Mules Take Care of
Business with 52-20 Take Down of Lockhart
-Prepare for renewal of San Marcos
series ON THURSDAY OCTOBER 2
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| Photos courtesy of Mary Candee http://dulcedesigns.photreflect.com |
By
Bob Cohen, Sr. Rain Soaked Editor
(San Antonio)—Nobody likes to face
a capable team that has just come off of a stunner of a loss. But Lockhart drew that straw this week
and never would the straw have felt shorter than after a first half of an
efficient Mules offensive scissoring and having a fired up defense with all its
senses about it declawing the Lions’ ultra-traditional (only unconventional by
today’s standards) wing T offense.
The Mules stuffed 31 first half points down Lockhart’s throat in a
consistent downpour and went on to win 52-20 moving their season record to 3-2, 2-1 in district play at the halfway mark of the regular season schedule.
The Mules shook off last week’s
wrenching loss to Boerne Champion with determination in spite of tough game time weather conditions. This reporter
will have to resort to memory for this post because for the most part, the
notebook we keep at games turned to pulp by the second quarter. Management was nowhere to be seen after
yours truly asked if they would go to CVS at the half and pick up another
one. They declined saying they
didn’t know how to get there.
Typical. We have dealt with
this sort of unresponsive and unfeeling management for all the years this rag
has been written. So we resorted
to repeating the notes a lot until they were memorized.
What can be made out in our notes
is that Alamo Heights began making its point on the first play from scrimmage
which was a Dalton Banks keeper around right end from his own 38 yard line
hauling it the distance for a 62 yard touchdown and early lead 7-0 after the
Cameron Dawley PAT. That play by the way was nominated for http://news4sanantonio.com/sports/features/high-school/#.VClLeSfk9J8 play of the week (go vote for it!). The weather
played a role in Lockhart’s attempted response when it fumbled the first of
four times on its second play.
Defensive lineman Brandon Peterson fell on the ball setting up the Mules
on Lockhart’s 38. The Mules capitalized quickly. Dalton Banks settled in comfortably behind good protection
and drilled a pass to tight end Greer Shetler for a 25-yard touchdown. On the next possession, Lockhart
struggled again with a wet ball.
The Mules defense bottled up the Lions forcing a punt attempt, which
never occurred after the long snap was airmailed over the punter’s head. Alamo Heights picked up the action on
Lockhart’s 15-yard line and two plays later Banks took it in again. Once Dawley tacked on the PAT, the
Mules had scored three times in five minutes.
Alamo Heights had its own problems
with ball security in the second quarter with some dropsies but no damage was
done. The Mules scored twice more
as the rain continued. Banks finished
off a read draw from 18 yards out.
This after linebacker Trevor Bagg recovered a Lockhart fumble on the
18. Bagg also kept a drive alive
earlier in the quarter getting a first down on a fake punt snap, which went to
him for the effort to convert.
Dawley added a 25-yard field goal to the total before going in to towel
off.
Mule starters had a little more
work to do in the second half. The
rain seemed to let up at halftime but resumed as the ball was kicked off to
begin the second half. In spite of
a wet ball, Alamo Heights was still able to strike from the air. Two touchdown passes to senior receiver
Colton Courtney of 28 and 45 yards in the third quarter assured that reserves
were able to get some action and those substitutions began wholesale as the
third quarter ticked down. It
really wasn’t until Lockhart decided to hand the ball consistently to their
huge running back Curtis Hawkins that they made any real progress with their
offense. Hawkins quickly scored
twice on lumbering runs late in the third and early fourth period. He ran for 143 yards on 25 carries for
the night. Alamo Heights managed
one more score on a seven yard Grant Biggs run as did Lockhart before everyone
could call it a night. The stats
are deceiving. Lockhart led in first
downs 16-10 but obviously the Mules didn’t need as many. Only one of its seven touchdowns was
from inside of the 10-yard line.
While not expecting to see much Lion passing, the Mules defense was able
to hold them to 68 yards in the air and Mitchell Abramson managed to pick off
one of the Lion passing attempts to add to his total.
Dalton Banks led the Mules with 135
yards rushing and three touchdowns to go with his five of 11 passing
performance, 126 yards and two TD’s.
