T’Wolves Fight Off Georgetown 21-12

Comeback Win in District Opener Extends Centex’ Best Win Streak

Facing their first deficit of the season, the Cedar Park Timberwolves calmly righted the ship and sailed past a tough Georgetown Eagle team for a 21-12 Homecoming win in front of the largest crowd of the season at Bible Stadium Friday night.

The third-longest win streak in school history now stands at six games, dating back to 2005. Cedar Park is 4-0 overall on the season, continuing their best season start in this century, and kicking off district 14-5A play with an important win to go 1-0 in league action for the fourth time ever (2004, 2001, 2000).

“This is the most physical team we’ve played,” said Head Coach Chris Ross at his weekly meeting with Timberwolf fans at the CP cafeteria Monday night. (Big hint- if you love high school football, you owe it to yourself to attend these, at 7:00 every Monday night.) “I was talking with some of their players afterward and several of them said the same thing about us,” added Ross.

After some initial success – a tremendous return of the opening kickoff, a big run on the first play, and a 35-yard touchdown on a trick play two snaps later – Georgetown ran into a wall; specifically, the Gang Green defense. The Eagles gained only 113 yards from that point until the game was already decided prior to their final possession late in the fourth quarter.

“Justin Allen was a monster in this game,” said Ross, “and our cornerbacks played their finest game yet. It was a great job by our defense against an offense that had been moving the ball very well this year.”

Ball-control offense was the mode of operation for Cedar Park, their 23 first downs the second-most ever achieved in one game. Tyler Smith ran for 173 yards and two scores on 31 carries, three carries short of his school-record 34 set against the Eagles last season. The T’s 2006 totals now stand at 630 yards and ten touchdowns in just four games. Smith has now rushed for 465 yards and six TDs on 65 carries against Georgetown in the last two encounters.

Yes, it was quite a night for Tyler, who was also crowned Homecoming King in absentia; an apt title, given his on-field performance.

Four district 14-5A teams entered the night undefeated on the season. By eleven pm, that was down to three, Cedar Park being one of those on top, along with Westwood and McNeil. Round Rock fell from the ranks when Westwood put up a decisive fourth quarter rally and won with three unanswered touchdowns, 35-28.

But the records that count the most now are the ones on that fresh district ledger. Four teams are tied at the top with 1-0 records: Cedar Park, Leander, McNeil, and Westwood. Four teams are tied at the bottom: Georgetown, Pflugerville, Round Rock, and Stony Point.

Friday night at Bible Stadium saw perhaps the most exciting game so far this season. The excitement for this Homecoming game was so high that even the scoreboard joined the CP crowd in their usual “black-out” mode. Fans’ tension levels were enhanced by the darkened scoreboard, which blew a fuse prior to the game and despite LISD maintenance staff scrambling most of the evening to effect repairs, never came online. Thus, your announcer here tried to remember to mention the score and a time guess as often as possible, reminding everyone within earshot that official time was being kept on the field, and that our clock calls were strictly unofficial estimates. Our regular scoreboard clock jockey Bob Crumley ran a stop watch in the booth using the same visual cues from the referees that he keys off of when running the scoreboard, and estimated, unofficial times were given at several points as the night wore on.

Cedar Park has made a habit of scoring early and often, with a total of twelve TDs in their first four, five, and six possessions of the first three games. That trend came to a screeching halt as Georgetown’s defensive scheme was appropriately tuned to stop the T’wolf offense… at least, for a while. Kash David and Michael Rocha were a defensive thorn in the T’wolves’s side early on.

Runy Davis was the source of the Eagles’ scary forty-yard return of the opening kickoff, setting G’town up at their own 43. Davis’ carry on the game’s first play from scrimmage went for fourteen yards, across midfield to the Cedar Park 43.

“That was a play we warned our guys about all week, but Runy’s a darn good back and he busted it on us anyway that first time,” said Ross.

An eight-yard pass completion set up a second and two from the CP 35. The Eagles then pulled a trick play out of the box. Quarterback Morgan Micken took the snap and turned, giving a deep belly fake to Davis, who followed the whole offense on a sweep to the right. Micken continued his pirouette and, from immediately behind fullback Dan Acala, deftly reached around his hip and stuck the ball in Acala’s stomach, then moved right with the other Eagles. The Gang Green followed them en masse, and three Timberwolves even bumped into the statue-still Acala, standing there alone with the ball. Once all the defenders passed him, Acala took off slightly left of center, completely untouched - perhaps even unnoticed - by the Timberwolves, for the touchdown. Cory McGrath’s kick made the score 7-0 Eagles just one minute into the game. It was the first time all season Cedar Park had trailed.

