Playing in front of the home crowd for the first time this season, the Wimberley Texans football team squared off with a relative newcomer in the Comal Pieper Warriors.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, Pieper got a first hand taste of the vaunted Code Red defense.
Behind four interceptions — including a pick-six — and three fourth-down stops, the Texans produced their first shutout of the season winning 35-0 over the Pieper Warriors despite the game being called early due to lighting in the area.
The win moves the Texans record to 2-0 of the season while Pieper falls to 0-2.
While the Code Red defense took control of the game, it was the Texan offense that took their lumps this week as penalties plagued Wimberley’s momentum to get the ball moving.
It was an aggravating yet teachable moment for Head Coach Doug Warren as Wimberley looks to learn from their mistakes as they prepare for next week.
“I was really frustrated with the penalties, because we worked so hard this week on correcting those things,” Warren said. “Part of it is because the game is going really fast for those guys right now, and they are trying to think too much. You just have to slow the game down mentally and play it fast. But you get a 5A team coming here, and we took charge of the game early, and put the pressure on them. I thought the defense played really well, and we were really physical tonight. Just proud to be 2-0.”
Despite the strugglings on offense, it was Wimberley’s fast start that swung the momentum towards the Texans all night long.
Wimberley received the opening kickoff and returned it all the way down to the five yard line before Johnny Ball scored on a 12-yard touchdown run to take the lead at 7-0.
The Code Red defense made the presence known immediately as Zach Patek picked a Pieper pass on the Warriors first drive and returned it 27 yards for the score to put the Texans up 14-0 with just 10:32 left in the game.
“When the defense is playing like they are playing it makes life a whole lot easier for you,” Warren said. “You can win many football games when playing really good defense, and they did it tonight. I thought we overpowered them a little bit at times and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback — (I’m) really pleased with the defense and how they set the tone all night long.”
For senior linebacker Brasen Leonard, rallying around the offense during their struggles helps the team succeed in their goals.
“Part of the thing when we face adversity on offense, it fires everyone up,” Leonard said. “We get pretty (upset), so we pound the other team’s offense to get revenge. The biggest thing is that we go out there, and we give it our all. That is when we really perform well.”
Ball added his second score on the ground from one yard out in the second quarter as the Texans extended the lead to 21-0.
The Texans added another score on the ground late in the second quarter as quarterback Cody Stoever scored from one yard out to make it 28-0.
The final score of the game came in the fourth quarter when Jack Boyle took the handoff and ran for an 80-yard touchdown to put the game at 35-0 before the officials called the game off due to lighting in the area.
Despite the team rushing for 241 yards, with Boyle leading the way with 141 yards rushing yards and one touchdown followed by Ball with 53 yards rushing and two touchdowns, the offense can still improve from their performance tonight.
“I thought at times we did that, (and that’s) where we would get to moving,” Warren continued. “But then we would get bogged down and have a misread or throw a bad ball or not protect very well. It was really many different phases of the game that caused that to happen. When you have an inexperienced team like this one, you better grow up in a hurry. But we have to continue to work and get better so those things can go to the wayside.”
For Boyle, working on the offense’s discipline will be one of the keys moving forward as the team moves on to next week.
“I definitely say discipline (is what we need to improve on),” Boyle said. “The discipline to keep going and to stay on top of it. A couple of times earlier in the season we would get those late hit penalties, and (we also had) pre and post-play penalties. Limiting those will be a big key to success, especially next week when we play Brock — who is a great program — in Waco.”
Wimberley will make the long trip out to Waco’s McLane Stadium at Baylor University as the Texans will square-off in a unique interclass matchup with the 3rd ranked team in 3A Division 1 in the Brock Eagles.
The Eagles have already played two teams in the Top Ten in 4A Division II this year losing to No. 6 ranked Texarkana Pleasant Grove Hawks 28-7 in week one before losing a close game No. 3 ranked Wichita Falls Hirschi Huskies 37-30 last week. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
