Cedar Park Rumbles On
Timberwolves win First-ever Home
Playoff Game in Double Overtime
I’ve got an idea. Let’s pitch a weekly TV series to NBC
about a Texas high school football team and all its trials and travails; the
ups and the downs, all the high drama and breakneck action as they pound their
way through a particularly exciting season. Let’s assign a production crew to a
local Austin-area team and follow them around with cameras and film their games
and…
Whuh? Someone beat me to it? NBC’s in
Pflugerville? Well, somebody tell those geniuses they’re about twelve miles too
far east.
Playing in the very first 5A playoff game ever held at
Bible Stadium, the Cedar Park Timberwolves extended their season yet another
week Friday night with an almost indescribable 36-29 double-overtime win.
And yet here I am tasked with describing it.
There’s no way to do this one justice, so let’s first discuss
the ramifications while I figure out how to go about this…
Cedar Park runs their record to 9-2 with the victory,
their third in a row over Harker Heights and their second this season. The
Knights, going out in a blaze of glory with their best performance of the year,
finish 4-6. Cedar Park takes command of the all-time series with Heights 5 wins
to 3, and will kick off the 2007 season against them in Killeen in what will be
the sixth straight opener against the Knights.
With the amazing win in front of an estimated 5,500 fans
Friday night – 4,500 of them on the Cedar Park side – the Timberwolves advance
to the Area Round to face Klein Oak at 2:30 Saturday afternoon at the Parmer
Palace. Winners over Conroe Oak Ridge Friday night 41-21, the Oak Panthers of
district 16-5A are 6-5 on the season, 3-3 in district play. If you’re looking
for any legitimacy for your initial thoughts on that 5-5 regular season record,
the best record of any team Oak defeated was Spring’s 3-7 prior to Friday
night. Oak entered that bi-district game on an 0-3 streak to end district play.
But Conroe Oak Ridge had been a 7-3 team before getting beat by three
touchdowns, so the Panthers will definitely prove a serious opponent.
Cedar Park now has a 4-2 all-time playoff record, the best
post-season winning percentage of any LISD team. In fact, Cedar Park has more
playoff wins in the last three seasons than any program in 14-5A. This weekend
all four district 14-5A teams won their first-round games, something that – due
to the brand new four-team playoff structure – had obviously never before
happened in Texas history. Those four wins run the league’s 2006 record against
outside competition to an almost unbelievable 22-6. Ironically, one third of
those losses belong to our district champion, Leander. But that’s okay, because
those two losses came to teams that Leander stable-mates Westwood and Round
Rock knocked from the playoffs; A&M Consolidated and Bryan. Yes, this has
been a banner year for our athletic district. A gold-braided banner.
This game
followed what has become a somewhat familiar pattern this season. Cedar Park
starts out with a big lead, sees it whittled away, and hangs on by the skin of their
teeth anyway for a win. But in this game, they were forced to find a hair on
that toothskin to hang by, and it was just strong
enough.
With
senior quarterback Travis Watson out indefinitely from the injury he suffered
halfway through the Leander game, third QB Jamie Knight – otherwise known as
the team’s leading receiver – has been forced under center the remainder of the
year. But Knight may well be the best third-team QB in all of Texas. Outside of
the Hail Mary heave he launched far downfield on the last play of regulation,
Knight completed every pass he threw, and delivered some fine runs right when
his team needed them.
Senior
halfback Tyler Smith ended his flashy Bible Stadium career by running for 142
yards on 26 carries and tying the school record for most touchdowns in a single
game, with five. Coupled with the 79 yards and two scores logged by The T in
the season opener, Smith totaled 231 yards and seven touchdowns against Harker heights this season.
This game
started out looking like a silky smooth win for the home team, with two crisp touchdown drives in the team’s first
three possessions, both capped off by one-yard runs from Smith. Kicks by Jordan
Greer put the T’wolves firmly in charge at 14-0 with
At that
point, the Knights made a change.
Or, they
changed back from an earlier change, more precisely. During the preparation
week Cedar Park Head Coach Chris Ross had noticed that Heights had altered
their offense as the season went on, moving from the spread-out throwing attack
we saw in game one to a big-line, no wide-outs formation that ran the ball downhill,
straight at you. The Gang Green was prepared for this, and their defensive game
plan paid dividends the first two possessions, stopping the Knights and giving
them little yardage to show for it.
On their
third try, out came the spread offense again. This time, they moved through the
air and on the ground and eventually scored on a nine-yard run by quarterback Ryan
Ballentine with 25 seconds to go in the half. Chris Stroud’s kick cut the
T’wolf lead to 14-7.
Timberwolf
fans have gotten comfortable with the fact that Coach Ross doesn’t waste any possession.
