On Thursday night, I was at Heroes stadium for the first Thursday Night Lights game this season between the Warren Warriors and the MacArthur Brahmas. The television games are broadcasted by Ernie Zuniga and Wane McGarity.
This is my 4th year working alongside Ernie. That first game four years ago, I was so nervous when I met Ernie in person. Prior to that game, I had only seen Ernie on Fox 29 San Antonio doing sports and news! He was on television and I wasn’t!!! Now, I am very comfortable working with Ernie and watch him every weekday morning since he is the morning news anchor on Fox 29 San Antonio.
This is Wane’s first year with us. He played high school football, college football, and professional football. Man, I was super excited when I read Ernie’s Facebook post that he would be doing color for the Thursday Night Lights game! Wane and I are Clark High school graduates; Wane was class of ’94 and I was class of ’95!
Yes, I knew Wane; he was on the basketball team and I was the Manager. We also had a class together. I remember talking to him in class one day; I was kinda making fun of him cause I had never seen him dunk the basketball. Well, when Wane dunked in a game, I bowed down to him in class and did the classic Wayne’s World, “I’m Not Worthy!!”
When I introduced myself and told Wane who I was on Thursday, I wasn’t upset that he didn’t remember me; it has been more than 18 years ago. But, he did remember that dunk cause he said that was the only time he did that in a game and nobody believes that it happened. It did happen and I was there!!!! And, it is now being published in my blog so the whole world will know!
Ninety-Nine percent of the stadiums I work at have a wall where I can hang my stat board. The one percent is Heroes stadium!!! So, I was praying to the “football gods” that we wouldn’t be on the film deck but rather inside the massive air conditioning press-box. The “football gods” must have been busy watching the Republican National convention since the television equipment was setup and ready to go on the film deck! Crap!!! Now, I have to use my large dry erase board and swap out the stat sheets for the offensive team.
Wait a minute…what is this I see? I was very surprised when I saw a laptop and a small table for my stats. The laptop was used to input my end of quarter stats and the scoring drives. All I had to do was save it and tell Lori, the graphics operator, when they were ready to go. Holy crap, the numbers I entered are on television!!!! Pretty cool. I really contemplated about putting visit marklieberman.blogspot.com in one of the cells on the spreadsheet!!!
The game itself was dominated by the Warren Warriors defense and the combination of quarterback and wide receiver. This sounds like déjà vu!!!
The Warrior defense held MacArthur to under 300 yards of total offense and a horrible 3 of 14 on third down conversions. They also stopped Mac twice on fourth down inside the 5 yard line; impressive!!
Ryan Larson, the quarterback, was 18 for 30 passing for 280 yards with 1 interception and 2 touchdowns. He also had 2 rushing touchdowns.
Aron Taylor, the wide receiver, had 5 catches for 137 yards and both touchdowns. One was for 78 yards! Taylor is a UTSA commit.
I really hope my eyes aren’t that bad as I had a hard time reading the jersey numbers for the Warren team. Who in the hell picks out a white jersey with very light gray numbers? That person needs to be spanked!! Sorry, been watching too much Weeds!! It felt like every possession for Warren, I had no absolutely no clue what number had the ball and even with the monitors in the booth, I still couldn’t grab the number. I only had one player whom I had to use a question mark for the number. Oh, to make things even harder for me, the Warren Warriors ran a no huddle offense!
The lone bright spot for MacArthur was Steven Baker. He had 3 catches for 103 yards and 1 interception on the defensive side.
FINAL SCORE
Warren 29 (1-0,0-0)
MacArthur 0 (0-1,0-0)
Austin Lake Travis Vs Judson
On Friday night, I was at Rutledge stadium for the Lake Travis Cavaliers and the Judson Rockets. Lake Travis is the 5-time defending state champions in 4A (they moved to 5A this season). In that 5 year span, the Cavaliers have won 77 games and lost 3!!! A lot of media are picking Lake Travis to win the state championship this year over Cibolo Steele. Depending on what poll you look at for the the Texas high school football rankings, Lake Travis is either number 1 or number 2!! Pretty impressive! I was psyched since this was the first time I have worked a Lake Travis football game!!!
Oh, the radio voice of Lake Travis is Marc Hoenig! He got me started in this business so it was very nice to see him last night.
So, the Judson Rockets, with a new head coach and a new offensive scheme are playing the best high school football team in the state of Texas! Welcome to Judson football Mark Smith (he is the new coach).
For 35 years, Judson has been a running team; a whole lot of pain left and pain right. They are one of the top programs in the state of Texas. Why change something that has worked consistently and won state championships? Well, look at Kerrville Tivy, the school where the new Judson coach Mark Smith coached for the past 10 years. In those 10 years, Tivy’s offensive numbers were absolutely mind boggling. If you watch Texas A & M this year, there starting quarterback is a former Kerrvile Tivy football player named Johnny Manziel! It won’t be long before Smith finds the next Johnny Manziel at Judson! Wow!!!
I was really looking forward to seeing the Judson running back, Alvin Clark, in this new offense. But, unfortunately, Clark is no longer on the football team. I don’t know the reasons, but Judson always has a crop of athletic and fast running backs to carry the load.
Below is a very brief synopsis of the Judson offense:
FIRST QUARTER
Judson ran 13 plays for 35 yards. There first possession was a pass.
SECOND QUARTER
Judson ran 23 plays for 102 yards. They scored there first touchdown of the season under Mark Smith! The drive was 7 plays for 80 yards and the time of possession was 3:38; impressive.
HALFTIME
Judson had 51 yards rushing and 86 yards passing.
THIRD QUARTER
Judson ran 20 plays for 122 yards.
FOURTH QUARTER
Judson ran 13 plays for 73 yard. They had more rushing yards than passing yards.
END OF GAME
Judson ran a total of 69 plays for 339 yards for 13 points. The Rockets really struggled on third down conversions as they only converted 2 of 14.
They had more rushing yards than passing yards…hmmm!!!
Jarveon Williams was the starting running back. He had 16 carries for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Jonathan Garcia and Rayjohn Austin-Ramsey split time at the quarterback. Combined, they were 15 for 33 passing for 165 yards and one interception at the very end of the game. Cameron Johnson led the team with 5 receptions for 106 yards.
I really think they need to get the ball in Jarveon Williams hands more often. When he touches the ball, he is explosive and fast.
I think the new offense will work; it is just gonna take time and repetition.
Lake Travis looked primed and sharp! They ran 68 plays for 560 yards!!! Wow!!!
The quarterback for Lake Travis, Baker Mayfield, was 23 for 35 passing for 418 yards with 5 touchdowns and 1 interception. Yes, 418 yards!!!! Zach Austin, the wide reciever, had 8 receptions for 239 yards and 4 touchdowns. Preston Dupree, another wide receiver, had 5 receptions for 80 yards.
I am going to make a BOLD statement. The Lake Travis team I saw last night was the best passing team I have ever seen in high school football. Super impressive!!
Next Friday, Judson plays at Steele. I think that will be a better match-up for the Rockets since Steele’s passing game isn’t as top notch as Lake Travis.
Tonight, I will be at Comalander stadium for the Wagner Thunderbirds and the Reagan Rattlers. My article for that game will be published tomorrow.
FINAL SCORE
Austin Lake Travis 47 (1-0,0-0)
Judson 13 (0-1,0-0)