We started off our season by losing our two non-district games to Vista Ridge and Cedar Ridge in close battles.
Though it shows on the record as 0-2, that doesn’t truly tell the whole story of our first games.
Against Vista Ridge, we were in control at half time leading 14-0 and then two big offensive plays put Vista Ridge back in the game and eventually led to them winning in overtime.
Against Cedar Ridge, it was a similar story. We came out of the gates hot, leading 14-0 before letting Cedar Ridge close the gap to 17-14 going into half. Like Vista Ridge, we had some calls not go our way and ended up falling to Cedar Ridge 24-17 on another last second touchdown.
While we felt that we were one or two calls by the referees from winning both of those games, as a team, we decided we needed to keep the game out of the referees’ hands.
Another thing that we identified as something to work on is finishing the game, especially in the third quarter which we struggled in our first two games.
Keeping these fixes in mind, we put the non-district games in the past and went into Del Valle with a goal to start 1-0 in district.
With a strong defensive showing, we shut out Del Valle 33-0 in a big game for our confidence. Even though we were heavily favored to win the game, I think it gave us some much needed momentum going into Anderson, one of the biggest games of the year as both of us were fighting for a playoff spot.
Against Anderson our offense came alive, scoring 20 points in the first half, putting us up 20-9 at half.
However, our second half struggles continued by letting up three touchdowns in the third quarter and completely flipping the tables on ourselves.
However, this time, we didn’t panic, the difference ended up being a couple big plays that would ultimately put us ahead 34-30 and win us the game.
This was a huge win for our playoff hopes and gave us more confidence in our ability to win those close games, as we were 0-2 in them up until that point and it was good to finally get in the win column.
Heading into Dripping Springs, we knew that not many people outside of our coaches and team thought we had a chance to win, so we used this opportunity to go into their stadium and play with nothing to lose.
Both offense and defense played great in the first half leading to us going into halftime down 14-12.
However, the second half did not go the way we wanted it to and we ended up losing 49-12.
While the game ended terribly, it showed us what our potential is when we are playing well. It also brought to attention our continued struggles in the third quarter as Dripping Springs scored 21 unanswered points after halftime.
Overall, as a team we know we have to figure out how to stay consistent on offense, minimize the big plays on defense, and put together a complete game as a team which we don’t feel we have been able to do all season.
As far as playoffs go there are three must-win games: Austin High, Buda Johnson, and Akins. We feel like if we can start to finish games like we know we can, we can be successful down the stretch.
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