“That took some guts calling a trick play on the third snap of the game,” said Ross. “That play is either a five yard loss or a touchdown, every time you run it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything in between.”

But adjustments were quickly made by Ross and his able staff. From that point until midway through the fourth quarter, Cedar Park would out-gain Georgetown 331 total yards to 102.

Unfortunately, at the end of that run, with scant minutes remaining in the contest, the Timberwolves would only have a 14-10 lead to show for it. Here’s how that came about…

After that surprise 7-0 Eagle lead, the two teams exchanged five-and-outs. Then Cedar Park started to get limbered up with a 25-yard lunge on nine plays, gaining a pair of first downs. But the Eagles stiffened up again at the CP 45 and forced a second Blake Silgero punt.

Georgetown moved 18 yards and notched one first down before the Gang Green made them launch their own second punt.

By this time the Cedar Park offense had the kinks worked out. From this point, no Timberwolf possession until the end of the game would go for less than the 38 yards achieved on this third one, unless they just didn’t have that far to go for a score. The key on this drive was a 24-yard pass from Michael Cochran to Taylor Itz. Cedar Park was rolling, having moved from their own 16 all the way into Eagle territory at the 46, but there a fumble stopped the drive without any points.

The Gang Green continued its dominance over the G’town offense, holding them to three plays, three yards, and a kick. After their initial scoring thrust, the Eagles had gained only 35 yards in their next three possessions.

Now in the second quarter, Cedar Park started from their own twenty and put together a beautiful eighty-yard drive lasting eleven plays and ending in Tyler Smith’s seven yard TD run a few minutes into the second quarter. Jordan Greer’s kick finally tied the game. It seemed like the T’wolves had wrenched control of the contest after just one minute of play, and it was difficult to believe they’d spent over a quarter and a half trailing, judging by the flow of play on the field.

A flubbed kickoff out of bounds set the Eagles up at their own 43 with perhaps four minutes left in the half. The Gang Green held them to three plays and nine yards, and on fourth down the Georgetown punting team came on.

At this point, it’s appropriate to describe the odd punting scheme employed by coach Phil Blue and his Eagles. They have two punters. One is left-footed and the other is right-footed. Both line up standing next to each other waiting to kick in deep punt formation. Either on a read or a pre-determined call based on hash mark placement and defensive formation, one of the two of them moves forward to assume the standard “up back” blocking position while the other stays back to take the deep snap. On receiving the ball, the punter then begins running to one side or the other of the line – right side if he’s the right-footed punter, left side if he’s the lefty. He’s got a run-punt option. If the defense stays home and shows they’re aware of him, he’ll just punt it on the run, about five yards before the line of scrimmage. But if the defense lets him, he’ll just tuck it under and run for the first down. Cedar Park stopped a play like this last year in Birklebach Stadium. They didn’t last Friday night.

And converting this play near midfield was critical, as it kept an eight-play drive alive that took the Eagles down to the 22, from which point McGrath knocked through a 38-yard field goal, giving Georgetown a 10-7 lead with an unofficial forty seconds left in the half.

Or, maybe it was more. Either that, or Coach Ross’ hurry-up offense is awfully efficient. Cedar Park ran seven plays after the kickoff, deftly moving the ball 37 yards to the Eagle 36. But there Cochran threw the first interception of his career and the half was over, with the Timberwolves trailing at intermission for the first time since being down by the same score to Pflugerville in week eight of 2005, the last time the team had lost.

But no one around makes the kind of effective half-time adjustments as does our own Chris Ross. His team came out and clamped a vise grip on this game on both sides of the line for the entire second half.

But still, they needed a TD with approximately 2:40 left in the game to ice the victory. Why that happened had as much to do with Coach Ross’ clock-burning technique as it did a critical deep turnover.

After the break, Cedar Park took the lead for good in the third quarter on what is perhaps their best drive of the season to date. They marched eighty yards – for the second time this game – on an incredible sixteen plays, chewing up nearly all of the third quarter, and scoring on Smith’s three-yard run at the 3:50 mark. Greer’s kick made it 14-10 Timberwolves.

