2012 Cleburne Football section

1

Cleburne Football2012

Special supplement to the Times-Review

A New EraJeff Merket takes over Yellow Jacket program

2012 Cleburne FootballPage 2 Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cleburne Football 2012is a publication of the

Cleburne Times-Review

Cleburne Football 2012Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kay HelmsManaging Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dale GosserDesign/Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A .J . CrispSports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A .J . CrispContributing Photographers . . . . . . . . David BeansCover Photo David BeansAdvertising Kay Helms, Mgr .Advertising executives Eric Faught Sherri Jouet

Advertising executives Tammy Kay Alyssa DyerGraphics/cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ashley Garey, Mgr .

Cleburne Times-ReviewTo subscribe

817-645-2441

Fax: 817-645-4020

108 S . Anglin St .Cleburne, Texas

P .O . Box 1569Cleburne, TX 76033

News Editoreditor@trcle .com

Sports Editorsports@trcle .com

Classifiedsclassad@trcle .com

Circulationcirculation@trcle .com

Onlinewww .cleburnetimesreview .com

2

Mark Jameson, CLTC(817) 641-3306

400 N. Ridgeway [email protected]

You can’t LOLif you’re R.I.P.

Nearly a third of teens polled admitted to texting while driving*.

Because motor vehicle accidents are the #1 killer of our teens*, it’s time to start talking about what we’re doing behind the wheel. Call or stop by for your own copy of the Allstate Parent-Teen Driving Contract. It will help you and your teen start the conversation.

© 2010 Allstate Insurance Company, Northbrook, IL.*Statistic based on Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Fatality Facts 2009 and The Allstate Foundation Teen Driving Report 2009.

By A.J. [email protected]

The Cleburne football program hasn’t experienced the taste of post-season play in a decade, and under the direction of a new head coach and an experienced quarterback sur-rounded by talented playmakers, the Yellow Jackets look to end that drought in 2012 .

New coach Jeff Merket has stat-ed several times in the offseason, during two-a-days and after scrim-mages that a “new era of Yellow Jacket football” is coming to the field this year, and while the attitude within the program has changed, a lot has to happen for the Jackets to reach the heights they’re leaping for .

“First off, we’ve got to stay healthy,” Merket said . “We’ve got to completely buy into the program and the systems that we’ve got . We have to become team players . We can’t have individual players who are just looking for individual stats . We tell them, ‘It’s all 11 of us or none of us .’ We can’t have a weak link anywhere on the field . We’ve got to have back-ups that can step in, be ready to play and get the job done . We’ve got to be good in spe-cial teams and continually improve offensively and defensively .”

In 2010, the Jackets suffered through a tough 1-9 season in which their lone win came against Joshua, which finished 0-10 .

But last year, Cleburne took a step in the right direction as the Jackets finished with a 4-6 record (3-4 in District 7-4A play) . They were in the playoff hunt going into the final game of the season, but lost to Arlington Seguin, 33-26 .

“We were two or three plays away from being in the playoffs,” said former head coach Phil Young after the loss to Seguin . “Sometimes good teams get left out and this is a good team .”

The Jackets have turned the page on previous hardships and are look-ing to the 2012 season as a poten-tially historic one .

“It’d be unbelievable to make the playoffs,” said quarterback Quade Coward . “That’s what I’ve been striving for the whole time I’ve been here as the quarterback and it’s the kind of mindset we have this year is to be the first team in 10 years to finally bring [the playoffs] back to Cleburne .”

Not only have the Jackets not played in a playoff game for 10 years, Cleburne hasn’t won a play-off game since 1998 .

“Our goal in district is to make the playoffs and our goal in play-offs is to win games,” Merket said . “We’re expressing those goals to our players and that’s what we talk about every day .”

With so much newness surround-

ing the Cleburne football program, including adapting to new coach-es, learning new playbooks and schemes, growing pains should be expected, but Merket and his coach-ing staff said they think the team is right where they need to be heading into the first week of the season .

“I think we’re about where we planned to be,” Merket said . “We knew going in we were going to take it slowly and work the fundamentals heavily, and that’s what we’ve done . Now we can start putting in a few wrinkles and twists, and get where we want to be for a complete foot-ball game .”

One of the bigger differences in the Yellow Jackets’ style of play this year compared to last will be the

tempo of the offense . Cleburne will look to keep the pace up and run a no-huddle offense the majority of the time .

With an undersized offensive line, Merket and new offensive co-ordinator Sam Skidmore think that tiring out the opponent will give the Jackets’ offensive line the advan-tage .

“We’re a little bit undersized, especially up front, so we’re going to wear defenses down,” Skidmore said . “We’ll go fast and try to be technically sound and take advan-tage of what defenses give us .”

“We just need to come together in one group,” said quarterbacks coach Ky Kelm . “We’ve been climbing the past couple of years, we’ve been

climbing to get to the top of the hill, but we just haven’t been able to get over it . But now we’re at the point, with this senior class, I think we can get over the edge and get in the playoffs, but not just get to the play-offs, but to make a little run in the playoffs . This community is looking for greatness . It’s going to be a good year .”

