Cedar Park Falls to Leander

Battle of Bagdad won by LHS Field General, Defense Department

 

The Leander Lions won their school’s first-ever unbeaten district football championship Friday night at Bible Stadium by trouncing the rival Cedar Park Timberwolves 28-7 primarily due to big plays by Lion quarterback Josh McKinley and a formidable defense. It was a game in which Leander’s dominance, on first impression, appeared to go substantially unchallenged.  But a closer look at the details reveals what was a much closer game than our Friday night impressions might lead us to believe.

 

The T’wolves and Lions both end the 2006 regular season with matching 8-2 overall records, but both of the Lions’ losses came in their first three games, while both of Cedar Park’s came in their final three. LHS went 7-0 in district, becoming only the second unbeaten and untied football champion in this UIL athletic district in the last twelve years. The first was Cedar Park in 2004. The Timberwolves finished 5-2 in league play.

 

Thus, Leander’s seniors avoided the ignominy of finishing their high school careers with no varsity football wins over the team they love to beat the most.  Cedar Park had won the last two years, but Leander now takes a 3-2 lead in the overall series.

 

The defeat ended what had started out as the best Timberwolf football season of the 21st century. Despite the late losses, their 8-2 overall record ties 2001 and 2004 for the program’s best regular season mark since UIL district competition began in 2000. Cedar Park finished technically tied for second with 5-2 Westwood in the 2006 14-5A race, but realistically third due to the recent loss to the Warriors.

 

Although faltering in the last third of the season, the Timberwolves’ fantastic 7-0 start – they were ranked 13th in Texas as recently as three weeks ago – gave them enough momentum to reach the UIL playoffs, and the season will continue this Friday night against Harker Heights, the team Cedar Park opened against and defeated 27-7 on September 8.  Like that meeting two and a half months ago, this bi-district playoff game will be held at Bible Stadium, making it the very first home playoff game in Cedar Park history.

 

The Timberwolves’ Tyler Smith rushed for 153 yards on 23 carries, including a nine-yard touchdown run against Leander. Smith, having missed three games during the latter part of the season, still rushed for 1,108 yards on the year for a 7.75 yard-per-carry average and a total of fourteen touchdowns. But Smith didn’t register his first carry until the third CP possession Friday night, when the T’wolves were backed up on their own one yard line. The Lions were up 14-0 before Smith even had ten yards rushing. 

 

Quarterback Travis Watson, himself spelling injured opening-day starter Michael Cochran and doing a fine job of it, fell with an injury and was relieved by receiver Jamie Knight for the second half. Thus, Cedar Park lost its leading receiver, as well. Knight’s 14 catches and 249 yards lead the team in both categories.

 

Leander beat Cedar Park the way the Timberwolves dispatched so many victims early in the season; with a flurry of quick touchdown drives to start the game while holding their opponent’s head under the water. Three of their touchdown drives totaled four snaps between them. The Lions scored touchdowns on four of their first six possessions. In the same time frame, Cedar Park’s first six possessions ended in four punts, a fumble, and over-on-downs after three yards in losses. Cedar Park managed just 25 total yards on their first three possessions, and fourteen of that came on the first play of the ball game. After establishing their big lead the Lions’ offense went into hibernation, gaining only forty yards of offense in the second half. By then it was far too late for the hobbled T’wolves to do much about it.

 

But the biggest difference in this game came down to three huge plays for Leander early in the game:  a 63-yard touchdown pass, an 86-yard touchdown run, and a forced and recovered fumble at the end of a 50-yard Timberwolf pass play.

 

Actually, the final numbers were not badly disparate. Both teams had twelve first downs. Only eight first downs were actually gained on the field by Leander (statistics etiquette dictates a first down tabulation on touchdown plays by the offense). In fact, 181 of Leander’s 350 total yards – that’s 52% of their total – came on just three plays: the two long touchdowns and a critical 32-yard run by McKinley. Outside of those three plays, the Lions gained just 169 yards on 47 other snaps: only 3.6 yards per play. Outside of the two big McKinley runs totaling 118 yards, the Lions’ ground game was unimpressive: a mediocre 157 yards on 44 other carries for that same mundane 3.6 yards-per-carry average.

