Alamo Heights Demystifies the Unicorns 55-14 for Opening Road Victory
- Return for Home Opener and Rematch vs. O'Connor
By Senior Editor-in-Cleats Bob Cohen
(New Braunfels)—In auto racing, race teams never just show
up to the track on race day, plop their cars down on the grid, fire up their
engines and race. They arrive days
earlier to test and shake the car down, get the driver used to the course, find
the groove on the track, confirm the prime spots for overtaking, and generally
get everything dialed in so that when the green flag drops, they are ready to
compete. Friday night felt a
little like that for the Mules in New Braunfels right up until the last drive
of the first half. But after
blowing the rust out and getting dialed in, the Mules prevailed trouncing the
Unicorns 55-14 for an impressive 1-0 start to the new 2015 season.
Not
surprisingly, the first quarter was a bit of a “dog’s dinner” for both
teams. Mules defensive end Dalton
McClain recovered an early Unicorn fumble at the New Braunfels 29 followed by a
sizzling 29-yard post route strike from QB Jack Woodland to Brendon McClinton
to get the Mules on the board first.
Alamo Heights got the ball back quickly on the next series picking up a
turnover on a Holden Daum strip but were unable to cash in on a couple of
Heights misfires and a missed field goal attempt.
The
Unicorns scored on the first play of the second quarter on a slant pass to tie
the game, which is where it stayed when their point after kick was missed. Alamo Heights fumbled away a possession
after a nice punt return from freshman Nick Proctor, which soon led to another
Unicorn score on a counter play. New
Braunfels buttered up a point after attempt but the holder collected himself
and ran the ball in for a two-point conversion putting the Unicorns up
14-6. It was the next possession
when things got a bit crazier.
With the Mules in possession of the football at their own 40, an
attempted screen pass from Woodland ended up in the hands of a Unicorn lineman
who lumbered his way inside the Mules’ 10-yard line. But a sideline
interference call bailed the Mules out of trouble, returning the football to
Alamo Heights along with a 15-yard “gift with purchase” from the previous line
of scrimmage. With the Mules now
in great field position, it took about a dozen plays in a lumpy drive but the
first of seven unanswered scores eventually came on a Spiderman-like 19-yard
catch from senior receiver Antoine Cole falling backwards into the end zone
after being interfered with on the play.
Following the Woodland to Cole score, the Mules defense, which put in a
lot of first half action, locked New Braunfels down and forced a punt to the
Mules 16 from which emerged the sharpest drive of the night to that point for Alamo
Heights. The Mules took to the air
with a minute left and worked their way to the Unicorn 34-yard line with a half
dozen plays. With room on the
clock for one more shot, Mules QB Woodland flushed right, picked up a crucial
block from tackle Sandor Valero and connected with receiver Caleb Williams who
produced a leaping grab at the two then fell in to the end zone for his first
of two touchdown catches on the night.
With a finishing PAT, the Mules went to the locker room with a 20-14
lead and confidence that they had blown out the carburetors sufficiently.
The
Mules came out roaring in the second half producing 35 points and high entertainment
value producing two defensive scores on 10-yard interception return from
Jackson Tylman and another pick six 40-yard score from defensive back Travis
McEldowney. Substitutions were
made after the third quarter and the backups didn’t disappoint. Senior running back Jack Heydenreich
was in long enough to lead the Mules in rushing with 61 yards on 10 carries and
a 18-yard scoring run in the fourth period. And junior running back Tucker Azar handled the ball four
times and produced a four-yard touchdown as well.
Senior
quarterback Jack Woodland tallied 262 yards passing with 25 completes in 32
attempts with three TD’s and 23 yards rushing. Caleb Williams led the Mules receivers with six catches for
93 yards and two scores. Bendon
McClinton, Antoine Cole, Deryl Reynolds and Dakota Brokaw all chipped in key
catches for the Mules air attack, which piled up 303 yards for the game. As mentioned, the Mules defense threw a
net over New Braunfels forcing four punts and holding the Unicorn passing game
to 170 yards in addition to crediting their account with two scores.
