CEDAR PARK, Texas — Cedar Park High School will get its first test in district play when Georgetown High School visits Austin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at John Gupton Stadium.
The (5-1) Timberwolves face a one-loss (6-1) Eagles team that fell to Associated Press No. 11 ranked Hutto High School by two points on Sept. 15. Cedar Park fell 35-28 in its season opener to Waco Midway, who is ranked No. 7 in Associated Press Class 6A poll, and also have a win against defending state finalist Temple.
“That was our first game in a new scheme offensively that’s more predicated on the passing game than we had before so offensively it was a learning opportunity just to see it game speed,” said Cedar Park coach Carl Abseck. “Defensively, we had some youth on the defensive line and at outside linebacker and we just didn’t quite fit things the way we have in the past in terms of execution. But it was one of those deals where they did a good job of attacking those places where we weren’t playing as well at that time.”
The Timberwolves have won every game since by an average of 44.6 points.
“Really, it was just a product of having to see it at game speed, of being able to go back on film and show those kids that if you don’t do exactly the way it’s supposed to be done then this is the result you get,” he continued. “So it allowed us to really focus on some of those finer points defensively to make adjustments there and we moved some personnel around to make their job easier based on experience, and it really just got us settled down to really focus on the little things. It’s a lot easier to highlight it when it’s been exposed.”
WINNING THE GAME OF HISTORY
Photo courtesy centexscorecard.com
Cedar Park also hasn’t lost to Georgetown since the two played in the highest UIL classification in 2008, before the Timberwolves realigned to the 4A and stopped playing the Eagles in 2010. The series resumed when Georgetown realigned to the lower classification in 2014. Cedar Park has won all three matchups by scores of 31-28, 47-7 and 41-20 since joining the UIL 4A classification.
“We found some things that we did well in that game, and we just harped on the positives,”Georgetown coach Jason Dean said. “Our kids don’t like losing and didn’t like that situation at all but when you come back and you find the things that we did well, then let’s do it on those. Let’s cut mistakes and figure out the stuff we messed up, but let’s build on positives. I think our coaching staff did a good job of that and our kids responded to that. Like you said, we’ve kind of taken off since then.”
The Timberwolves have won five straight district championships (four outright, one shared) and haven’t lost a district game since 2014. The storyline behind the game enhanced by how the season has unfolded, however, may more intriguing than the historical imbalance — including losses by both teams to currently ranked and undefeated opponents.
REBUILDING THE HOUSE AFTER HUTTO
Brian Ullestad/Texas HS Football
One such storyline may be Georgetown’s heartbreaking loss to Hutto on a last-second field goal.
“First off, Hutto is a good football team. We knew going into the game that they were going to be extremely difficult,” Dean said. “We’re not excited about losing but we felt like we did some good stuff. We did some different stuff defensively than we’ve done all year long and were able to keep them in check for the most part throughout the night.”
The Hippos have beaten every other opponent they’ve faced by at least 30 points and are atop the ‘other receiving votes’ category of the AP 5A poll at No. 11, which focuses on the top 10 teams.
Eagles have won their four district games since by an average of 49.5 points. They’ve also gotten excellent play out of senior quarterback Cooper Bell, who has looked like anything but a first-year starter. Bell has somehow thrown zero interceptions while racking up 27 touchdowns and 1,719 yards on 103-of-170 passing (60.6 percent). He’s also rushed for eight scores.
“He’s really done a great job,” Dean said. “Cooper was a starter on that JV team last year and we made the decision to leave him down and not have him on the varsity as a junior just because we knew we had a two-year starter back (Chandler Herman) that was playing well. Cooper wasn’t going to take his job, and instead of having him a backup on varsity and not seeing any playing time, it was more important for us for him to be on that JV team and get lots of those game reps. That’s what he did. (He) played well. I think he went 8-1 on the JV team and I think it got him ready to play here. Where Cooper took off, for our coaches, was during basketball his junior year. I know that sounds weird but Coop was one of the first guys off the bench on a senior-laden basketball team and played really well in basketball. We could just tell him growing up a bunch on the basketball court, his confidence really going through the roof on the basketball court, and then Coop would use the weekends to work on quarterback stuff and he just put himself in a great position to lead our team and to play well.”
GEORGETOWN VS. CEDAR PARK, OFFENSE VS. DEFENSE
Bell’s job is made easier by senior wide receiver Caden Leggett, who made ESPN Sportscenter with this one-handed catch against Hays. He has 36 receptions for 783 yards and 13 touchdowns. His talent and ability to create mismatches in the middle third of the football field haven’t escaped the keen gaze of their Friday opponents, either.
“He is a standout receiver,” Abseck said about the boy he’ll face in less than a week. “He was really good last year as well. So really, for most of us, he’s not a surprise. But last year they had the other young man that went to North Carolina (Beau Corrales) so those balls kind of got divided up between the two of them. He runs really good routes. He’s a strong kid. I think he’s around 6-foot-2 but he’s really strong. He’s strong to the ball and then once he gets the ball in his hands he looks at himself as a playmaker and he’s going to fight to turn every ball into a big play, whether it be a five-yard hitch route or if it’s a fade ball he’s going to try to take it to the house. I just love his attitude and his competitiveness. But he’s a really, really good athlete too so he’s definitely a handful and somebody we have to do a really good job of trying to keep under wraps. He really kind of brings the big play to their offense.”
Neither Bell or Leggett, however, have seen a defense like Cedar Park’s this season. The Timberwolves have given up just 7.6 points per game over their last five contests. The unit has long had a reputation for being one of the best in the state, which garnered them the “Black Rain” nickname many years ago.
HOME IS WHERE ‘THE PARK’ IS
October 21, 2016 – Game between Cedar Park and Pflugerville Connally at John Gupton Stadium in Cedar Park, Texas. Cedar Park won the game 49-0. (File photo by John Glaser/Texas HS Football)
Cedar Park will have the advantage of playing at home, where it won 29 of its last 30 games. The Timberwolves have lost only one district home game at their current stadium, which was built in 2010, and that was to Lake Travis in 2011.
“Part of it is our kids love that stadium but we have a great crowd that shows up every week,” Abseck said. “We’ll have a stadium full on our side and that’s a fun time for the kids because you feel like you’re representing your town (and) your community. We always represent our school and our community, but when we’re at home, they do a really good job of showing up and being loud and our student body has been tremendous this year with their showing up at the games. So I do think we have home-field advantage, but it’s something that’s been created over time. We started playing in that stadium in 2010. We’ve only lost three times there. It’s been a good place for us to go and play and it’s just a beautiful stadium.”
When the Timberwolves have the ball, senior quarterback Mak Sexton will try to dissect Georgetown’s defense with the quick-strike passing game. Sexton has completed 74.1 percent of his passes for 1,497 yards and 24 touchdowns with just two interceptions.
The Eagles will try to take away the Timberwolves lighting-quick scoring with a defense led by Brandon Hawkins, whose made an astonishing 74 tackles and is set to play college ball next year at Boise State. Asbeck spoke about their level of talent, noting the daunting defense his team faces at week’s end.
“Up front, they got a bunch of guys that look like they pull them out of a copier machine — all 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds — and the nose guard is a bigger kid than that,”Asbeck said. “[Hawkins] is a tremendous athlete. He’s about 6-foot-3 and really runs so he’s the guy that really makes plays in space and clogs up the passing lanes. And then their two safeties are good players and really impressive to watch. When you walk out on the field with them, physically they look really, really good on defense.”
Brought To You By