Alamo Heights again spread the rushing around to five players to put up
238 yards. There were seven
turnovers in the game and Alamo Heights got possession on four of them.
NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU ARE AWARE AND
TELL EVERYONE WHO CARES THAT THE GAME FOR THIS WEEK, ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR
FRIDAY OCTOBER 3 HAS BEEN CHANGED TO THURSDAY OCTOBER 2 OWING TO CONSTRUCTION
DELAYS AT SAN MARCOS’ NEW STADIUM.
SO THE MULES WILL STILL TRAVEL TO SAN MARCOS BUT WILL PLAY AT BOBCAT
STADIUM ON THE CAMPUS OF TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY ON THURSDAY AT 7:30PM. SAN MARCOS IS THE ONLY TEAM THE MULES
HAVE PLAYED AT BOBCAT STADIUM THROUGH THE YEARS DURING THE REGULAR SEASON ALTHOUGH
AS YOU KNOW, IT HAS BEEN THE SITE OF SEVERAL MEANINGFUL PLAYOFF APPEARANCES
INCLUDING THE ELIMINATION GAME LAST SEASON. THIS ONE WON’T BE AS COLD AS THE LAST TWO.
Mule Fan: What impressed you most about the preparation this past week
and the way the team responded on Friday against Lockhart?
Coach Norment: We had a really good week of practice. I think the kids realized we needed a
better week of practice and needed to work on things that we talked about. The coaches did the same thing. We had to up our game as well, stay
after the kids and make sure they were doing everything right. When they weren’t, we had to motivate
them to do it right. The coaching
staff and the kids responded really well.
We were fortunate to jump on Lockhart early and that sort of set the
tone.
Mule Fan:
Everyone knows the weather was a mess. But you’ve said that Alamo Heights likes playing in the rain
and your guys are confident playing in those conditions. Why is that?
Coach Norment:
I wish I could tell you. I
just think we’ve done a good job of brainwashing them. But they really feel confident. One thing is that we’ll practice in the
rain. A lot of teams have indoor
facilities. The only time we come
off of that practice field is if there is lightning. As a matter of fact, about a month ago a rainstorm blew in
with rain blowing sideways. We didn’t come in. The offense was practicing with slick footballs. I can control a lot of things but I
can’t control whether it’s raining or not. We want the kids to feel confidant and that we can go out
there and execute.
Mule Fan: The stat
sheet from the Lockhart game doesn’t look as one-sided as the score but doesn’t
that come from your efficiency?
Coach Norment: Several times we had short fields because the
defense gave us great field position.
At the same time, they got a lot of yards in the second half when we had
the game in hand. We got playing time for a lot of young kids and backups. They kept their starters in so they got
some yards late. But even then we
did a great job of playing how we’re supposed to. We were a step late at times but that was expected for a
sophomore or junior that hasn’t gotten as much playing time. Sometimes stats are misleading and this
is one of those times. We had a
great effort from start to finish.
Coach Norment:
They did a great job. There were only a couple of times that they were
able to break a couple of long runs.
And on one of those runs they showed us a different look than we had
seen. The second or third time
they ran it we did a much better job because we were able to make an adjustment
during the game. So I thought we
did a great job of pushing the line of scrimmage back to cause them some
problems in the blocking schemes. They
did a great job of preparing and executing the game plan.
Mule Fan:
Speaking of San Marcos, they’re up next and it’s a short week. Do you give up anything in preparation
or just compress it?
Coach Norment: It’s compressed. You can’t get everything in. There are a couple of things
that we’re not going to be able to go over as much as we’d like. But San Marcos is in the same
boat. We made today’s practice
(Monday) a little bit longer to try and get some things in. And we combined Monday into Tuesday and
Wednesday practice. We’ll do a little bit more on Wednesday and Thursday a
little bit more during fourth period than we usually do. We’ll miss some things but overall we’re
getting most of the things in and we’ll pick out the most important things.
Mule Fan: So let’s break into San Marcos a little. Again, it’s a ball control running
offense. What do you expect this week?
