Last Friday’s game between the Wimberley Texans and the Jarrell Cougars started off with a bang. The Cougars struck first on a huge touchdown play just seconds into the ball game to go up 7-0. They also scored the last touchdown of the ball game. Everything in between was Texan football at its finest.
After giving up a touchdown on the opening drive, Wimberley High School (6-0, 1-0) would go on to score 49 unanswered points, 42 of which were scored in the first half on the way to a 49-13 victory over Jarrell High School (1-5, 0-1).
“It was the first district ballgame, and so you really just want to go and secure that first district win and get to 1-0,” Head Coach Doug Warren said. “All six teams have the same goal and that is to be the district champions. That was our first goal, and we secured that. So that was good. We gave up a big play early, but it was a really well designed play. They caught us in a stunt. It was a perfect play for the perfect stunt, which is fine. Sometimes you’d have to come back and regroup, and we did.”
Jarrell’s first touchdown was a 97 yard pass down the right side that came after the Cougars were nearly sacked in their own endzone on the first drive of the game. Wimberley struck back quickly with a 22 yard rushing touchdown by Owen O’Neal with a run up the right side carrying defenders into the endzone about a minute later to tie the game up 7-7. The Texans would then score three more touchdowns in the first quarter to quickly run the score up to 28-7.
After holding Jarrell to a turnover on downs at the start of the second quarter, the Texans rattled off two more scores in the second quarter to take a 42-7 lead. With the clock running, each team scored one touchdown in the second half.
While Wimberley has used the passing game to win recently, Friday night the scoring effort was led on the ground. The Texans rushed for 296 yards as a team averaging 11 yards per carry on the night. Both Chase Carson and Owen O’Neal scored two touchdowns respectively. O’Neal had 87 yards rushing on just four carries. Carson had 71 yards on eight carries and the three headed rushing attack added 62 yards from Colton Schmidt on eight carries.
But it wasn’t just the rushing game that popped. Cody Stoever, who had 59 yards rushing himself, threw as many touchdown passes as he did incompletions. He was 12 of 15 passing for 180 yards and three touchdowns. Nolan Waida caught three passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns while Wynston Burttschell scored the other touchdown on one of his two receptions.
The success on both phases of the offense lended Warren to point to the offensive line.
“We just marched right down and scored, and then just continued to do that,” Warren said. “I thought, offensively, our offensive line played well. They did a really good job of protecting, and they did a good job also opening holes in the run game. I was pleased with the offensive line. … It is anchored by Caden Romo and Jackson LaBouliere. Those guys, they anchor it, and they both have started a lot of games up there.”
Out of 48 minutes of game play, the Code Red defense pitched a shutout for about 46 of them. Reid Leinneweber and Payton Peacock both had sacks during the game. It also helped the Texans to have a strong game from the team’s starting linebackers.
“Those guys on that side of the ball, (Ty Thames and Kyler Lai) they’re basically the quarterbacks that get everybody lined up,” Warrens said. “They make all the calls, get everybody on the correct defense and kind of direct traffic. We put a lot on those guys. We put a lot on their plate, but they respond to it well. They did a really good job of understanding what our coaches want on that side of the ball.”
The next game up for Wimberley is this Friday at home versus the Manor New Tech Titans (2-4, 1-0) who are coming off a 60-30 victory over Austin Achieve. The game starts at 7:30 p.m.
