T'wolves Start 3-0 for First Time This Century

Cedar Park Escapes Killeen with 31-28 win over Gray Wolves

If you're looking for the number worn by Cedar Park player Harry Houdini, let us know if you find it: it's got to be there somewhere. The T'wolves needed all the talents of an escape artist Thursday night at Killeen's Buckley Stadium to overcome numerous problems and scoot out of town with a 31-28 win that seemed narrower than expected. 

If he's playing for Cedar Park, Houdini may be disguised as Tyler Smith. The T's second career 200-yard-plus rushing performance and his second four touchdown game were a big reason the Timberwolves left Shoemaker holding the bag in a down-to-the-wire nail-biter.

Jordan Greer finally unshackled CP's handcuffs with seconds left in the game by nailing a 30-yard field goal for the win. It was the first of his career.

Now riding a five-game winning streak stretching back to last season, the Timberwolves remain the hottest 5A team in central Texas.

Cedar Park is now 3-0 for the first time since the first three games ever played by the program in 1999. The T'wolves have won five consecutive games dating back to last season, and thus have tied the 2001 district 17-4A champs for the third-longest winning streak in school history. It is the first 3-0 start since the program began playing a district schedule in 2000. The team is 19-6 since starting 2004 out 0-2. This is the best mark in that time frame of any team in district 14-5A, Leander and Pflugerville included.

Despite a near-record twelve penalties, numerous dropped balls (passes and kicks), more fumbles than in either previous game this fall, and Gray Wolf running backs and receivers that proved tougher than expected to tackle, Cedar Park pulled a win out of the fire in a circumstance that would have burned previous Timberwolf teams. Although anxious fans in the stands may have trouble perceiving this, it is truly a sign that the program is turning a corner. You cannot win games like this unless you're an awfully good team to begin with.

Smith ran 26 times for 240 yards – 9.23 yards per carry – on the way to the second four-TD rushing night of his career. It was his second-highest yardage total ever, and pushes his season total to 457 yards and eight scores in just three games. This is a pace which would set The T at 1,520 yards and 27 TDs by the end of the regular season. That projected yardage total would be the second-most ever in a regular season at Cedar Park, and would tie the record for most TDs in a season. Such a total would also push Smith past Korey Washington into the third slot for all-time rushers at Cedar Park.

Quarterback Michael Cochran’s numbers suffered from some dropped passes, but his yardage total and number of completions were still the best of his young career, as he went 8-for-19 for 97 yards. Cochran had entered the game with an NCAA quarterback rating of 179.88, higher than any collegiate QB going into the weekend’s games. Cochran is now 21-for-37 for 257 yards and a score with no interceptions on the season.

Wideout Travis Smith was the leading receiver with two catches for 33 yards, both gaining critical first downs. Tough inside running from Taylor Itz softened up the Shoemaker defense in preparation for a 309-yard rushing performance by Cedar Park. Speedy fullback Itz averaged 4.36 yards per carry right into the meat of the Gray Wolf defense.

An incredible nine false start penalties plagued the T’wolf offense all night long, stopping some drives and causing others to rack up more offensive yardage than the total distance covered.

The team’s 406 yards of total offense were the most ever in the Ross era, and it was the first 400-yard-plus offensive total since the Area Round playoff win over Copperas Cove in 2004.

Signs that this would be a tougher game than expected were evident on the first Cedar Park drive: it didn’t end with a TD for the first time in 2006. After a Shoemaker short punt into a brisk south wind on the Gray Wolves’ first possession, Cedar Park started from their own 49 and went 26 yards to the Shoemaker 25, where the drive stalled, a dropped pass contributing to the requirement for a field goal attempt. It would be the first of many dropped passes on the night. Greer’s 42-yard attempt fell short and the G’wolves took over.

Finding some success with a mixture of deft runs by running back Antoine Gibbs and the passing of quarterback Andre Smith, Shoemaker moved 31 yards but the Gang Green defense stopped them on fourth down at the CP 43.

After that initial missed field goal, Cedar Park’s offense looked more like what T’wolf fans were used to: they scored four touchdowns in the next five possessions.

The second drive went 57 yards in six crisp plays, The T taking it in from 16 yards out for the score. Greer’s kick made it 7-0 with 29 seconds left in the first quarter.

But just a little more than two minutes later, Shoemaker had an answer. After setting up at their twenty following a kickoff into the end zone, the Gray Wolves knifed the entire 80 yards in just five plays, the big key being a 51-yard pass. Quarterback Smith ran it in from 11 yards out and the kick tied the game with 9:47 left in the half.