After Stroud’s kickoff sailed out-of-bounds in an attempt to avoid a
lightning-strike kick return from Tyler Smith,
After a
rousing halftime show in which the Timberwolf band found its comic roots, that
control slipped away. At one point in the second half, Cedar Park posted three straight
offensive possessions that gained seven, six, and five total yards. Meanwhile,
the un-revamped
But
Heights coach Ross Rogers isn’t in the Texas Hall of Fame for nothing. Before
taking the reigns at Harker Heights when the school opened in 1998, Rogers
built the great program at A&M Consolidated from perennial doormat to the
state power it remains today, taking then to three UIL Finals appearances, and
winning the state championship in 1991. With his team’s season on the line,
Rogers pulled out all the stops, and emptied his playbook onto the field. He un-un-revamped
his offense.
Over the
course of this game, the Knights tried three reverses, two double reverses (one
that ended in a pass), two different fake punt plays, a fake conversion
attempt, an onside kick, and a partridge in a pear tree. All but one of those
would work, and the Timberwolves nearly stumbled over this dumped bag of
tricks.
After one
fake punt kept a drive alive, Ballentine, who only threw two incomplete passes
until the Knights’ final possession of the game, heaved a 38-yard scoring pass
to Michael Tealer to draw the game closer, at 21-14 with 1:09 left in the third
quarter. Tealer already had the record for most receiving yards by a Cedar Park
opponent in history, with 124 in the season opener. Netting eighty yards on
three catches this night, Tealer extending this record to 204 yards.
After Tealer’s score, again Cedar Park went nowhere. And again
Rogers reached deep into his bag of tricks. This time, a reverse ended up with
the ball pitched back to wideout Jermaine Jamison,
who was listed at the beginning of the season as the team’s starting
quarterback. Once again, you can probably guess the rest. Jamison stopped and
chunked the ball to Trice for a 57-yard touchdown. Stroud’s kick tied the game
at 21 with 11:09 left in the game and Cedar Park was in serious trouble.
The
offense had gone virtually nowhere since Smith’s 70-yard touchdown to end the
first half. The defense was suddenly on its heels facing a slew of bizarre
gadget plays and struggling to find a handle on the Heights offense.
And yet
find it they did. While the Cedar Park offense was unable to get the gear
shift, clutch, and accelerator in synch, the Gang Green defense at last found
the brakes. Heights began to bog down under the crush of outstanding play by
Andrew Cretini, Andrew Baughman, Michael Damron, and
Justin Allen in particular. The teams traded punches until the final horn
sounded with the two sides still tied at 21-all.
It became
the first playoff overtime game in Cedar Park history, and the first playoff
home game, as well.
There was
much to be concerned with. Cedar Park was 1-2 in overtime games, losing its
very first full varsity game on the road to Bastrop 16-13 in 2000 in double
overtime, and 15-9 in a driving rainstorm to this Harker Heights program on the
road in that same year, again in double-OT. On the plus side of history, the
only OT win ever for CP had at least come inside this same facility, 26-23 “at”
Leander in double OT in 2004.
More
importantly, the offense was mired in sludge. The T rushed for only 27 yards on
eight carries in the second half; just three yards per run. Although Knight had
hit Travis Smith for a crucial 58-yard pass early on during a first-half CP
touchdown drive, the aerial game went almost completely unused subsequent to
that, with only two other completions on just three attempts for 24 yards prior
to overtime.
And on
the other side, who knew how deep Ross Rogers’ bag of tricks would prove to be?
Pretty
deep. On the first play of overtime, Harker Heights ran a double reverse with
the ball ending up in the hands of wideout Eain
Runyon, who was the Knights’ starting quarterback in the season opener. In a frightening
moment of déjà vu, Runyon threw to the end zone, straight into the hands of the
nettlesome Michael Tealer for a 25-yard touchdown, a dagger straight to the
heart of the Timberwolves. One play into overtime, and Cedar Park trailed for
the first time all night.
Then it
got worse.
Rogers’
magic bag wasn’t quite depleted. On came the kick team for the extra point. But
holder Tanner Byrd stood up, spun, and hit running back James Taylor in the end
zone for a stunning two-point conversion. Two plays, two overtime scores, and
Cedar Park was now faced with having to take the ball into the end zone twice
on its next possession, or die trying.
They
chose life.
With the season
on the line, Knight engineered a short, efficient drive powered by keepers and
Smith runs, and livened up with a critical fourth-down completion to Taylor Itz. It ended up The T pushing into the end zone for the
score. That run was greeted with perhaps the quietest touchdown cheer ever
issued from the Cedar Park stands, because everyone knew that this scoring run
meant nothing if the coming two-point conversion failed.
Again,
with the season down to a single play, the Timberwolves showed the kind of
grit, determination, and heart this town has come to admire so much in this team.
Knight took the snap and rolled right with what looked to be a run-pass option.
He found Smith just over the goal line less than ten yards in front of him and
tossed him an easy pass. The T pulled it in and Cedar Park lived.
In the
second overtime, the T’wolves went first. It was nearly a carbon-copy of the
first OT; a brisk drive with a nice pass to Itz,
capped of by a one-yard plunge for Smith’s sixth scoring play of the night
(counting the two-point conversion); another school record. Coach Ross rolled
no such dice on the conversion, sending Greer on to knock it through for a
seven-point lead, 36-29.
