Timberwolves 21, Rebels 35

For the first time in the brief history of the Hays / Cedar Park series, the home team came away with the win, as the Rebels pulled away with four straight touchdown drives in the second and third quarters en route to 35-21 non-district win in a Friday night game in week two at Bob Shelton Stadium. Cedar Park had been unbeaten at this facility, with wins here in ’03 and ’04, while Hays took games at Bible Stadium in ’02 and ’04.

As usual, football roadtrips bring out the true fanatics. These Teenage Mutant Ninjawolves went south to pull for Cedar Park.

Cedar Park led and controlled the game early and re-established that control late, but in between were outscored 28-0 as the Hays offense, a near mirror of CP coach Chris Ross’ fully-developed plans for the Timberwolves’ own attack, rumbled for 442 yards.

Although there were some bright spots, turnovers and untimely penalties halted the Timberwolves as much as the Rebels did themselves. After a smooth performance against Harker Heights, the second game appeared to have more of the attributes of your standard season-opener, as big plays and big problems were often mixed in together.

Coach Ross quickly learned the Cedar Park "Howl 'em" hand sign. Here he flashes it before the Hays game, alongside linebackers Justin Allen (31) and Brandon Haug (40).

Going into the game, the Rebs’ highly-touted transfer running back Amadeus Waters, with 257 total yards and six touchdowns against Ellison in the Hays opener, was projected as the key to stopping the Rebel offense. The Gang Green defense used that key, impressively holding Waters to just 31 yards on seven carries and knocking him out of the game. But that only served to open the door for a more diverse attack. Hays’ offense actually looked much better without Waters than with him. Unexpectedly, from the moment he left the game, Hays took command, scoring TDs on four straight possessions.

After holding the Rebs to eleven yards and a punt in Hays’ first possession of the night, Cedar Park started with a crisp opening drive of its own, moving fluidly 64 yards in five plays. Quarterback Travis Watson hooked up with Tim Knicky for a nice 40-yard completion on the Timberwolves’ very first play of the game. But four snaps later, at the end of a big run, a lost fumble ended that drive at the Hays 18.

The Rebels' highly-touted running back Amadeus Waters (11) was swallowed up by the Gang Green defense nearly every time he touched the ball. His evening was destined for a quick ending.

After three punts and minimal yardage exchanged, Cedar Park had the ball again at their own 45. Lined up on the left wing, junior Tyler Smith took a handoff and cruised around the right end untouched 55 yards for a score. Wes Wagener’s kick made it 7-0 Timberwolves.

At this point in the game, near the end of the first quarter, it really looked to be a matter of time. Waters was going nowhere, with three carries for five yards, and Hays was going nowhere just as fast, collecting only 22 yards of offense on twelve plays over three possessions. Meanwhile, Cedar Park had run up 118 yards and a touchdown on nine plays.

But that’s when the wheels fell off.

From that point, over the next two quarters of play, Hays rang up 346 yards of offense to Cedar Park’s 43. More importantly, they scored five touchdowns, many of them the result of big play strikes. But Cedar Park wouldn’t relinquish control of the scoreboard without a struggle.

Tyler Smith (5), a wideout on the 2004 team, was switched to a wishbone halfback for 2005. He ran for a 55-yard touchdown against Hays.

After Hays tied the game at 7-7 with a 70-yard seven-play drive that ended with an 18-yard scoring toss from Nash McPheeters to Steve Hasselman early in the second quarter, the teams exchanged three-and-outs. The punt to Cedar Park dropped into Daniel Dilworth’s hands at the CP 23. Dilworth bobbled the ball at his feet, promptly picked it up, and took off. As often seems to happen with quickly-fumbled-and-recovered kicks, the return coverage broke down. Dilworth found a seam towards the right sideline and scampered into the open, finally chased down 61 yards later at the Hays 16. It was the longest punt return in Cedar Park history.

From there, the Timberwolves took just three plays to get into the end zone, but the way they accomplished it was rather unusual. Watson pulled out of the give option at the line on second and goal from the three, and started around left tackle. He was hit and the ball popped loose, bouncing into the end zone. Half back Matt Raesz, who appeared to be the pitch option on the play, alertly dove after the ball and covered it for the touchdown.

Wagener’s kick made it 14-7 Cedar Park.

Then Uncle Mo changed horses.

Cedar Park would net only 34 yards of ball movement and only one first down over their next four possessions, while Hays amassed 269 and four scores. McPheeters proved incredibly elusive, running for 92 yards and a touchdown while throwing for 267 and three more. The Hays passing yardage total was just 17 yards shy of the all-time record against a Cedar Park defense (Killeen Shoemaker with 284 in ’01).

Hays QB Nash MacPheeters opened up on Cedar Park. Here he rumbles for some of his 92 rushing yards. He threw for 267 more.

