Alamo Heights Secures Convincing Homecoming Win Over Seguin Matadors 31-9
-Ground
Game Effective in Victory
-Road
Game Next at Memorial
 |
(San
Antonio)—Alamo Heights stayed unbeaten at home on Friday with an important 31-9
district victory over the Seguin Matadors at Harry B. Orem Stadium. The Mules used a highly effective
ground game to keep possession of the football for long stretches and scored on
the ground, through the air and with field goals to secure their fourth
district win and fifth overall (5-2, 4-1). In addition, a smothering defense limited the Matadors to 12
first downs and recovered two of three fumbles. They held Seguin’s talented quarterback Henry Young, who
thinks run first, to one touchdown pass late in the game with the game’s result
no longer in question and kept all 103 of his rushing yards from ending in the
end zone.  |
| All photos courtesy of Mary Candee http://dulcedesigns.photoreflect.com |
As
mentioned in this space a week ago, the Mules young offensive backfield of
Deryl Reynolds and Brendon McClinton have been making impressive progress this
season and had their best game of the year against a team that features a lot
of large boys. Reynolds carried 23
times for 126 yards and scored the Mules first touchdown on a five-yard run in
the second quarter. Reynolds and
Brendon McClinton platooned as they have all season. Both were effective. McClinton added 109 yards on 13
carries. Mule drives were
methodical and the offense moved the chains for 27 first downs with not a
single punt necessary all night.
Quarterback Dalton Banks chipped in 73 rushing yards and a rushing
touchdown of his own just as the second half got underway on a 12 yard
run. Banks passed when necessary
but that was only 23 times for which he connected 13 times for 141 yards and
connected for two touchdowns, a 22 yarder to Greer Shetler and a short two-yard
strike to Zach Ford.
Again
Alamo Heights was able to get some earned playing time for backup players
although not all of that news was good as the injury bug continues to bite the
Mules hard particularly on offense.
The Mules will get an off week soon to help get some players
healthy. But in the meantime, some
younger players are getting their shot in games that matter as the Mules head
into their stretch run.
“His Inside Voice”
A weekly conversation with Mules head coach Mike Norment
Mule Fan:
Friday was a good business-like district win for the Mules against one
of the bigger teams you’ve faced this season. The guys seemed to handle it well offensively and
defensively in particular with their big offensive line. How did it grade out in your analysis?
Coach Norment: The defense played really well. We contained an explosive offense. Seguin is a team that has a brand new
coach and they are getting better each week. They were definitely improved from what we saw on film
earlier in the year. Offensively
most times we were clicking and taking what the defense gave us and the defense
was giving us the run so we ran the ball definitely a lot more than we threw. That’s something that we’re going to
do. I was very happy with the offensive
line and the offense on the whole.
And like I said, the defense played well and contained an explosive
offense. So towards the end of the
game we had some backups in, and we want to get our backups in as much as
possible, because they’ve earned it.
They work hard every week and we’re trying to get them ready so in case
something happens to the person in front of them, they’re ready to step into
the game.
Mule Fan: One
of the story lines is how the running game is being used more and how it is developing. One of the positions that completely
turned over from last season bringing back no varsity experience was at running
back. McClinton and Reynolds both
had over 100 yards and Banks got three quarters of the way there. What were the highlights to the running
game from your perspective and the key to the effectiveness of the running game
on Friday?
Coach Norment:
Well there were a couple of things. First of all, the offensive line has
done a really good job over the last few weeks of really realizing that they
have to come off the ball harder, lower, stay on the blocks, stay square and
they’ve done a much better job of that.
At the same time, the running backs have gotten much better at really
pressing the hole and then hitting that crease really hard and exploding
through it and then start to make some cuts. So it’s a combination of those things and then having the
threat of the throw that make defenses a little leery about coming up too
quick.
Mule Fan:
Everybody expects Alamo Heights to pass and pass well. But how important is establishing the
run for Alamo Heights as we hit the stretch run and move towards the playoffs?
Coach Norment:
Sometimes the quarterback is going to be off or a receiver is going to
drop and you just don’t know what is going to happen. So the passing game is not one of those things that is a
hundred percent all the time. But
if you can run the ball you can put pressure on a defense. Every year that we’ve been successful
here at Alamo Heights, we’ve been able to run the ball.
Mule Fan: The
injury situation has meant that there are guys getting playing time and even on
the varsity roster that probably wouldn’t have imagined it in the summer as
they prepared. You’ve always
talked about the “next man up.” I expect you have some real believers in that
locker room now.
Coach Norment:
I think it started last year because we had several situations last year
where that happened. That’s
something we preached all off-season and we’ll do it again this coming
off-season. We have real life
examples. They can sit there and say they don’t know what this coach is talking
about. We can show them a guy who
was second-string junior varsity and is now getting varsity reps. It is a
mentality that “I better practice hard because when my time comes, I’d better
be ready so I don’t let the team down.”
