T’Wolves Survive Stony Point

Cedar Park Shrugs off Missing Stars, Wins Anyway, Stays Unbeaten

Good thing this one wasn’t played one day later, or it would have been Friday the 13th.

An unlucky absence of both their starting quarterback and their superstar running back didn’t change the outcome for Cedar Park against a Stony Point team with its back to the playoff wall Thursday night at Bible Stadium, as the Timberwolves kept their unbeaten string alive by gritting out a tough 14-13 win.

Cedar Park is now 6-0 overall, 3-0 in district 14-5A. Stony Point has likely fallen out of the playoff picture, at 2-4 overall and 0-3 in district, despite playing many good teams extremely close.

In some sort of cosmic balancing, after this game was just a couple of plays old, the Point also lost its own starting QB, Trevin Wade. Cameron Bell, one of the district’s best running backs, didn’t play either. Thus, in a game that could have been filmed as a Twilight Zone episode, both teams were missing the same two starters.

The Timberwolves have perhaps the best defense in the district. The Tigers have perhaps the best defensive line in the district, with all four linesmen being chased by various collegiate programs.

So nearly everything was dead even. In the end. it came down to one lucky play, but we’ll take it: Stony Point missed a conversion kick. That was basically the only visible difference in this remarkably close ball game. The Tigers ended up with one less point and two more turnovers and Cedar Park took home the win.

Both teams moved the ball for the fewest total yards either had achieved in any game this season. Both teams had just ten first downs. Both teams’ time-of-possession was within three minutes of the other. Both teams punted more than their average punts per game. Both teams had only three possessions that moved more than 17 yards. Both teams had one big offensive play, neither of which ended in a TD but led to one, and without those plays, the two teams’ total yardage would have been close to identical.

It was a backwards sort of night, where perhaps the biggest play of the entire game came very early, when Cedar Park got off a punt.

After starting at their own 17 following the opening kickoff, the Timberwolves gained one first down before stalling at their 34. On fourth down, punter Blake Silguero saw the snap sail ten feet over his head and roll toward the goal line as he took off after it. By some remarkable sense of prescience, Silguero looked back just as he was about to corral the ball about three yards deep in the end zone. This allowed him to see that he didn’t have to just jump on the ball for a safety, or risk missing a diving recovery and giving up a touchdown. Fortunately, the Tigers had put the return on and the rush had been minimal. Silguero was able to scoop up the ball, turn and run out of the end zone, heading for the right sideline and eluding the two men chasing him at about the five. For just an instant, there was running room: possibly even enough to get the first down. But the gap closed quickly and on a dead sprint, just three yards before the line of scrimmage, hugging the far sideline, Silguero launched a running punt in the best Australian Rules tradition. It went 31 yards and rolled out of bounds at the Stony Point 35.

An absolutely huge play. Silguero dives on that ball in the end zone and Cedar Park gives up at least two points. They won by one. Do the math. This play very well may have won the ball game. Instead of a 2-0 or 7-0 lead before their offense even took the field, Stony Point was all the way back at their own 35.

Between the two teams, there would be nine three-and-outs this game. Stony Point put up the first one with their initial possession. Cedar Park answered with another, and the Tigers started their second possession at their 47, from where they got some mild offensive success. Moving thirty yards in eight plays, the drive stalled at the CP 23. Conrad McCue came on for a field goal attempt of forty yards, perhaps not the likeliest of choices given the 25-to-30 knot steady crosswind out of the northeast. His kick was nowhere close, and Cedar Park took over.

The first play earned a first down, but that was the only success. Three plays later, they were forced to punt again.

There followed reciprocal three-and-outs by both teams, and Stony ended up with the ball for the fourth possession starting at their own 23. Well into the second quarter now, the Tigers ran a play around the left end, gaining three but finding two tough Timberwolf defenders in the way. Justin Allen rocked quarterback Nykolas Mckissic with a monster hit, blasting the ball loose. Safety Brandon Lopez, who had a terrific night against McNeil a week earlier, pounced on the ball for the recovery at the 26.

Smelling blood, the Cedar Park offense finally got cranked up. They went 23 yards in five plays, where they faced a fourth and goal at the three. Deigning the field goal attempt, Coach Ross dialed Hunter Dixon’s number, and Dixon answered by rumbling into the end zone off the left side. Jordan Greer’s kick gave the T’wolves a 7-0 lead with just 4:16 left in the half.

After the kickoff, Stony Point still had not found any success against the Cedar Park defense, stalling after three plays and eight yards at their own 35. A punt started the Timberwolves at their 35. On the second snap one of the game’s only two big offensive plays unfolded. Quarterback Travis Watson, a senior who was the starter last season before leaving with an injury in the Georgetown game in week nine, was at the helm in his first start of the season. He kept on an option play and followed the dive back into the line, then busted free just a few yards beyond it. Racing for the goal line, Watson was just nabbed from behind by a speedy Tiger DB 44 yards later at the Stony Point 22. After another first down, five plays later the Timberwolves found themselves with another fourth-and-goal at the two. Watson did the honors with a TD keeper, and Greer’s kick made it 14-0 Cedar Park with just 32 seconds left in the half. The O-line had pushed aside those collegiate prospects on the other side for 92 yards and two touchdowns in the previous two possessions. Things were starting to get cranked up.

An interception by Matt Knicky on a deep pass into the red zone to end the half kept alive the fact that Cedar Park has an interception in every game this year, and nine in the current eight-game winning streak.

Unfortunately, that last drive of the half was the high-water mark for the offense. Cedar Park would only move the ball a total of 53 yards in its four meaningful second half possessions (not counting the knees at the end).