The
Mules return to Harry B. Orem Stadium for their home opener and last
non-district game on Senior Recognition Night against O’Connor this Friday September
4 to start the Labor Day holiday weekend with kickoff at 7:30pm.
Next Up-O’Connor Panthers
Previously sixth-ranked and now bitten up O’Connor will be
looking for its first win of the season after losing their opener last week to
the fourth-ranked Reagan Rattlers in a big area matchup of 6A schools. The Rattlers rolled to a 42-19 win at
Heroes Stadium last Friday.
O’Connor scraped together only 42 yards of rushing offense and were only
able to produce 249 yards of offense while allowing Reagan just under 400 yards
of total offense. O’Connor plays in district 27-6A, which
has two zones. They finished 8-3
last season and 4-1 in district. The Mules faced them in the second week of the
season and lost 34-24 at Farris Stadium.
The Panthers, led by head coach David Malesky, were defeated in their
first playoff game. Back for them
this season though is running back Jamontaie Edwards who missed most of last
season with an injury but clocks a 4.6 40 and splits time with junior Brandin
Bradford. Linebacker Kaleb
Williams looked good against the Mules last season.
Return of the Canned Ham
Some time ago, a late night brainstorming session with a
hard working staff of Mule Fan reporters, editors, paste-up people and ad sales
guys produced one of the more important decisions in the history of this blog
site. The challenge: How to adequately recognize the weekly
contributions of standout players in the previous week’s contest? And so the Mule Fan Canned Ham award
was born. What better way to acknowledge the efforts of Mule standouts week in
and week out than with a triangular shaped can filled with a pink chunk of
porcine bliss waiting only to be poked full of holes by cloves (quite possibly
the funniest looking spice on the planet-looks like a sticker burr on a little
golf tee) to hold on rings of juicy pineapple straight from the can. We were certain that this would make
any animal with cloven hoof squeal with pride to know that a smoky hunk of
their south sides, bathed in natural juices with an unrefrigerated shelf life
measured in epochs, were selected as worthy awards for exemplary
performance. After all, what kid
wouldn’t want to get oink..err ink for their outstanding efforts?
And so, it is with porky pride that we give you this week’s
Canned Ham award continuing the time-honored tradition. This week the can goes to two worthy
winners. Receivers Antoine Cole
and Caleb Williams came up huge on Friday night sharing three scores and some
catches that make you excited about the season ahead. Cole grabbed six balls for 46 yards and the big TD in the
second quarter. Williams caught six for 93 yards and two touchdowns including
the big 34-yarder before halftime.
Congratulations guys!
We know that sometimes you just can’t make the game. We had a good turnout last week in New
Braunfels. But those that missed the trip up I35, were kept on the edge of
their seats by Dave Parker and Albert Gonzales. Dave sings bass, Albert sings
tenor, all the little Mule fans will join right in. We don’t want you to miss the action. So again this season, the Mules action
can be heard in three ways. On the
radio at 1160 AM KRDY Radio Luz (That’s Spanish for light, not the phonetic
spelling of lose) or streamed at www.tsrnsports.com
and on the TSRN mobile app. Dave
Parker returns for his 477th season at the mike for the Mules along
with his faithful companion Albert Gonzalez who ciphers stats on his blue and
gold slide rule and provides deep analysis at halftime in particular. Give them a listen.
Mule Area Leaders
It's only one week in but Heights found itself among area leaders this week. Quarterback Jack Woodland ranked 10th in total offense and 9th in passing. Antoine Cole, Brendon McClinton and Caleb Williams were tied for 4th with seven other area players in receptions with six. The Mules enter week #2 ranked #2 in the Express News Sub 5A area rankings behind Kerrville. Boerne Champion dropped a position to 4th after their loss to Hays.
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.
Tickets, Get your Tickets Here
Last week you might have gotten a pass but this week you’d
better pay attention.
Remember last spring when you wrote that check for season
tickets? Well now you need to go
pick them up from the AH Athletic Office.