The pace was really picking up now. After setting up at their own 37, the Timberwolves went right back to work with their second straight six-play touchdown drive, this one covering 63 yards and capped off by another Tyler Smith touchdown run, this one from 21 yards out, and Greer’s kick made it 14-7 Cedar Park with 7:44 remaining.

Shoemaker started their next possession in a hole, at their own 18. The Gang Green defense appeared to solve the code and allowed only 4 yards and a three-and-out. Unfortunately, it might have been even better. A big loss in the backfield on one play resulted in a G’wolves fumble, and the ball bounced right into a defender’s hands, just twenty-five yards from the goal line. But the ball came loose again and Shoemaker survived to punt. That play could have put CP up 21-7 and changed the rest of the game, but that’s the way the ball bounces.

Equally unfortunately, the ensuing possession was the only one in a string of five straight on which Cedar Park would not score. Shoemaker’s D produced their own three-and-out, one of three they’d shackle CP with on the night.

Taking over at their own 46, the Gray Wolves went 54 yards in five plays, scoring on an 11-yard run by Lavell Marsette. The kick tied the game at 14 with 2:01 left in the half.

There followed something Cedar Park fans can hang their hopes on- a magnificent piece of clock work as the Timberwolf offense ran the two-minute offense to perfection, something the program historically has struggled mightily with over the years. A terrific 29-yard kickoff return by T Smith put the ball on the CP 40 to start. The offense then moved the requisite sixty yards in five quick plays, Smith taking it in for his third touchdown of the half on a five yard run with nineteen seconds left. Greer’s kick made it 21-14 and it seemed certain the T’wolves would have a halftime lead.

Not to Shoemaker, though. A short kickoff and a good return set them up at the Cedar Park forty, and they were able to run two plays and get to the thirty before trying a 47-yard field goal that went wide left as time expired.

Clearly, even with their 0-2 start and generally poor performances in their opening two games, Shoemaker was suddenly a team on the upswing, and was putting up a far bigger fight than had Harker Heights or Hays, both comparatively superior teams. CP found itself in a dogfight in this Battle of the Wolves.

The second half opened with Cedar Park grabbing immediate control by marching on their longest drive to this point, both in yardage covered and plays run. They moved 76 yards in eight plays in a nicely-managed touchdown drive that ended in Tyler Smith’s fourth scoring run of the night, from four yards out. Greer’s kick made the score 28-14 with 8:42 left in the third and it looked like Cedar Park was beginning to pull away, with a two-touchdown lead for the first time all evening.

The Gang Green defense immediately forced a three and out, and Shoemaker punted it away from their own 35. With four touchdowns in their last five possessions, the rout looked to be on for Cedar Park. Another TD on this next drive would make the score 35-14 late in the third, and that would pretty much be all she wrote. Right?

It was at that moment the wheels fell off.

A rare muffed punt bit us at the fifteen. The ball was kicked and batted at least a dozen times by half a dozen players on either team, with no one able to come up with it. It tumbled into the end zone, where T’wolf fans instantly hoped it would be batted over the end line. It was not. Shoemaker’s Martez McLean finally corralled it and Shoemaker had a free touchdown. The kick made it a 28-21 game and a team that should have been all but left for dead was right back in the contest.

Uncle Mo had rarely switch sides so quickly. The instant before that punt hit the ground, CP was completely in charge of this game, and likely about to put it away. A few heartbeats later, Shoemaker had taken the game by the throat and would not be shaken loose until the very end.

Following the Shoemaker kickoff, the Gray Wolf defense produced one of its second three three-and-outs of the night. Cedar Park punted into that sharp wind from its own 15 and after the return the G’wolves were in business at the T’wolf 42.

Seven plays later, from the ten yard line, Andre Smith found a receiver in the end zone and the kick tied the game at 28 with ten seconds left in the third quarter.

Cedar Park faced one of those classic situations where you learn what you’re made of. On a night when a lot of little things had been going wrong all evening – penalties and dropped passes and some busted tackling – the team had still generally managed to work through them to take control of this game. But then something major had gone wrong on top of all the compounded naggy little minor things – the free touchdown – and with the classic momentum shift, their adversary now had a knife at their throat. The team could either fold, or triumph. The defense now absolutely had to solve the tackling problem. The offense absolutely had to come up with points.

Check both those off the list of things to do. The Timberwolves manned up and got it done.

From that point on – after the Shoemaker TD that tied the game at 28 – the Gray Wolves went nowhere the entire fourth quarter against a fired-up Gang Green. Shoemaker would only register 38 yards of offense in their three fourth-quarter possessions. With the game on the line, the Cedar Park defense came through.

