Timberwolves 20, Eagles 15

For the first time since 2001, Cedar Park would begin district play with a winning record, thanks to a dominating defensive effort by the Gang Green and two very timely touchdowns by the offense in a 20-15 come-from-behind week three road win over Killeen Ellison in a Thursday night game in week three.

At 2-1, Head Coach Chris Ross now had the T’wolves off to their best start since becoming a 5A school.

But it didn’t look like it would end up that way through the first half at Buckley Stadium. The game was actually a titanic defensive struggle, with each offense almost completely stymied by the opposing defense. In fact, Cedar Park set a school record for the fewest yards of total offense in a half, producing only 42 yards by intermission. They fared far better after the break, with 170 second-half yards, right at their usual pace.

Early in the first quarter, coach Chip Killian gathers together some of his charges for a breif instructional session.

On the other side of the ball, the odd no-huddle hybrid shotgun/I-formation used by the Eagles went absolutely nowhere most of the night, with the exception of a few nice passing gains, most of which occurred on just two possessions. On six of Ellison’s fourteen possessions on the night – nearly half – the Timberwolf D held the Eagles to zero (once) or negative (five times) yardage, in an impressive display of enforced carnage. Ellison moved the ball more than twelve yards on only four possessions the entire game, and three of those ended in two punts and a failed fourth down conversion attempt. This is a team that had moved the ball well in its first two games, scoring 25 and 28 points.

The Timberwolf offense went nowhere just as fast in the first half, with the Eagle defense holding Cedar Park to just one possession that went farther than eight yards, that one the first one of the game, which ended with a lost CP fumble.

Turnovers played havoc with the flow of this game. The two teams combined for ten of them: four lost fumbles and an interception for Cedar Park, while Ellison suffered two lost fumbles and three picks. The Timberwolves have now intercepted seven passes in the last two games played at Buckley Stadium (four picks against Harker Heights there last year).

This is the first of Brandon Haug's school-record-tying two interceptions against Ellison. He returned this one for a touchdown.

The Gang Green did a great job of corralling elusive left-handed Eagle quarterback Ivan Delgado, tackling him for 54 yards in losses on 7 of his 14 carries. He ended up with -6 rushing yards on the night.

In fact, defense was so dominant in this game that the first two scores were trades by the two defenses.

Scoring started on the third Ellison possession of the game, when Delgado threw a pick grabbed by linebacker Brandon Haug, who promptly raced untouched 26 yards for a touchdown. Wes Wagener’s kick made it 7-0 Cedar Park.

Ellison racked up exactly half of their total ball movement for the entire night on the next two possessions, but neither of them ended up anywhere, with a punt and a failed fake punt all they had to show for the 91 yards. They would only get 91 more on their final nine possessions of the game.

Quarterback Travis Watson prepares to throw against Ellison. Watson would later score a rushing touchdown against the Eagles.

At the half, Cedar Park was well behind in the stats, the Eagles having doubled the T’wolves yardage production, and with two of the T’wolves’ four first downs at that point having been gained via Ellison penalties. Still, the Eagles were well below a hundred yards of offense, a very effective defensive half for Cedar Park, especially considering those defenders had put the only points of the game up on the scoreboard.

But just seconds into the third quarter, a lost fumble resulted in a 30-yard Morris Winkfield return for an Ellison touchdown, with Tom Santos’ kick tying the game. Cedar Park couldn’t answer on the following possession, with a three-and-out, but the Gang Green came up big again with an important fumble recovery caused by a huge hit on Ellison receiver Garrett Carter by Haug following Carter’s catch near midfield.

On the very next play, it was a Raesz for the end zone as Matt went 53 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown, staking the Timberwolves to a 14-7 lead following Wagener’s 47th consecutive extra point.

A Raesz to the end zone. Matt Raesz turns the corner at the beginning of his 53-yard TD run that gave the Timberwolves a 14-7 third quarter lead.

