.  So that record may be somewhat misleading.  They will be looking to stay in the playoff chase.

Shaw Urges Mule Fans to Cheer Louder on First Down:

Mules PA announcer Rick Shaw has expressed some concern that his signature “first down” calls are not getting appropriate participation from the home crowd.  After the last game, Mule Fan staff caught Shaw rubbing his temples with frustration while sipping his rheumatiz medicine (as Granny Clampitt used to say on Beverly Hillbillies).  We can do better.  We must do better.  Rick gets paid either way but we can’t let doubt seep into his world after all these years.  He’s done these calls for the Queen after all.  He knows only excellence.  Step up Mule nation.  If Shaw walks out on us now, only nuclear winter awaits.

Other October 11 District 27-4A Results

Buda Hays 38 Lockhart 37

Boerne Champion 25  Kerrville Tivy 23

Clemens 24  Seguin 13

District 27-4A Standings

Alamo Heights        3-0

Clemens                    3-0

Buda Hays                2-1

Boerne Champion  2-1

Lockhart                   1-2

Kerrville Tivy         1-2

Seguin                       1-2

Kyle Lehman           0-3

Upcoming District 27-4A Schedule

Seguin at Kyle Lehman (October 17)

Clemens at Buda Hays (October 18)

Lockhart at Boerne Champion (October 18)

Kerrville Tivy at Alamo Heights (October 18)

This Week’s Canned Ham Award(s)

- Three hams shipped this week

Time to pass around some pork.  This week we have multiple winners because after all, we make the rules around here so we can have more than one winner if we wanna.  Mules offense is in the pink this week.  Senior receiver Scotty Uhl was impressive in the win as detailed above along with his battery mate QB Dalton Banks who also was cool and collected in victory.  So both of these boys need to stand at ready with a ring of pineapple and some cloves. In the brief 12-day history of the Alamo Heights Canned Ham award, nobody has ever won more than one.  Until now.  Sometimes, too much sodium is not so good.  Unless it is not really being consumed.  So we threw away caution to bestow another Canned Ham on Mules running back Byron Proctor who overcame a straight-jacketed first half and put up another 100 yard game and four scores.  Congratulations boys and don’t forget to refrigerate after opening!

Cliché Corner – Cuz learnin’ is gud!

Impress your friends; baffle your enemies with all this nawlidge.

Choose the football cliché.

A.  Pay Dirt    B. Poodle Skirt

Answer:  A. The end zone

10th Annual Fenley Trophy Golf Tournament

An important fundraiser takes place on Friday, October 25 at the Quarry Golf Club with an 8:00am start.  Proceeds of the four-person scramble tournament support AHHS sports including football, golf, basketball, tennis, volleyball, swimming, track, cheerleading, baseball, softball and soccer.  Winning teams have their names etched on the Fenley Trophy and will be recognized at an upcoming varsity football game.  A variety of support levels await you if you contact one of many tournament directors for more details.  There are seven different people we could tell you to call but to make it easier we'll just list the guy to whom checks must be delivered which is 

Carter Thurmond 889-6259...carter@cometsigns.com

Go Mules!!!!!