Coach Norment: They have a great running back and a really
good quarterback. The quarterback
(David Hamilton) might be the best athlete in the district. He’s their leading
rusher so the offense goes through him.
They’ll do a lot of jet sweep motion and then he’ll keep the ball or
hand it off. That’s mostly their offense. Defensively they’ve changed a little
bit. They’ve gotten much better the last two weeks. They fly around to the
football. They won’t blitz a lot but they’ll choose their times. It’s going to
be a good game.
Mule Fan: Does it feel like you are halfway through the regular
season?
Coach Norment: It seems like it was yesterday that we
started and it also seems like a year ago. I tell the guys we’re only guaranteed five more games. If we want to earn that sixth game we’ve
got to keep on playing good.
Mules Among Area Leaders
In the SA Express News Sub-6A rankings, it's 1. Boerne Chammpion 2. Alamo Heights 3. Kerrville Tivy with no change from a week ago. Dalton Banks moves to #2 in total offense with 1627 yards and 4th in passing with 1306 yards. The Mules have three of the top 13 receivers in number of catches - Courtney #8 with 24, Ford #12 with 22 and Shetler #13 with 21. In receiving yards the Mules have three of the top 15 with Shetler #7, Courtney #12 and Ford #15.
Poached Ham:
That’s what we’ll serve this week.
The hams got a little soggy on Friday but still are nummy nummy. Heck we hear tell that you can even get a ham slush at Sonic during Easter! Quarterback Dalton Banks gets
something to gnaw on this week.
With conditions less than swell, Banks took care of the ball, made key
runs when he needed to and took advantage of excellent protection with a solid
and efficient passing attack. His
production on the ground was almost half of the Mules rushing offense. In the air, Banks totaled 98 of his 126
yards passing on touchdown throws.
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| Photos courtesy of Mary Candee http://ducledesigns.photreflect.com |
District 27-5A
Scores
Lockhart 20 Alamo Heights 52
Boerne Champion 31 Floresville 14
Kerrville Tivy 64 Kenedy 7
San Marcos 38 Memorial 6
Seguin idle
District 27-5A
Standings
Boerne Champion 3-0
Kerrville Tivy
2-0
Alamo Heights 2-1
Lockhart 2-1
San Marcos 1-1
Seguin 1-1
Floresville 1-2
Kennedy 0-3
Memorial 0-3
San Marcos Notes: The Rattlers enter the game with a 2-2
overall record to go with their 1-1 district mark…San Marcos is primarily a
running team. Junior quarterback
David Hamilton leads attack with 833 yards rushing. He’s only thrown one touchdown pass all season (played in
three games) going 35-60. Hamilton
also plays baseball….San Marcos averages 305.8 yards rushing per game and 92.8 yards
receiving and 31.8 points per game…The Rattlers finished 4-6 in 2013 (1-6 in District 25-5A) and haven’t finished above .500
since 2006 (8-6)… Their last playoff appearance was in 2007 in the Class 5A Division II first round…San Marcos returned four offensive starters and two on defense...The Rattlers were a
former district rival of the Mules but have been away for a few years. The last meeting with the Mules was in October
of 2009 with Alamo Heights securing a 23-22 win at Harry Orem Stadium…All
recent meetings with San Marcos have been at Texas State’s Bobcat Stadium.
Ticket
Information:
Tickets for THURSDAY’S District 27-5A matchup with San
Marcos will be available at the Alamo Heights Athletic office as usual. Patty Juarez will follow this schedule:
Tuesday and Wednesday hours are 8:30am-12:00pm and
1:30pm-3:00pm. On Wednesday she'll also be selling at the JV game at the stadium from 4:00pm-6:30pm. Thursday selling time is 8:30am-3:00pm. Ticket prices are $6 for adults and $3 for students in
advance and $7 at the gate on game night.
Cliché’ Corner
Cuz nawlige wins
aarghumints.
Which one is the football cliché or term?
A. Jump the route
B.
Wingtip
C.
Two stroke engine oil
Answer: A. when a defensive back positions himself in front
of the receiver in anticipation of the pass coming to a particular spot
Mules on Radio
KBUC 92.5FM is where you hear Mules Football or online at www.tsrnsports.com.
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