This is the week. They’ll be available until September 4 at the athletic
office. Nobody is really sure what
happens to them after the 4th but the Mule Fan believes nobody has
the chops to try anything silly. Just go pick them up and avoid any discomfort or grisly
scenes. This can all be handled in
a mature way. Generally the
athletic office hours are 8:30am-noon and 1:30pm-3:00pm. Monday-Friday. Reserved seat tickets will be on sale on a week-to-week basis
from now forward.
Film Night
As many of you know, Coach Mike Norment presents a game film
in the Oaks building on the Alamo Heights campus each Monday night during the
season starting at 7:00pm. It is for parents of players and anyone who is
interested in getting a narrative of what play was run, what happened and why
from the puppeteer himself. This
is truly a favor that Coach Norment does for interested fans and followers of
the Mules so please show up and enjoy.
It is really a comprehensive inside look at Mules football. We highly recommend it. Sure you can look at the HUDL app your
kids give you access to but then you
might reach conclusions which will be unintelligible in the bright light of
day. Better to have a professional
walk you through it.
KENS 5 Kiolbassa Tailgate “Game of the Week”
KENS 5 selected us this week for this special treat. Show up early on Friday, support
Kiolbassa Sausage and Mule alum Michael Kiolbassa who does so much for our
concession efforts at games and cheer loudly so the KENS 5 audience can see our
team spirit and our voracious sausage appetites.
Frosh and JV’s
When the varsity is at home, the freshman team is that week
as well. So check out the future
Mules this Thursday beginning at 5:00pm against O’Connor at Harry B. Orem
Stadium. The JV is on the road on
Thursday at 5:00pm.
“His Inside Voice”
A Weekly Conversation
with Coach Mike Norment
Mule Fan:
Through the first quarter and a half, both teams were trying to get
their game legs under them. How do
you feel about the way the guys worked through the early rough spots and
settled down to play?
Coach Norment: We were a little more jittery than I thought
we’d be. The offense struggled a
little more than defense and special teams. They kept us in the game and did a
great job of giving us great field position so that we could get that one score
in the first quarter. When the
offense did settle down we started to click. We started to go faster which is
something we really want to do, we got into a groove and we were much more
successful. What I told the kids
was that it was really important that they found a way to get out of their
funk. That’s an important life
lesson. When things aren’t going
well, you’ve got to somehow figure out a way to get it right and they did a
great job of doing that.
Mule Fan: Don’t
you have to go through that in these opening games? There’s really no short cutting that is there?
Coach Norment:
No there’s no short cutting it. But sometimes we’ve come out clicking on
all cylinders and sometimes we haven’t. We just didn’t do it this time. This is
two years in a row we’ve done that a little bit but we righted the ship and did
a great job. Sometime later in the
year we’re going to be in a similar situation. It might be defense.
It might be special teams that are struggling and we’re going to have to
figure out a way to get out of it and the other two facets of the game are
going to have to cover for them.
Mule Fan: Even
with some of the misfires, the second to last drive of the first half which
ended with Antoine Cole’s TD seemed to get things going but how important was
the last scoring drive with the 85 yards to go in one minute?
Coach Norment: What was huge was that the kids did just
exactly what we talked about. They got out of bounds. They stopped the clock.
And they gave us the opportunity to score on that last play. Because all along
the way we could have had a mistake like not getting out of bounds or something
like that. They ran their
one-minute drill to perfection. That was a dagger in the Unicorn’s heart when
we scored on that last play of the half.
Mule Fan: How
do you build on a drive like that when you go into the locker room at the half? How much of the discussion is about
using that as an example?
Coach Norment: What we really talked about was how on the
second to last drive and the last drive we started to do what Alamo Heights
does. We didn’t have to do anything super-human or special, just do what we do
offensively and things will work out and that’s what we talked about at
halftime. We came out in the
second half and did that and were much more successful.
Mule Fan: With
the offensive game a little wrinkly in the first half, you had the defense on
the field a lot. But they played hard, produced turnovers and a two
scores. How did you see the game
defensively?
