San Marcos 53, Alamo Heights 63 October 2, 2015

Mules Bounce Back Strong with Crucial District Win Over San Marcos

            -Alamo Heights Lights Scoreboard to Break Streak

            By Bob Cohen, Senior Editor, Teller of Tales

            (San Antonio)—When the Beatles were getting their early chops playing clubs in Hamburg, Germany, the nightclub bosses used to urge them to “Mak Shau, Mak Shau (Make a Show, Make a Show).”  So they’d hop around on stage and pound out rock music for six to eight hours a night, developing their style, repertoire and stamina.  Anyone shopping around for a big night of entertainment could’ve done a lot worse because both teams did their own version of Mak Shau and gave fans good value for money.  Alamo Heights prevailed in an important district 27-5A game that produced an Arena League score of 63-53 at Harry B. Orem Stadium. Back to the value discussion, that’s six cents per point on a seven-dollar ducat.

            High offensive output continues to be a growing trend in high schools and colleges with the advent of the “hurry up, no huddle” offense.  Defenses have even more pressure on them and a lot less time to adjust off an offense set or substitute.  You wonder why anyone would huddle anymore but some do.  Maybe it’s just for the social benefits.  It’s more personable to chat between plays.  Well I digress.  Neither team stopped the other on Friday until well into the first half.  Up until that time, points came on every single possession on both sides with video game like variety.  Fortunately the Alamo Heights defense held San Marcos to fewer points than they had been accustomed to scoring when they forced the Rattlers to kick a 24-yard field goal in the second period just after the Mules scored on a screen pass from Jack Woodland to Antoine Cole that went for 31 yards to grow a lead. 

            The Mules beefed the lead with 9:50 to go in the second period when Woodland used plenty of protection to study his options and select receiver Caleb Williams for a pass that Williams eventually stretched into a score. This was an important score for Alamo Heights, which San Marcos answered with a 13-yard touchdown run from quarterback David Hamilton.  There was one fumble on Friday and it came next series when QB Woodland lost the handle on the football while flushing right. The Rattlers recovered but the Mules defense held and forced a punt, which produced one for the highlight reel as Nik Proctor handcrafted a 77-yard return for a score.  San Marcos shaved the lead down with a score at 4:01 on a Julian Applewhite touchdown reception.  The Mules preserved a 35-31 lead at the half.

            The penalty flag bit San Marcos hard as they put 105 yards of debits on the account.  Combine that with a lethal dose of a pin sharp Mule offense, the eye-popping special team return game, and timely stops by the defense got the Mules a huge win to level their district record at 2-2 and 3-3 overall.  The Rattlers fell to 2-1 in district with the loss.  Led by quarterback David Hamilton, San Marcos traded blows with the Mules all night.  Hamilton displayed great field vision and a frustrating knack for wriggling off the hook whenever the Mules defense had him close to the cooler.  Hamilton escaped the Mules clutches and produced a night at about his average pace going 13 for 26 in the air for 201 yards and three touchdowns, picking up 91 yards on the ground on 13 carries finishing two of them for touchdowns.

            The good news is that while Hamilton was a load, the Mules offense or special teams typically answered.  When Hamilton and San Marcos jabbed, the Mules typically swung back with a blue chip play of its own. 

            Mules quarterback Jack Woodland was on the giving end of three touchdown passes. He dialed up two for Caleb Williams of 35 and 13 yards and one to Antoine Cole of 31 yards.  Woodland’s body of work for the night also included a 40-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, which put the Mules ahead for the second time in the first quarter and was one of three first quarter touchdowns for Alamo Heights.  Woodland finished on impressive 18 of 23 in the air for 293 yards and three touchdowns.  But the plays that really made the Rattlers woozy came from Alamo Heights running backs Tucker Azar and Deryl Reynolds.  Azar loosened a few fillings with some rugged inside runs off of good offensive line work.  Azar had 115 yards on 15 carries and key touchdown plunges of one and four yards in the fourth quarter.  Deryl Reynolds topped up his totals with a 130-yard night on 12 carries and two excellent touchdown runs.  His first one was a blinder.  At third and four on the Mules first possession of the game, Reynolds pierced a pile of bodies in the middle, kept pushing and squirted out the back side of the heap en route to 55-yards of clearing and the Mules quick first lead.  Later, he scored the second of three unanswered and crucial fourth quarter touchdowns sandwiched between Azar’s two touchdowns with a 28-yard scamper.  (Incidentally, Reynold’s long TD run is up for the News 4 WOAI Play of the Week.  The Mule Fan strongly encourages you to vote for this one and has made it easy with this easy opening link: Click here to vote for Deryl Reynolds: Play of the Week.  We’ll wait while you click on the link and vote. The Mule Fan will be here when you return.)