In the
bottom of the second overtime inning, the cleat was on the other foot: it was
Harker Heights whose season was on the line. This time, the Gang Green defense
came through in the clutch. With the
On fourth
and ten from the twenty-five, Ballentine dropped back and was chased to his
left by a pack of wolves. The Gang Green secondary had all his receivers
blanketed. No one was open, and he angled toward the line to tuck it and run.
Suddenly he saw Trice in a pocket at the six, and fired the ball. With
Timberwolves closing in on him at the same time as the ball, Trice went high
and pulled it in, getting knocked out of bounds with a first and goal.
Except
for one little problem.
There was
a late penalty flag down at the line of scrimmage. A hold would negate the gain
and make it fourth and twenty, Cedar Parkers were hoping. As the referees
huddled, many gradually caught the implications: the flag was thrown at
Ballentine as he released the pass. If this was an illegal forward pass – the
quarterback crossing the line – that was
a loss of down penalty. It had been a fourth down play. That meant this
ball game would be over!
The
officials continued to confer in the middle of the field as the buzz swept
through the crowd, swept swiftly on by those in the know to those less
knowledgeable and thus unsuspecting. Finally, the head referee came over and signaled
to the press box with two hand motions; right arm behind the back- “illegal
forward pass”… and two hands behind the head- “loss of down”.
The cool
Hill Country night exploded with Timberwolf passion as the home stands and the
sideline alike jumped into a frenzy like there was a rush on PS3s. It was a
gallant 36-29 double-overtime win in their first home playoff game ever, and a
rare two-game sweep of an annual rival.
It just don’t
get no better’n
Or does
it?
This team
and this coaching staff have now grasped something many teams reach for but
never master- the fine art of the close win. Heights had stated in the press
that they wanted this to be a close game, because they thought they could win a
slobberknocker. Thus they unwittingly played right
into our guys’ hands. The problem with their approach was that
Because
of experiences like these, our young men now know that every time they stay
close, no matter how high up the state playoff ladder they climb from here,
they have the tools it takes to win.
Now it’s
on to bigger and better things. The second season is off with a bang and
thirty-two teams just fell dead.
Ladies
and gentlemen, if you’re pregnant or have a heart condition, please check with
us at the gate before boarding the bandwagon. Please fasten your restraining
harnesses, get rid of your gum, secure your wallets and purses, and please keep
your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. This is going to be one
whale of a ride.
See you
at The Palace!
|
|
|
|
Heights |
|
|
|
|
|
|
First
Downs |
15 |
|
15 |
|
Rushes |
46 |
|
39 |
|
Rush Yards |
172 |
|
110 |
|
Yards/Rush |
3.74 |
|
2.82 |
|
Pass Att. |
6 |
|
20 |
|
Pass Comp. |
5 |
|
14 |
|
Pass Int. |
1 |
|
0 |
|
Pass Pct. Comp. |
83% |
|
70% |
|
Pass Yards |
110 |
|
225 |
|
Avg Yds/Att. |
18.33 |
|
11.25 |
|
Total Yards |
282 |
|
335 |
|
Penalties |
8 |
|
5 |
|
Pen
Yards |
60 |
|
40 |
|
Fumbles |
2 |
|
1 |
|
Fumbles
Lost |
1 |
|
0 |
|
Punts |
5 |
|
5 |
|
Return
Yards |
65 |
|
57 |
|
|
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
|
4th |
|
1OT |
|
2OT |
|
Final |
|
|
7 |
14 |
0 |
|
0 |
|
8 |
|
7 |
|
36 |
|
Heights |
0 |
7 |
7 |
|
7 |
|
8 |
|
0 |
|
29 |
|
Scoring
Summary |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
Q |
T |
CP |
HH |
How |
|
|
||
|
1 |
|
7 |
|
Tyler
Smith 1 run (Greer kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
|
14 |
|
Tyler
Smith 1 run (Greer kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
:25 |
|
7 |
Balentine 9 run (Stroud kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
:11 |
21 |
|
Tyler
Smith 70 run (Greer kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
14 |
Balentine 38 pass to Tealer (Stroud kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
12 |
Jamison
57 pass to Trice (Stoud kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
1OT |
|
|
29 |
Runyon 25
pass to Tealer (Talyor
pass from Byrd) |
|
|
|
|
|
1OT |
|
29 |
|
Tyler
Smith 1 run (Knight pass to Smith) |
|
|
|
|
|
2OT |
|
36 |
|
Tyler
Smith 2 run (Greer kick) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Individual Stats
Rushing
Harker Heights- Ballentine
20-67, 1 TD (9); Washington 12-34; Byrd 1-5; Runyon 2-5; Taylor 2-3; Floyd
2-(-4)
Passing
Receiving
Harker Heights – Trice 6-111, 1 TD (57); Tealer 3-80, 2 TD (38, 25); Jamison 3-20; Stilley 1-10; Byrd 1-4
Kickoff Returns
Interception Returns
None
Punt Returns
Harker Heights- No returns