After the kickoff following the tying touchdown, the Timberwolf offense started out strong, going to midfield on eight plays, but there the drive faltered and they had to kick it away.

The Gang Green gave up one first down, then stiffened up and forced a punt, putting Cedar Park right back at the fifty. But a disastrous twenty yard loss on a bad snap play sapped the juice out of that possession, and Cedar Park kicked it away again, this time from their own 42.

But the defense continued to come through. On the third Shoemaker play, a critical third and short, quarterback Andre Smith rolled left and ran for the first down marker. The Timberwolves’ Andrew Baughman slammed into him for a two yard loss on perhaps the game’s most critical defensive play. There was 7:13 left in the game and Shoemaker would never gain another yard.

A tremendous punt into the wind pushed Cedar Park back to their own 27. The goal line was a long ways away, the offense had been sluggish of late, and the T’wolves unblemished record was most definitely on the line. Despite the recent defensive success, no one in green and white wanted to give Andre Smith the ball just 25 yards away from the goal in an overtime exchange. Cedar Park absolutely had to have points out of this drive.

What a time for the longest possession of the night. Maybe not in distance – two were longer than its sixty yards – but in terms of time-of-possession and number of plays run, this would be the longest drive of the game for Cedar Park. It took 14 plays and burned the clock all the way down to just seventeen seconds. Along the way, several critical runs by Talyor Itz and Tyler Smith kept the drive alive. A key catch by Travis Smith helped to ensure the final positioning for Jordan Greer’s shot at glory.

On fourth down from the Shoemaker 13, set up at a severe angle from the right hash mark, Greer came on to attempt a possible game-winning, bacon-saving kick from thirty yards out. Shoemaker called time to ice him, and he lined up again. Shoemaker called time again to double-ice him. But it didn’t matter. That was their final time out, and they’d run out of ice. Greer’s kick lifted over the line, shuddered through the air and fell just over the crossbar, traveling 32 yards when it needed 30.

The Cedar Park sidelines and stands and even a resurgent Timberwolf band exploded. Now it was up to the defense to ensure that any miracle comeback by Shoemaker was strangled.

After the kickoff, there was time for just two plays. The first was an incomplete pass. The second, with time ticking away, was a desperation heave by Andre Smith down the far right sideline. It was caught- by Cedar Park’s Andrew Cretini, who retuned it twenty yards up the sideline as time expired.

Despite somehow orchestrating a 14-point surge to tie the game in the second half, Shoemaker only managed 97 yards of ball movement after intermission. Their five second half possessions end in a punt, a short TD drive, a punt, a punt, and an interception. The CPD put the clamp on the Gray Wolves.

As Coach Ross has often pointed out, any win is a good win. Despite the anxiousness of the loss of control late in the third quarter, despite the nettlesome penalty problems and so forth, our Timberwolves won on a night many teams would have been unable to find the formula. A game that many other teams – including previous incarnations of our own – would have assuredly lost, our young men pulled out of the fire.

A fine performance, measured in those terms. This team continues to grow impressively.

Next up, Homecoming! The Georgetown Eagles, greatly improved from last season, will be at Bible Stadium Friday night as district play begins. Based on the results from the first four weeks of the season, this will be the toughest and most competitive district 14-5A race in years. Literally, any team in the district could win it, and any team in the district could come in last.

We need everyone in place and ready to rock Friday night. See you there!

	Cedar Park	Shoemaker
First Downs	22	16
Rushes	48	29
Rush Yards	309	122
Yards/Rush	6.44	4.21
Pass Att.	19	18
Pass Comp.	8	12
Pass Int.	0	1
Pass Pct. Comp.	42%	67%
Pass Yards	97	148
Avg Yds/Att.	5.11	8.22
Total Yards	406	270
Penalties	12	3
Pen Yards	60	15
Fumbles	4	3
Fumbles Lost	1	0
Punts	4	5
Return Yards	134	50

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Cedar Park	7	14	7	3	31
Shoemaker	0	14	14	0	28

Scoring Summary
Q	T	CP	Sh	How
1	0:29	7		Tyler Smith 16 run (Jordan Greer kick)
2	9:47		7	Andre Smith 11 run (Flacencia kick)
2	7:44	14		Tyler Smith 21 run (Jordan Greer kick)
2	2:01		14	Levell Marsette 11 run (Flacencia kick)
2	0:19	21		Tyler Smith 5 run (Jordan Greer kick)
3	8:42	28		Tyler Smith 4 run (Jordan Greer kick)
3	5:43		21	Martez McLean fumble recovery in end zone (kick)
3	0:10		28	Andre Smith 10 pass to #81(Flacencia kick)
4	0:17	31		Jordan Greer 30 FG