            So the Mules move on now with a road trip to Seguin to face the Matadors on Friday, October 9 for another important District game.  Ticket information is shown below.  See you in Seguin.

Last Week’s District 27-5A Results

Lockhart 21, Floresville 10

Seguin 48, Memorial 20

Kerrville Tivy 65, Boerne Champion 49

Kennedy idle

27-5A Standings

Lockhart 4-0

Kerrville Tivy 3-0

Boerne Champion 3-1

San Marcos 2-1

Alamo Heights 2-2

Seguin 1-2

Floresville 1-3

Kennedy 0-3

Memorial 0-4

“His Inside Voice”

A Weekly Conversation with Coach Mike Norment

Mule Fan:  The last thing we talked about last week was that the team needed something good to happen to it.  What went right on Friday night?

Coach Norment:  The kids never give up. We talked about that the whole week that we need to come together as a team and good things and bad things are going to happen.  San Marcos made some plays and we didn’t get down and kept on fighting. When we kept on doing that, we’d make a play or the defense got a stop or special teams made a play.  We were able to feed off each other and were fortunate to come out with a victory.

Mule Fan:  What didn’t quite go so right but went better and where have you seen the progress as you’ve progressed through the year?

Coach Norment: We developed more confidence because the defense got stops. We led most of the game but when they took the lead at the beginning of the second half we didn’t let it phase us and we came back. Now I wish there had not been a kicking game and defensive error back-to-back to give them the lead again. But we answered and kept on fighting and that’s what we’re going to have to do the rest of the year.

Mule Fan:  Did you get a sense during the week of practice that intensity and focus had ratcheted up after last week?

Coach Norment:  I think the intensity was there last week. We had some things happen this week that I think brought the team together in some ways and I think that helped as well.

Mule Fan: I joked with you after the game on Friday asking if you used every play you had but after reflecting on it, I suppose it was more a case of just having so much personnel involved. Was that the case or did you pull out a lot of different things Friday?

Coach Norment:  Not really.  We did some things in special teams that we were forced to do because of some situations. But offensively we had some plays that we executed early but in the second half we ran the plays that we worked on basically this whole year.

Mule Fan:  That had to do a lot for the confidence of your offense to score and get first downs almost on demand.

Coach Norment: Right now our offense is clicking pretty good.  We’re going to have to keep that up because the district is not getting any easier so we have to keep on doing what we’ve been doing.

Mule Fan: Neither team made a lot of stops defensively but the Mules made a couple of huge defensive stops when you had to have them.  You’ve had a lot of changes and moved people around.  That had to give them a boost as well.  How did you feel about their game?

Coach Norment: The defense has been playing hard.  It’s not like it is a lack of effort. We’ve gone against some different offenses.  We’ve gone from Champion to Lockhart to San Marcos.  All of them were challenges. They (the stops mentioned) were huge. The thing was that when the defense got a stop, the offense was able to execute and get some points whereas in the past two weeks, the defense got some stops but the offense wasn’t able to get the points and that was the biggest difference.

Mule Fan: And when you look at it, the defense would seemingly and quite often get their quarterback (Hamilton) in a jam and he’d squirm out of it. How tough an assignment was he?

Coach Norment: If you give him an area to work with, he’s able to use it. Like I said last week, he’s probably one of the best athletes in the district. Overall I think we did a pretty good job on him keeping him contained.  He made some plays.  He’s scary.

Mule Fan:  It was another big night for your special teams too.  As we said earlier, it’s nice to have that weapon available this year isn’t it?

Coach Norment: We were fortunate. We needed a big play out of them and got the punt return for a touchdown. And we did a good job on kickoffs all night.  And we were fortunate to get an onside kick that really wasn’t going to be an onside kick. It was just supposed to be a short kick and we were able to get it because of the hustle and that was huge.

Mule Fan:  Let’s look at Seguin.  As we are recording this earlier in the week than typical, you probably haven’t had a lot of time to look at film although you may have seen them on some of the other team’s films you’ve watched.  They have designs on improving from a year ago and getting one of the available playoff spots.  What do you expect from them?

Coach Norment: They’ve gotten better each week with a lot of new faces on the varsity. They’ve been growing as the season has progressed. They’re somewhat explosive on offense and are pretty big up on defense and play hard. And we have to go there. Seguin has always played us tough and especially on their stadium so we’ll have to execute in all three phases again and have a good week of practice to prepare for them.

Seguin Notes

The Matadors are 1-4 overall and 1-2 in disrtict play.  Alamo Heights won last year’s matchup at Harry B. Orem Stadium 31-9. The Matadors return five letterman on both offense and defense from a 2014 team that went 3-7 for the season and 3-5 in district play.  Seguin has not won more than four games in the last eight years. The Matador’s one win this season was over Memorial. They have losses to San Marcos, Lockhart, New Braunfels, and Vista Ridge. The Matadors are led by quarterback Marc Garcia who converted to quarterback this season from fullback.  The Matadors score 22.2 points per game and give up 33.4 points per game.