There followed several exchanges of punts, fumbles, and interceptions until Ellison’s first possession of the final quarter, when they came out in a previously-unused power I formation, with two tight ends. A seldom-used running back suddenly became the focus of the Eagle offense, as Mike Floyd, the tailback in that “I”, got all the carries on the drive. The Eagles reached the end zone in just four plays, ending with a spectacular 33-yard scoring pass from Delgado to Cesar Cobb. Sensing the momentum and well aware of the difficulties in scoring on Cedar Park, Ellison coach Bret Boyd elected to go for two, even though there was 10:17 left in the game. The gamble paid off, as Michael Holloway ran it over and Cedar Park was staring at its first deficit of the game, 15-14.

Faced with this adversity, the Timberwolf offense manned up and put together what was clearly its finest effort of the night: an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive ending in Travis Watson’s 30-yard keeper off right tackle for the go-ahead score. There were a couple other key plays on this gut-check drive. Kyle Brown, in his first varsity game, had seven carries on the night for 26 yards out of the fullback slot, none of them any bigger than a key 13-yard third-down run that kept this drive alive. An outstanding throw and catch from Watson to Daniel Billingsley for 17 more yards produced another key first down.

With the math working against them, CP had to try for two, but Watson’s pass to TJ Johnson just skimmed the ground before Johnson caught it. That left a dangerous five-point lead, as Ellison could win the game with a touchdown alone: no PAT would be necessary.

Cedar Park's TJ Johnson (46) with a carry against Ellison.

A decent return of the ensuing kickoff set the Eagles up at their 32, but the Gang Green was entertaining no possibilities of an Eagle comeback, throwing Ellison back a yard in three plays and forcing a punt. But Ellison’s defense came alive, too, forcing a three-and-out on Cedar Park and making Brandon Haug, who punted beautifully again all night, to kick the ball right back to the Eagles. Haug then promptly came up with his second interception of the game on the very first play, seemingly the nail in the coffin for Ellison, especially when the Timberwolves then moved twelve yards in three plays and notched an important clock-burning first down.

But one more Timberwolf fumble left the door open for an Ellison miracle, as the Eagles recovered in Cedar Park territory at the 47.

Of course, the amazing Timberwolf defense would have none of that. On the very first play, Delgado dropped straight back to throw. He was promptly crushed by a huge highlight-film hit from Andrew Baughman and Trey Hawkins. As Delgado was slammed to the ground, the ball flew out and was recovered by Cedar Park. Two Watson knees iced the game.

The Gang Green Defense closes in on another victim. Visible are Tyler PRevatte (11), and Andrew Baughman (74). (My roster had no 51. If you recognize this player, let me know)

For inexplicable reasons, Ellison never went back to the one formation that gave Cedar Park some defensive trouble: that power I that produced their one touchdown drive. Following Watson’s 30-yard run to reclaim the lead for the Timberwolves, the last two possessions of the game for the Eagles were run from the much less successful “shotgun – I”. Cedar Park ate that formation alive all night long, especially on the ground, where the Gang Green gave up only 30 rushing yards to that formation on 27 Ellison carries.

Although the T’wolf pass defense gave up some big-play yardage here and there, with six completions of thirteen yards or more, the Ellison passing game was ineffective overall, going just 10 for 27 with three interceptions for 140 yards, all but 60 of that coming on two possessions.

I was privileged this night to be asked at the last minute to do the color commentary for KMAC Sports’ webcast of the game, which has been archived at their site and can be listened to at http://www.kmacsports.com. The play-by-play man next to me was longtime Texas high school announcing kingpin Phil Ransofer, who also does the state basketball tournament announcing from the Erwin Center each spring. Phil has long been the voice of the Cotton Bowl for both the bowl game and the Texas-OU game. Phil was very impressed with the T’wolves’ resiliency in this game and wished our team the best through the rest of the season. If you listen to the broadcast, forgive Phil’s voice. He had some wicked allergies working and he nearly lost his voice by the end of the game. As for my part, I hope I didn’t sound stupid: it’s been about a decade since I did radio.

And so the longest road trip of the year – two games, in Hays County and Killeen – thus came to an end as the Timberwolves were schduled to return to Bible Memorial Stadium the next Friday night for the annual Homecoming game, which would also the district 15-5A opener, against the Westwood Warriors.

Hurricane Rita had other plans, slamming into Texas and moving that game to the following Monday, and the homecoming events all the way to week eight.