Mule Fan:
Memorial is up next and they’ve really struggled this season but it is a
district game and all district games are important obviously. What will you see this week and what will
your approach be to try to win this game?
Coach Norment:
We’ve been following Memorial, which means that the team that we play
next will have played Memorial the week before they play us. We’ve seen a lot of film on Memorial. And they’ve gotten better. They have
some good athletes. They play hard.
They have some good schemes.
So we have to go into the game prepared to play hard and get after it
because if we don’t, it could make Memorial’s season to be able to play with us
or beat us. So we have to go into
the game with the mentality that we have to play really good for four quarters
to able to beat Memorial. They
were off last week so they’ve had two weeks to prepare for us. So that’s something else you have to be
aware of. They’ve had two weeks to come up with what they want to do to Alamo
Heights.
District 27-5A
Scores
Floresville 42 San Marcos 35
Boerne Champion 49 Kennedy 0
Kerrville Tivy 62 Lockhart 10
Memorial idle.
District 27-5A
Standings
Boerne Champion
5-0
Alamo Heights
4-1
Kerrville Tivy
3-1
Lockhart 3-2
Seguin 2-2
Floresville 2-3
San Marcos 1-3
Kennedy 0-4
Memorial 0-4
Area Leaders
No big changes here.
SA Express-News sub-6A area rankings are still 1. Boerne Champion
(wouldn’t you like another crack at them?) 2. Your heroes 3. Kerrville Tivy…Quarterback Dalton
Banks ranks #4 in total offense with 2,098 yards and 6th in area
passing…Mule receivers among leaders are #13 Zach Ford (31), #15 Greer Shetler
(28), #18 Colton Courtney (27)…Shetler is also 10th in receiving
yards.
Memorial Notes: The Minutemen were 3-7 and 1-6
in District play in 2013 and have won only seven games in the last 10 years.
Their last playoff appearance was a first round appearance in 1999…The Mules
are 2-0 all time vs. Memorial and last faced the Minutemen in 2007 which was a
55-0 victory for Alamo Heights…Memorial is averaging 14 points per game and
allowing an average of 45 points per game…They had 11 returning lettermen from
last year’s squad, four on offense and five on defense.
 |
| This picture was not taken by Mary Candee. But she wishes she did. Now that's art! |
Give this Week’s
Winners a Ham!
We’re going to stick with the running back theme for our
porkuliciousness this week.
Sophomore running back Deryl Reynolds and junior running back Brendon
McClinton had their best games against Seguin with a big assist from an
offensive line that opened up some nice breezy holes to run through. See the game story above for their
stats but this reporter can’t remember when two backs pulled off 100-yard games
in the same night for the Mules when one of the backs was not the
quarterback. Admittedly, this
reporter hasn’t done much research on the subject and it is possible that the
memory is failing us but what the heck.
It was a heck of a game for these two young men and ham they should
have.
Dine Out Day
Go and eat or take out at Cheesy Janes this Thursday October
16th because 25% of all sales go to Alamo Heights Football. You know where it is but just in case,
it’s on Broadway and Hildebrand.
 |
| All photos courtesy of Mary Candee http://dulcedesigns.photoreflect.com |
Road Trip Tickets
The Mules play across town this Friday against Memorial at
7:30 at Edgewood Veterans Stadium, 1650 W. Thompson Place, San Antonio 78226
(former Frank Mata Stadium). Tickets
are available in advance from the Alamo Heights Athletic office for $5 for
adults and $3 for students. Price
for admission is $5 at the gate for all tickets. Selling hours this week are Wednesday-Friday 8:30am-12:00pm
and 1:30pm-3:00pm. On Thursday
Patty Juarez will also be selling tickets at the JV game at Harry Orem Stadium
from 4:30pm-6:00pm. The JV game
begins at 5:30pm.
Cliché’ Corner
Cuz lurnin’ means a
lot to ur fewchur.
Identify the football cliché.
A.
Pin their ears back
B.
Pinterest
C.
Pen a sonnet
Answer: (Ever wonder why we don’t turn these answers upside
down like some quizzes do?) A. Pin their ears back – this is coach speak. Analogy to what a horse does when
they’re on a sprint and focused on nothing but going in the direction they want
to go and fast. Use in a sentence:
“They have to decide they have the ‘want-to’ to go out and pin their ears back
and put a lick on somebody.”
Mules on Radio
KBUC-FM 92.5 is where you hear Mules football on the radio
or online at www.tsrnsports.com with Ed
Suarez, Dave Parker and Albert Gonzalez.
They’ll be there to describe the action, give you all the numbers and
the analysis you need to feel like you are there if you can’t be or even if you
can be or if you just like the sound of their voices, that’s nice too.
No comments:
Post a Comment
The Mule Fan would like to hear your thoughts and comments!