 

There was no Leander passing game - well, besides the 63-yard lightning strike to Curenski Gilleylen – but then, they didn’t need one. McKinley only threw four passes and completed just two. Both of these were the lowest totals for any Cedar Park opponent on the season. In fact, McKinley was the whole Leander offense. Running back Reggie Hodges had plenty of carries, but averaged just over two yards per run, and over half the Leander snaps ended up being such carries by Hodges. 

 

Actually, Leander only mounted two “drives” all night: the 61-yarder in eight plays that scored the initial touchdown, and a 39-yarder in the third quarter on which the Gang Green stuffed a fourth-down conversion attempt at the CP 31. The Lions’ other three TD possessions were one, one, and two plays in duration. Quick strikes, rather than any ability to grind out long drives, were the Leander operating plan.

 

But unfortunately for Cedar Park those big plays counted. If McKinley is stopped for an average gain on his long TD run, and if the 63 yard-TD pass goes incomplete or is batted away, and then the fumble is not lost after the 50-yard CP pass play took the ball into the red zone and the T’wolves score instead, we’re looking at a 14-14 ball game in which Cedar Park leads in all the stats. Three big plays.

 

The other defining difference in this game was the formidable Lion defense. During the middle of the game – the last possession of the first half and the first two of the second – Cedar Park was held to negative yardage each time: the only such occurrence since such records have been kept (since 2001).

 

The Lions forced seven Cedar Park punts: tied for the most by the T’wolves in a single game all year. In the Harker Heights, Hays, Georgetown, McNeil, and Pflugerville games combined the T’wolves punted a total of eight times… and went 5-0. In fact, Cedar Park only punted 28 times all year for an average of less than three punts per game, and only punted more than three times in just three of their ten games. Leander’s defensive effort was quite impressive.

 

A near-capacity crowd of an estimated 11,500 fans crammed Bible stadium for what turned out to be the district championship game. Ironically, the help Cedar Park needed to put their title hopes in their own hands came about- Stony Point beat Westwood. That made the winner of the Bagdad Bowl the district 14-5A champ. This year, it went to Leander. In the last three years, Leander now has one less loss than Cedar Park, but the Timberwolves have one more win than the Lions. LHS is 16-5 in district play over that time frame with two district titles, and Cedar Park is right on their heels with a 15-6 district record and one title. Oh, and CPHS has still won two of the last three against Leander.

 

And looking into our crystal ball at the sub-varsity and middle school players and results, Timberwolf fans needn’t be too disappointed over this defeat. The future looks so bright the Booster Club is selling shades at the concession stand. Get your season tickets now. And look for Cedar Park to take over the status of district football kingpin very soon.

 

 

Cedar Park

 

Leander

 

 

 

 

First Downs

12

 

12

Rushes

43

 

46

Rush Yards

182

 

275

Yards/Rush

4.23

 

5.98

Pass Att.

14

 

4

Pass Comp.

6

 

2

Pass Int.

0

 

0

Pass Pct. Comp.

43%

 

50%

Pass Yards

76

 

75

Avg Yds/Att.

5.43

 

18.75

Total Yards

258

 

350

Penalties

2

 

1

Pen Yards

15

 

5

Fumbles

3

 

0

Fumbles Lost

1

 

0

Punts

7

 

2

Return Yards

72

 

0

 

 

1st

2nd

3rd

 

4th

 

Final

Cedar Park

0

0

0

 

7

 

7

Leander

14

14

0

 

0

 

28

 

Scoring Summary

 

 

 

Q

T

CP

L

How

 

1

6:22

 

7

Hodges 3 run (#34 kick)

 

 

1

:42

 

14

Hodges 4 run (#34 kick)

 

 

2

10:34

 

21

McKinley 86 run (#34 kick)

 

 

2

3:24

 

28

McKinley 63 pass to Gilleyand (#34 kick)

 

 

4

6:24

7

 

Tyler Smith 9 run (Greer kick)