Cedar Park did a decent job of run defense, certainly highlighted by their excellent handling of standout Waters. Of 56 plays, Hays ran 40 times but gained only 175 yards on the ground, the T’wolves facing a record nine separate ball-carriers on the night. Six of those runners logged from a total of eight to minus six yards individually. McPheeters’ skill at running out of the option was the sole thorn in the Timberwolf run defense.

Where Hays picked us apart was the passing game. McPheeters completed nine of sixteen with no interceptions. A stunning six of those nine completions were for 32 yards or greater, averaging 48.1 between them. That means Hays grabbed 251 of their 442 yards – 57 percent – on just six plays out of 56. Three completions were for touchdowns, one for 28 yards and two for 60 yards each.

Daniel Dilworth sprints downfield during his school-record 67-yard punt return. In the background, a UFO shoots its cattle-frying beam into a pasture (look between the goalposts).

After Hays responded to Raesz’ fumble-recovery touchdown with a 65-yard seven-play scoring drive to tie the game at 14, Cedar Park moved the ball 24 yards and punted. Hays, with time running out in the half, heaved a prayer with seconds left on the clock. The answer was “yes” and wideout Donnie Joseph grabbed it in the clear and raced into the end zone. Hays had scored twice in 4:25 to go from being down 14-7 to holding a 21-14 halftime lead. It was the first time this season the Timberwolves faced a scoreboard deficit.

The second half picked up where it left off for the Rebels, as they started off by holding Cedar Park to two punts while putting together two consecutive 63-yard touchdown drives of their own. The first one was actually a drive in name only, as they hit their second consecutive 60-yard touchdown pass on that possession’s third play.

Andrew Baughman (74) crunches MacPheeters for no gain.

With the score at 35-14, Cedar Park’s offense unlimbered and produced their longest possession (in terms of number of plays) of the game, going 66 yards in nine plays, but another lost fumble killed that promising drive at the Rebel 16. The T’wolves fumbled five times, losing two of them. Unfortunately, both of those came at the end of well-executed drives, inside the Hays twenty.

The game then settled down to a series of punt exchanges throughout the remainder of the third quarter and well into the fourth, with the exception of the third Cedar Park turnover, an interception by Karl Sonntag that occurred on the first T’wolf play from the Hays 37 following a shanked Rebel punt. All three Timberwolf turnovers occurred deep inside Rebel territory.

The play that sent Waters out. Sandwiched by Tyler Smith (5) on the near side and Brandon Haug on the far side, Waters would stay down for several minutes, and left the game for good. Brandon Lopez (4) is ready for more hitting, if necessary.

A few punts later, with little time left, the Timberwolves worked some excellent clock management and generated a nice drive of 73 yards on eight plays, ending with a 2 yard touchdown run by sophomore Zac Hawkins, the first touchdown scored by a Cedar Park sophomore in three years. Wagener’s 45th consecutive PAT settled the final score at 35-21. Cedar Park outgained Hays 148-18 from the middle of the third quarter on.

There were effectively two ball games: Cedar Park outgained Hays 200-45 in the first and last quarters, and outscored them 14-0. In the second and third quarters, Hays owned the Timberwolves on the net ball movement chart 353-109 and on the scoreboard 35-7.

Andrew Cretini (42) drills a Hays running back into next week. Haug (40) and Steve Tello (29) smell blood.

As stated, there were some bright spots. Cedar Park did end up with a respectable 328 yards of total offense and 12 first downs. Watson threw 18 times, completing nine for 98 yards, with no touchdowns and one interception, the first of his career. Six different receivers caught passes, one shy of the school record. Smith caught two for eleven yards, Daniel Billingsley two for nine, Raesz two for fifteen, Knicky one for forty, TJ Johnson one for sixteen, and Dilworth one for seven.

The 230 rushing yards, headed by Smith’s 91 on ten carries, marked only the second time in Cedar Park history that the Timberwolves rushed for over 200 yards and lost the game. The first was just games ago, in the state quarterfinal loss to Lufkin. Matt Raesz ran eight times for 52 yards and scored on the recovered fumble. Raesz had three runs of doubledigit yardage and produced 77 yards of total offense on the night. Overall, the Timberwolves produced nine runs of ten yards or greater. To highlight the team’s youth and inexperience coming into the season, two of the CP touchdowns were the first in the varsity careers of Tyler Smith and Zac Hawkins, and the third was the first ever on the ground for Matt Raesz. Last week, four of the five CP touchdowns were the first of that type in the scoring players’ careers. Here’s guessing there will be many more for all of them.

We're startin' 'em up young in Cedar Park: rasing our pups to cheer for the Timberwolves early. This is a very young fan of Daniel Billingsley.

Next up would be a trip north to Killeen to face the Ellison Eagles in the last non-district “tuneup” game before league play. In 2004, Cedar Park’s LISD-record eleven-game winning streak started with a dominating 23-8 win over the Eagles at Bible Stadium. In their 2005 opener, Ellison fell hard to Hays, giving up 257 yards and six touchdowns to Waters.