Area Leaders

Not too much change in the area leader report for this week.  Alamo Heights remains in the seventh position in the Express News Sub 6A Area rankings.  Tivy and Boerne Champion are still 1-2.  Quarterback Jack Woodland is ranked 16th in total offense and 8th in passing.  Antoine Cole is ranked third in total receptions and Brendon McClinton comes in at eight.  Antoine Cole is also ranked 10th in receiving yards.

Canned Hams

There were some fine performances on Friday night leading us to request a bigger shipment of hams from the manufacturer.  Fortunately they travel well in their aluminum first class compartments.  So we push pork onto the plates of Mules running backs Deryl Reynolds and Tucker Azar along with a few hunks shared by the Alamo Heights offensive line which opened some spacious holes for the aforementioned runners and gave secret service style protection to quarterback Jack Woodland.  Defensive performances of note came from freshman linebacker Maki Carabin and junior defensive back Travis McEldowney.

Seguin Tickets

In your enthusiasm to get to Seguin on Friday, don’t forget the tickets. Oh sure you can get them at the gate.  But why would you when you can get them early at the Alamo Heights Athletic office and save hard American currency in the process.  Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for students in advance.  Probably around $7 at the gate but their price floats with the Chinese Renminbi so who knows?

Ms. Patti Juarez will be on hand to vend tickets to you on the following schedule.  On Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30am-12:00pm and 1:30pm-3:30pm at the office.  On Thursday there will be bonus selling at the stadium during the JV football game from 4:30pm-6:30pm. On Friday, tickets will be on sale from 8:30am-3:00pm. 

Mules on Radio

When the Mules take to the road, it is always a good time to remind you that if you just can’t make it over to Seguin on Friday, you can catch all the action on KRDY 1160 AM with play-by-play sung in full throat by Dave Parker and some serious analysis from Albert Gonzales.  You can also listen online at www.tsrnsports.com and on the TSRN mobile app.  Please patronize the sponsors and thank them for making it possible for the Mules to hit the airwaves.

Cliché Corner- Becuz wen you no football wurds, ure not as dum as wen you dunt

Choose the correct football cliché.

A.     Pancake block

B.     Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity

C.     All-You-Can-Eat

Answer: A. Pancake block-when an offensive player takes a defender to the ground on a block

Mules Dine Out Day

This week it’s at EZ’s at Sunset Ridge where 20% of your meal goes to the Mules Football program on all receipts collected in the football bucket between 5pm-9pm on Thursday, October 8. 

Mules on Twitter

There’s a lot to be said about these Mules and another way to follow Alamo Heights Football is on Twitter @ahmulesfootball.  Don’t forget to follow.

Homecoming October 16

The Mules return to Harry B. Orem Stadium on Friday, October 16 with the Memorial Minutemen visiting for a 7:30 kickoff. Tickets are selling well as it is also Homecoming. There will be many Homecoming festivities next week and we’ll tell you about those next week. But make plans to be there. The average age of fans in attendance will grow significantly that night, as several classes will celebrate reunions. Hopefully the Mules will be riding a two game win streak.

Halloween Gallery

The Mule Fan will (hopefully) feature some danged cute photos of current Mule players, coaches and athletic staff in Halloween costumes from their youth in an upcoming issue of the Mule Fan blog.  Our staff is challenging the coaches and athletic staff to go ahead and call mom and get some of the old sepia-tone photos out of the attic, scan ‘em or take a shot on your smart phones and send them to bobcohen@sbcglobal.net.  We’ll collect them and caption them appropriately we must warn you.  But current Mule parents are urged to get us some of shots of your little darlings in the Halloween finery.  We seem to recall Coach Norment went out early as tweety bird.  We’d value that picture like none other. 

Fenley Trophy Golf Tourney

Mark your calendars for the 12^th Annual Fenley Trophy Golf Tournament on Wednesday October 21 at 1:00pm at the Quarry Golf Club.

This tournament is in honor of the late Gaylard Fenley who served, taught and mentored our students and staff as our Athletic Director1983-2002• All tournament proceeds benefit Basketball, Cheerleading, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Lacrosse, JROTC, Soccer, Special Olympics, Tennis, Track, Volleyball.  It is not true that it helps support the Mule Fan blog.  For more information, contact bill.dehlinger@worthaminsurance.com. He’ll get you a brochure and make sure you have all the info you need to make an informed decision.

Go Mules!!  Say Olé to the Matadors!!!