In the second half, Stony Point came out on fire. There was a monster return of the kickoff, at the end of which a personal foul penalty on the T’wolves started the Tigers up in sight of the goal line, just 37 yards away. Eight plays later, they crossed it on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Mckissic to running back Ryan Nunn. McCue’s kick narrowed the gap to 14-7, Timberwolves.

There followed three 3-and-outs, two by Cedar Park sandwiching one by Stony Point. After the second Timberwolf punt of the half, lightning struck for the Tigers. Mckissic launched a deep bomb to dangerous wideout Nathan Alexander, who hauled it in and was chased down by Lopez along the far sideline 65 yards later. That was the key play in a 73-yard, five-play drive that ended with Nunn taking it in from a yard out with 27 seconds left in the third. But McCue’s missed extra point followed, and thus Cedar Park retained the lead by a single point.

After the kickoff, the T’wolves offense remained stymied, and punted the ball away. Fortunately, the Gang Green plugged the leak suffered on the previous Tiger possession and forced a Stony Point punt, as well.

The Timberwolves got the ball back at their own 34 with 8:37 left in the game. With the entire home side of the stadium willing the team to produce just a few first downs, the offense suddenly loosed the second-half shackles. Down the field they drove, twenty-five yards in nine plays, chewing precious time away, until facing a fourth and long near the Tiger forty. Watson calmly found wideout Jamie Knight on the right side and Knight sprinted for the first down marker, gaining 18 on the play and keeping the drive alive and the clock ticking as the Timberwolf fans stomped the metal stands into submission.

Two plays later, on third down from the thirteen, a Tiger linebacker stone-handed a pass that probably should have been intercepted, and the T’wolves’ drive stayed alive. Greer came on for a thirty-yard field goal attempt, but the second high snap on the night in the kicking game forced holder Knicky to run. Surrounded, he pitched to Greer trailing on the play, and Greer was creamed by three hungry Tigers back at the 24 yard line for an eleven yard loss and more importantly, a loss of the ball on downs. The nice late drive did its major task, though, burning up all but about two minutes of the game clock while moving fifty-one yards before the big loss on the field goal attempt.

With all their timeouts remaining, Stony Point still put a scare into Cedar Park fans. They were able to run seven plays, but only moved seventeen yards, out to their own 48, before several T’wolves stormed through and sacked Mckissic on fourth down for a seven yard loss.

Watson took a few knees and Cedar Park took home a gutsy, short-handed win on a cold and windy night when a lot of things didn’t go right. It was the kind of game a less confident, less driven, less focused team might have easily let slip through the cracks.

If you want to find a difference-maker on this strange night, perhaps it was our punter. Silguero, on a night his team needed it the most, came through mightily in the punting game. Not only the heroic early scramble and kick that may have saved the game at the outset, but he also picked this night to produce his best average per kick rating of any game so far- seven punts for a 39.4 yard average. Two of his kicks went 48 yards, and his left leg helped to keep the Tigers pinned far from paydirt most of the night.

The offense, though stymied yardage-wise, gutted it up like champions are required to do, scoring both touchdowns on fourth down plays.

There’s no doubt this team is learning to handle pressure.

The defense was superb, fighting against a Stony Point O-line that massively outweighed them. And I’m talking about the way a dump truck outweighs an F-150. The middle three of the Tiger line consisted of a few bulldozers in football helmets. The center, David Villatoro, was on the roster at 232 pounds. That made him by far the lightweight. Flanking the “House of Bull” at the guard spots were Nate Sanchez, at 301, and the U.S.S. Timothy Mims, at an astounding 401. That’s four hundred and one, in case you thought I hit the wrong key. The Tigers sent 934 pounds – nearly half a ton – right at the heart of the Gang Green defense. Cedar Park DTs Baughman and Keeghan Slaydon and middle linebacker Justin Allen had their grills full of Tiger meat all night long. The average weight of the full Stony Point O-line was 297.4 pounds. Our guys were, um… somewhat lighter.

And yet still they gave up just 212 yards, the second fewest allowed any CP opponent all season. That’s mighty impressive work.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: you cannot be a bad team and win games like this. You cannot be an average team and do it, either. It takes a truly great team to fight this sort of adversity and still win a football game. I stated last week that the game-ending 95-yard drive to bleed out the clock against McNeil might be the moment that gives this team greatness. But winning such a game as this one against Stony Point, on a night when almost every factor leaned against them, may trump that moment. This might be the game that ends up forging a champion. There’s still much work to do, a lot of heavy lifting, but excellence abounds here, and it has now become our privilege to watch it blossom each and every week.

Pflugerville at Bible Stadium next Friday. Your orders: get there, yell loudly, pound your feet, and enjoy the excellence of our young warriors, the sons of Cedar Park.

See you in the stands.

	Cedar Park	Stony Point
First Downs	10	10
Rushes	38	30
Rush Yards	131	57
Yards/Rush	3.45	1.90
Pass Att.	13	23
Pass Comp.	5	11
Pass Int.	0	1
Pass Pct. Comp.	38%	48%
Pass Yards	46	155
Avg Yds/Att.	3.54	6.74
Total Yards	177	212
Penalties	5	3
Pen Yards	45	27
Fumbles	0	1
Fumbles Lost	0	1
Punts	7	5
Return Yards	32	66

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Cedar Park	0	14	0	0	14
Stony Point	0	0	13	0	13

Q	T	CP	SP	How
2	4:16	7		Dixon 3 run (Greer kick)
2	0:32	14		Watson 2 run (Greer kick)
3	8:31		7	Mckissic 7 pass to Nunn (McCue kick)
3	0:27		13	Nunn 1 run (kick failed)