Alamo Heights 63, Kennedy Rockets 7 September 11, 2015

Mules Notch First District Win with 63-7 Trouncing of Kennedy Rockets

            -Await Boerne Champion in Rivalry Rematch

                     By Bob Cohen, Senior Editor-in-Sneaks

            (San Antonio)—In an unbalanced district like 27-5A, some district victories are going to be hard-fought and other matchups will produce other benefits like getting a lot of players well-deserved time on the field.  The Mules took care of business early against the Kennedy Rockets with a dominating performance by the offensive line allowing anything the Alamo Heights offense wanted to do, special team play for the highlight reel and a suffocating defense that forced nothing but wobbly pooch punts.  It was a game where the first team offense had their feet up with just under five minutes to go in the second quarter, followed soon after by the first defense clocking out.  The Mules continued to pound the Rockets throughout the night scoring on all but one possession, falling short after losing a fumble on Kennedy’s one-yard line. Coach Norment eventually emptied the bench as the Mules plastered the Kennedy Rockets for a lopsided 63-7 win to start off 1-0 in district play.

            The evening started in dramatic fashion as Kennedy took three shots at getting the opening kickoff in bounds. On his third try, Kennedy’s kicker got into one and drove it deep to the Mules 10.  Freshman Nik Proctor stood back to field a high hop and flashed up field, put on perfect cut left a his own 37 and sailed the rest of the way to get the Mules on the board and a 95 yard dazzler. 

The Mules defense would force the first of five Rocket punts on the next possession to give Alamo Heights’ offense its first chance to run.  It quickly finished a drive when quarterback Jack Woodland spotted Antoine Cole slanting to the back of the end zone and laid it in for a 14 yard pass and scoring catch. 

Again on the following drive, the Mules defense was stingy forcing another Rocket punt on fourth and nine from their own 25.  Kennedy’s punter squeezed off a rugby style punt just as the arms of Joe McGrath were entering his field of vision.  Downfield, a locked and loaded Nik Proctor scooped the ball from his own 48-yard line and blasted 52 yards to the end zone for his second TD of the night.

Kennedy’s offensive diet continued on the next series as the defense forced another three and out.  On the first play after the Kennedy punt, Mules running back Deryl Reynolds carved up the Rockets defense with a 35 yard run.  He eventually finished the drive with a six-yard plunge for the score. 

The pattern continued through the early stages of the second period.  Alamo Heights got two more scores out of the first team before handing it over to the next group.  Will Chaney cashed in a 12-yard pass to Caleb Williams in the corner of the end zone.  Running back Tucker Azar topped off his showcase drive with a four-yard scoring run to end the night for the first offense. 

Running backs Jack Heydenreich and junior varsity move up Jeremy Wasson put more wood on the fire with touchdowns in the second and fourth quarter respectively bookending a touchdown pass from JV move up Will Flannery to receiver Dorsey Walker.

The Mules produced 496 yards of total offense.  Nine different players caught passes.  Seven rushed for the Mules including JV move up Chris Lewis who chipped in 84 yards on nine carries to nearly match Deryl Reynolds output.  Alamo Heights held Kennedy to 191 yards of total offense and one touchdown in the second quarter.  It was a night to reward the hard work of everyone on the team by getting lots of action and resting the starters for a more demanding week two in district play.

It's Not Easy Seeing Green

Football is one of those sports where you must rely on jersey numbers to tell who the players are under all that gear. The Kennedy Rockets came dressed, however, in dark gray jerseys with dark green numbers with little white numbers on the kid’s sleeves, which I’m not sure the officials on the field could even see.  This is very tough on broadcasters, public address announcers, parents of players, reporters, coaches watching game film, stat guys.  Nobody is spared.  Was this someone’s idea of a joke? A senior prank perhaps? Was this a conspiracy? Was it some kind of communist edict that all were equal in the eyes of the football gods and nobody is an individual? Were they fiddled by a color blind manufacturer's representative? Was there a sale on dark green numbers at an Irish outlet mall?   I had to find out.  As someone who has and still occasionally does sit in a press box, I appreciated the hardship this caused for the hardworking press box occupants on this night.  I had to give my “brethren” a voice and a say in the matter.  So during halftime, I snuck over to enemy territory and found my answer. Some might remember when 3D glasses were issued at movie theaters for that quirky effect.  Not in 2015. Each person on the other side of the field was wearing night vision goggles!  So they could see every number with emerald clarity while the press box team was left without a clue.  It was rumored that the PA announcer was just making up names.  You can only say “the guy with the gray shirt” so many times.  Whose idea was this??  There must be more to this story….We’ll continue our investigation.

