Burnet football beats Marble Falls in county battle

The Burnet High School football team beat Marble Falls 43-7 Oct. 11 in the District 4-4A Division I opener for both teams.

The Bulldogs (5-2, 1-0) clinched a playoff berth because the district only has five members.

“We didn’t have to get them motivated and we just wanted them to stay focused,” Burnet head coach Ben Speer said. “When we talked before the game, it was there’s nothing extra. We don’t need anything extra. We just play our game, do your best and be sound. And I think they did that tonight, and I felt like we were as close as we’ve been to playing a complete game that you can ask for.” 

“They’re a good football team,” Marble Falls head coach Keri Timmerman, “They’re well coached and haven’t changed structure, haven’t changed systems, so that helps them.”

The Mustangs (2-5, 0-1) will regroup as they turn their focus to Stephenville (5-1), which was on a bye Oct. 11.

“We still have three opportunities to make the playoffs, and that’s our goal,” Timmerman said. “The first goal was academic at 100 percent. And the next goal was the playoffs. So we still got three games to do that.”

Burnet seized control on the opening drive of the game when senior quarterback Rhett Murray found senior athlete Marcus Pimental for a seven-yard touchdown to cap a 68-yard drive. Pimental added the two-point run for the 8-0 lead.

Kicker Marco Campos added a 27-yard field goal for the 11-0 lead before the first quarter ended then another field goal from the same distance for a 14-0 advantage in the second stanza.

A double reverse halfback option pass from Pimentel to junior Matthew Williams got the Bulldogs into the Marble Falls red zone. Pimentel scored on a one-yard run for the 20-0 lead at the half.

After forcing the Mustangs to punt on their opening drive, Burnet needed only two plays to score. Murray found senior receiver Colt Stanford on a short pass he turned into a 73-yard score for the 27-0 advantage with 10 minutes and 14 seconds left in the quarter.

Burnet junior defensive end Riley Howell forced and recovered a Mustang fumble on the Marble Falls 23. The Bulldogs needed only two plays to score. Senior Khris Kassner found the end zone from 12 yards out for the 33-0 lead with 8:03 left in the third period.

The Burnet defense forced another Marble Falls punt. Junior running back Peyton Lopez scampered 57 yards to pay dirt for the 40-0 lead with 6:07 remaining in the quarter.

A 30-yard field goal for a 43-0 advantage began the final period of play.

The Mustangs got on the board when senior quarterback Colton Minor found senior receiver Kole Becker on a three-yard touchdown pass. Jett Marcum added the extra point 43-7 with 6:11 remaining in the contest.

By then, Burnet’s reserves had taken over.

“I think Burnet’s a good football team,” Timmerman said. “Congratulations to them. First chance at (making the) playoffs this year, and I think that we were outmatched upfront. We had two subguards this week due to injuries. (The Bulldogs) have a good defensive front, and they did what they did well. They stopped the run and we had some mistakes in the first half. We gotta be able to run the ball, and we couldn’t run the ball. We’ve got look for those fixes this week. (My players) never quit. The biggest thing is we’ve got to find some solutions in our run game. Like I said we’re a good football team, we just haven’t quite found that edge yet.” 

The Mustangs finished with 151 yards of total offense. Minor completed 13 of 21 passes for 104 yards with a touchdown and had 12 carries for 29 yards. Marble Falls had 36 rushing yards on 21 carries.

Burnet had 548 yards of total offense with 295 yards on the ground. The Bulldogs used 11 ball carriers led by junior Peyton Lopez, who had six carries for 96 yards and a score and junior Josiah Coronado, who had 11 rushes for 85 yards. Murray completed 12 of 22 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns. Stanford had two catches for 111 yards and a score.

Speer noted the Bulldogs defense, in which he remains the play caller, was well versed in what the unit wanted to do when the Mustangs showed specific formations.

“When we control the line of scrimmage, it just sucks the life out of you,” he said. “We’ve been on the other side of that. We had some automatic formation checks that we put in, but it was simple. They come out in this formation, this is what we’re going to do and we repped them.”  

The district win was Speer’s first as a head coach. And he credited his staff and players for the victory.

“I was excited,” he said. “Our guys were ready. The coaches had them ready to play.”

Burnet hosts Lampasas at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18.

Timmerman pointed out the Mustangs must move forward with three games left in the regular season.

“We have a really good Stephenville team coming up, we got a bye to heal up a little bit,” he said. “And that’s the biggest thing is healing up and then the last two games where we’re facing Lampasas and Brownwood, how we run the ball and move it consistently.”