Coach Norment: Like you said they did a great job. When they
had the letdown was in the second quarter when the offense didn’t help
them. One of the disadvantages of
going fast is that when you go three and out, not a whole lot of time has run
off the clock. So the offense put the defense in a bad situation and they did
very well. The flip side is that when the offense is clicking and you get a big
lead like were able to get in the beginning of the second half, now you can pin
your ears back and put more pressure on the opposing offense because you’ve got
the lead.
Mule Fan: Going
back to the early part of the game, how much can you do on the sidelines to
settle the kids down during play when they are struggling to get their
rhythm?
Coach Norment:
There’s some that you’ll talk to sternly and there’s some that you’ll
pat on the back and tell them to settle down. You have to know the kid. The position coaches do a great job. They know their kids
and which ones they can get on a little and ones that need a little bit of
lovin’. They did a great job of
settling the kids down. Overall though, the kids did a great job of responding.
The coaches did a great job of doing what they needed to do to get the best out
of them.
Mule Fan: You
had two freshmen (Nick Proctor and Maki Carabin) in the game that contributed
particularly Nick Proctor on special teams. Is this as early in the season as your can remember that
happening?
Coach Norment:
They’ve shown that they are special players. They did everything we
wanted them to do during the summer. They played on the 7 on 7 team that went
to Westlake and the state tournament. They’ve shown that they were special kids
that could do a lot especially on special teams. We looked at them in the scrimmage. They looked pretty good.
So we wanted to see what they could do underneath the lights and both of them
did a good job. I’m proud of them. They’re just special kids and they can
help the football team. So it was a coaching decision that they move to
varsity. The big challenge is for them to keep working hard and improving and
for the older kids to take them under their wing because they ARE freshman. So
they’ll need a little guidance. I talked to some of the seniors so that they
make sure they keep the freshmen going in the right direction.
Mule Fan: Are
you happy with the way your quarterback spread the ball around? There were a lot of people touching the
ball in the passing game.
Coach Norment:
That’s what we definitely want.
We want as many people touching the football because it makes it tough
on defenses and we did a great job of spreading it around once we settled down.
We ran the ball well and we did what Alamo Heights does and that’s why we were
fortunate to come out with a victory.
Mule Fan:
Looking ahead to O’Connor. They had a heavy matchup in their opener,
which they lost to Reagan, one of the top 6A teams in the area. Were you able
to spare some scouts to get to that game?
Coach Norment:
We have two junior high coaches that do a great job of scouting. They
went and watched the game and we’ve got the film. It was a much closer game than the score indicated. Reagan
is a very good team but O’Connor got after them pretty good. It’s going to be a great game because
O’Connor is aggressive on defense and they have some big play personnel on
offense. Defensively we’re going
to have to slow down a running back and one of the receivers. They’re huge on
the offensive line so we’ll have to hold up against that. Defensively they’ll give us a whole
bunch of looks and bring pressure from different areas. It’ll be huge for the offensive line to
protect. Receivers are going to have to read on the run and the quarterbacks
are going to have to find the open man quickly. Tempo can help us and hopefully we play a good game. The big thing is we want to get better
so that we can get ready for district play.
Mule Fan: How
useful is it in non-district to play teams with whom you have some familiarity?
We’ve been playing O’Connor for a number of years now.
The Mule Fan Mailbag
The Mule Fan editorial team is very self aware and comfortable that we don't know anything close to everything although we had a good off-season placing 16th in a regional spelling bee in Latvia over the summer. We lost on a technicality because sneezes sound like vowels over there. Anyway, all this is to say that we take all suggestions on how to make this blog better and more informative for you. We have a mailbag (it's a nice blue and white gingham) and if you want to see more or less of something, simply make the suggestion. Any story ideas are fair game as well. We've been known to publish family jello recipes and give tips on how to turn a simple fudgesicle or a Luden's cough drop into a real Thanksgiving treat. If you have an idea of something to cover that we may not be thinking of, fire it our way. We promise to submit it to our editorial board for careful and thoughtful consideration. Seriously folks, send your comments to bobcohen@sbcglobal.net. We can always get better. The truth is we can also get worse and have been a steady course downhill for years now. We welcome your suggestions.
Go Mules!! See you at the home opener!! I'll be the one in the white shirt with a number on it.
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