Last Week’s District 27-5A Results

Memorial 14,  Boerne Champion 69

Kerrville Tivy 67, Floresville 12

Lockhart 41, Seguin 13

San Marcos, idle

“His Inside Voice”

A Weekly Conversation with Coach Mike Norment

Mule Fan:  Offense scored on all but one possession, defense forced punt after punt and special teams ignited the attack.  Did you accomplish everything you wanted in the Kennedy game?

Coach Norment: We did a lot of good things.  You’re always pushing to make sure you’re getting better and in a lot of areas we did.  We were fortunate to get a lot of kids playing time.  When you watch the film you realize you’re not as good as you thought you were but you’re also not as bad as you thought you were. There are a lot of things we did that were good but there are a lot of things that we need to continue to work on to get better. We’re going to need to keep on doing that if we’re going to go far this year.

Mule Fan:  One of the things you did really well was on special teams.  We’re trying to remember the last time, in recent years anyway, that the Mules returned a kick for a score, much less two. Do you recall?

Coach Norment:  It’s been a while.  We were fortunate this week that we had a kickoff return and a punt return for touchdowns. That’s always great when special teams can get you points. That’s huge.  You’re going to need that.  Coach (Brandon) Davis is doing a great job with the special teams and it really showed. 

Mule Fan:  Thinking about this from the perspective of an opposing coach, when you know you’re playing a team that has a dangerous return game, does it complicate prep because of the time you have to spend on that phase?

Coach Norment:  It changes how you have to think. It makes you make decisions that you’re not used to making possibly.  And you have to spend more time on it.  If you’re spending more time on the kicking game you’re spending less time on offense and defense which I think helps us out.

Mule Fan:  What does it mean to a coaching staff to be able to get everyone into a game to get varsity snaps when they’ve all been working hard all week?

Coach Norment:  Well what’s good is you can get them on film so you can show them their play.  A lot of times with these kids, they think they know what they’re doing until you can show them on film exactly what’s going on.  So it’s always great to get some kids varsity time and get them on film.  It gives them an idea of the speed of the game. The speed at the varsity level is greater than JV or freshman level.  Getting these young kids experience is so valuable.

Mule Fan:  Let’s look ahead to Boerne Champion this week.  Of course, it’s a rivalry game.  It was a pivotal game last year in that both teams lost key offensive players. Alamo Heights took a tough loss then reeled off seven wins in a row.  Late in the year you told us the team really wished it could do that one over.  Do you feel you’re further along this season now than you were at this time last year going into the Boerne Champion game?

Coach Norment:  It’s hard to remember a year ago. So many things have happened since.  I think in some places we’re better than we were. We’re more prepared.  And in some things maybe not as good.  This is a completely different team.  I think we’re in a good place right now.  I think it’s going to be a great game.  Boerne Champion is a well-coached team coming in here to play a district game. It’s a rivalry.  So you put all of those factors together and I think it’s going to be a heck of a game.

Mule Fan:  Their quarterback, Josh Green, who went down for the season in our game last year, is their leader in so many different categories.  How do you prepare for him?

Coach Norment: He’s an explosive player.  He does so many things.  He can run the ball. He can extend plays and throw the ball. He’s definitely their leader so we have to be aware of what he’s doing.  You’re not going to stop him but we have to slow him down to have a chance to win this game.

Mule Fan:  They got off to a slower start than they probably would have expected. What have been their challenges so far from what you’ve caught on film?

Coach Norment:  They graduated a lot of people. They were a senior team last year. So they’ve got some juniors and sophomores playing and they’re getting better each week.  They could easily be 2-1 instead of 1-2.  They had their chances against Stevens. Stevens is a good team from Northside.  I just think they’re in a situation where these young kids have now played three games and are starting to get used to playing at this speed and they’re definitely getting better each week.

Mule Fan: You switched some things up defensively last week.  Can you describe your approach there?

Coach Norment: We had a couple of injuries so that forced us to make some personnel changes and move some people around.  We’ve had a week and a half of good practice. The kids are doing a good job in places where they maybe should have naturally been in the first place. They’re doing a good job right now.

Mule Fan:  What are the keys to victory this week?

Coach Norment:  We are going to have to keep the intensity up.  People forget we were ahead at halftime last year and ended up not doing very well in the second half.  So we have to keep that intensity.  We can’t let the emotions get to us at the same time.  Good things and bad things are going to happen.  We can’t let that affect how we play. Special teams are going to be huge like always in big games like this and the turnover battle.