An intentionally short pooch kickoff – keeping the ball away from the dangerous Runy Davis – set the Eagles up at their 36. They kept the ball for ten plays, but only covered a scant 26 very tough yards, battled every inch of the way by the CPD. At the T’wolf 38, Georgetown went for it on fourth down and they were stopped short.

Out came the CP offense, and picked up right where it left off. After finding tough going running between the tackles in the first half, Cedar Park ran there at will in the second, and Cochran and Smith led their troops all the way to the two yard line, where a fumbled snap on second and goal was covered by Georgetown. The Eagles, teetering on the verge of football death, came back to life.

Well, sorta. After three plays, they were faced with a fourth down at their own eleven. Though trailing only 14-10, this was do-or-die for the Eagles. Cedar Park’s suddenly dominant O-line and the apparently unstoppable clock-crushing yardage-chewing offensive production they manufactured caused Georgetown to realize that if they punted the ball away here, they’d probably never see it again.

And the Gang Green held.

Three plays later, Cochran found fullback Taylor Itz streaking around the right side into the flat all alone and rifled a crisp dart to him. Itz outran his pursuit into the end zone. Dominant the entire game except for the opening three plays and the fourth-down fake punt, the Timberwolves finally had some well-deserved breathing room at 21-10.

Georgetown was all but stopped near midfield on what looked to be their final possession of the evening (more on that later), but a personal foul facemask penalty on third and long gave them new life in Cedar Park territory. They moved it down to the twelve, but missed a 29-yard field goal that pretty much iced the game. Unofficially, there were only a few dozen seconds left. Cedar Park could line up in the “victory” formation and take a coupe of knees to end the game.

But hold the phone.

Despite best efforts, the press box stopwatch and the referees’ official clock on the field were out of synch in the final moments of the game. The stopwatch upstairs said approximately 38 seconds were left when Cedar Park took over following that missed field goal attempt. With Georgetown having only one timeout, Cedar Park could take two knees and drip the time away. They did so, but the referees kept putting the ball in play.

Eventually, a fourth down was reached and Cedar Park scrambled to line up for an unplanned-for punt from behind their own goal line. Punter Blake Silguero ran around and then out of the end zone for an intentional safety, making the score 21-12.

Yet still the referees showed more time on the clock.

The resultant free kick was fair caught at about the Georgetown 45, and then the Eagles threw an incomplete pass.

Still, the referees put the ball back into play.

On the next snap, a deep pass over the middle was picked off by Matt Knicky, who ran it back twelve yards. Finally, at long last, the referee held up the ball and the extended game was over.

Since starting out 2004 0-2, Cedar Park is now 20-6, and 11-4 in district 14-5A play. Both marks are the best records of any team in the district.

Next game is at the Parmer Palace this Friday night against an unbeaten McNeil Mavericks team. Cedar Park smoked the Mavs at this same venue last season 24-0. The year before that at Bible Stadium, the 2004 state quarterfinalist T’wolf team started a string of three consecutive shutouts with a 20-0 win over the Mavericks. That means McNeil hasn’t scored a single point on Cedar Park since their current crop of seniors were freshmen.

Look for that to end Friday night. McNeil will be our toughest game to date. We need everyone in the stands, wearing black and green, faces painted, lungs fresh and loud for this one!

	Cedar Park	Georgetown
First Downs	23	12
Rushes	48	24
Rush Yards	244	127
Yards/Rush	5.08	5.29
Pass Att.	14	23
Pass Comp.	8	10
Pass Int.	1	1
Pass Pct. Comp.	57%	43%
Pass Yards	116	86
Avg Yds/Att.	8.29	3.74
Total Yards	360	213
Penalties	2	2
Pen Yards	25	10
Fumbles	3	1
Fumbles Lost	2	0
Punts	2	3
Return Yards	42	112

Scoring Summary
Q	T	CP	G	How
1	11:00		7	Don Acala 35 run (Cory McGrath kick)
2	5:00	7		Tyler Smith 7 run (Jordan Greer kick)
2	0:40		10	Cody McGrath 38 FG
3	3:50	14		Tyler Smith 3 run (Greer kick)
4	2:40	21		Michael Cochran 10 pass to Taylor Itz (Greer kick)
4	0:10		12	Punter Silguerro takes intentional safety

Times above are estimates only, as official time was kept on the field due to a scoreboard malfunction.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Cedar Park	0	7	7	7	21
Georgetown	7	3	0	2	12