Cliché Corner – Becuz bein stoopid abowt football is dum

Choose the football cliché.

A.     Loose change

B.     Lose contain

C.     Loose lips sink ships

Answer: Lose contain: to have a ball carrier or receiver get outside of the defense, turn the corner and get into the open field.

Area Leaders 

SA Express-News Sub 6A rankings still have Kerrville Tivy and Alamo Heights 1-2.  Boerne Champion moves up one slot this week to five.  For the Mules, Jack Woodland rank 17th in passing.  Three Mule receivers appear in receptions.  Antoine Cole is in a three-way tie for sixth with 19 catches. Brendon McClinton and Caleb Williams are tied at nine with 16 each.  Cole is 12th in receiving yards.  For Boerne Champion, quarterback Josh Green is ranked sixth in total offense and 10th in passing.  Receivers Hayden McMurray is tied with Antoine Cole in receptions with 19 and he is 10th in receiving yards. Charger receiver Chayce Bolli is 11th in receptions.

Important Mule Notes

We know your little Mules calendars can get pretty jammed up but please keep their day clear for Mule For a Day on Sunday September 27^th. They can do drills with the varsity players, learn skills from the big boys and even hear some good football stories from the trenches. It’s from 2:00pm-4:0pm…The Mules Car Wash is an important fundraiser as well. We all have a dirty car from time to time or in the case of your humble scribe, all the time.  Plan on having members of the varsity Mules scrub up your ride to a gleaming shine. That’ll happen on Saturday September 26 from 12:00pm-2:00pm.

Mules Dine Out Day

You gotta eat,  Why not benefit our little darlings on the gridiron?  This Thursday, September 17 at Freddy’s in the Quarry, 20% of all sales between 5:00pm-9:00pm go to our football program.  We have confirmed that this 20% "clip of the ticket" does not include any hostile takeover attempts.  Just food items.

right?

Mules on Radio

Follow the Mules home and away on KRDY 1160 AM with Dave Parker and Albert Gonzales.  You can also listen online at www.tsrnsports.com and on the TSRN mobile app.  You can also go to the game and wave at them.  But by all means, please patronize the sponsors and thank them for making it possible for the Mules to hit the airwaves.

Follow Alamo Heights Football on Twitter @ahmulesfootball

There’s another way to follow the Mules.  Mules Tweetmeister, coach Bryan Narvaez, reminds that there’s a lot of good stuff on the Mules twitter feed with many contributors.  Make sure and follow the mules @ahmulesfootball.  The Mule Fan is definitely following.

Canned Ham Award

It’s gotta be Nik Proctor who scored twice on special teams with two electrifying returns including the 95-yard opening kickoff and later a punt return of 52 yards along with effective running every time he fielded a kick.

The Mule Fan has never awarded the coveted Canned Ham to a freshman. They have to sit at the kid’s table first. So we acknowledge that while Nik was the winner, we’ll give him ham patties this time.  But he had a heck of a game.  Congratulations!

Bonus coverage:  We have also learned that the opening kickoff return has been nominated as a possible “Play of the Week” by WOAI News 4 TV.  So Mule Nation needs to vote often to bring this over the line.  Go to news4sanantonio.com and vote for it. 

Up Next – Boerne Champion Chargers

While Kennedy tried hard, it wasn’t much of a test for the Mules.  So bring on a rivalry game with Boerne Champion. That ought to open up the synapses.  The Chargers come to Harry B. Orem Stadium on Friday, September 18 at 7:30pm.  The Chargers got in the win column last week over Memorial after dropping their first two games to Buda Hays and Stevens.  Boerne has tallied 105 points and allowed 85 vs the Mules having scored 167 points and allowed 81.  Last year, Boerne Champion hung 56 points on Alamo Heights and handed the Mules their second defeat of the season.  It was costly game for both teams in the injury department.  Champion lost quarterback Josh Green for the season and the Mules lost star lineman Ronnie Rogers for the year in the game.  So far in 2015, Green is the Charger’s leading rusher and scorer and has completed 51% of his pass attempts for 675 yards and five touchdowns.  Champion finished the year undefeated in district play and 11-1 overall and went to the area finals.  Nine starters return from that team (four offense and five defense).  Kerrville Tivy, Boerne Champion and Alamo Heights were projected to finish 2015 1-2-3 by most media outlets (except for the Mule Fan of course). 

Go Mules!!!