After realignment in February, Cleburne made the move from 7-4A to 8-4A and faces the likes of Burle-son, Burleson Centennial, Crowley, Everman, Joshua, Waco and Waco University in district play .

The Jackets open the season at 7 p .m . Thursday at Clark Stadium in Fort Worth against Southwest High School .

2012 Cleburne FootballWednesday, August 29, 2012 Page 3

Jackets look to erase decade-long playoff drought

David Beans/Special to the CTRKibo Grant (22) will be one of many options that Coach Jeff Merket will use in his up-tempo offense. Merket said the Jackets have several playmak-ers on offense.

3


New head coach Jeff Merket expects Cleburne to win every time they step on the field.By A.J. [email protected]

There will be plenty of new faces along the sidelines of Cleburne Yellow Jacket football this season . The lead man of those new faces is head coach Jeff Merket, who enters his first season as the Jackets’ head coach .

One of the appealing aspects of taking the head coaching position at Cleburne was because he said he likes challenges and he wants to bring the football program at Cleburne back to its rich history after a decade-long absence from the playoffs .

Merket was most recently offensive coordinator at Brownwood High School under head coach Bob Shipley since 2009 . Merket also spent several years at Stephen-ville under head coach Art Briles, now the head coach at Baylor University .

In 1988, Briles took over a football pro-gram at Stephenville that had not made the playoffs since 1952 . In Briles’ second year, he led Stephenville to the playoffs in 1990 and then every following year he was there, including four state championships .

With the years of knowledge he’s gained from successful coaching stand-outs like Briles and Shipley, Merket looks to use that experience of turning struggling pro-grams into winners and help turn around Cleburne .

“Jeff Merket is the best coach to direct our football program at Cleburne High School,” Superintendent Dr . Tim Miller said in February . “He comes to us with many years of experience as a head coach and assistant coach .”

Merket has brought an up-tempo spread offense to the Jackets, that features a com-bination of different ideas and styles from several different offenses . The running game will be similar to the old veer offense and the passing game will contain a lot of screens and vertical passes, Merket said .

Despite being hired in February, Merket and his Jackets are still in the process of learning his systems and schemes . The ex-perience the offense gained in 7-on-7 com-petition this summer at Fort Worth Nolan Catholic High School was a great benefit for the wide receivers and quarterbacks, as they were given a crash-course into timing and execution of routes .

The work the team has put in during the summer, two-a-days and two scrimmages has the team right where Merket was hop-ing they would be .

“We’re pleased with the progress,” Mer-ket said . “I think we’re about where we planned to be .”

One of the primary reasons Merket took

interest in this position was because he wanted to build the Cleburne football pro-gram back up, and he said the first step of that starts this year, and he explained how in one simple word: win .

“Winning,” he said . “And if we can’t win, we need to be competitive in every football game . We expect to win every game we step on the field every time we go out . We want to have a complete package out on the field . If we get beat, we want to get beat by a better team . That’s what we’re looking for right now .

“Obviously our ultimate goal is to win a state championship, and we know there are steps involved to get there . We’ve got to take each week and each team one game

at a time and try to make ourself a better football team for our district opener .”

In the three years Merket was on staff, Brownwood was a regional finalist twice and made it to the state semifinals in 2010 . His duties at Brownwood also included coaching the quarterbacks and serving as head golf coach .

During his 25 years in coaching, Merket spent four at Burnet as an assistant coach, which included two appearances at the state finals . Merket has also coached at Coppell, Leander, Junction, Clyde and Ballinger, where he began his career .

Merket has a bachelor’s degree in physi-cal education from Angelo State, and a masters in education Tarleton State .

Under new management

David Beans/Special to the CTRNew Head Coach Jeff Merket was attracted to the Cleburne job because he respects the history of Cleburne football and wants to bring the program back to its winning ways.

4

5

Creating Better Places to Live!

A Great Place To Work.www.jameshardie.com


Senior QB Quade Coward has a bright future ahead of him, but he’s not looking past this season.By A.J. [email protected]

Despite all of the focus and attention and hype sur-rounding senior quarterback Quade Coward, all things which could be a distraction to any number of student ath-letes, his focus remains on one thing for the 2012 season — leading the Cleburne Yel-low Jackets to the postseason for the first time in a decade .

“Getting to the playoffs this year is what I’ve been striving for,” Coward said . “It’s what we’ve been work-ing on all summer .”

Working all summer is something that Coward took serious . He attended several football and quarterback-specific camps, including ESPN’s Elite 11 Camp at the end of March .

“He performed well there,” said Cleburne quar-terbacks coach Ky Kelm . “That was good for him to go to because he could see what type of competition he’d be going against this year week in and week out . He performed well . I think in my opinion, he was a top 15 player .

“Just seeing that he can’t take a week off will help him this year, because he saw the competition and the guys that are getting recruited

who he’s going against . He can’t take one play off or they’ll be ahead of him .”

While Coward has plenty of reason to be optimistic about his own personal fu-ture and what he may accom-plish as an individual this season, his primary focus is leading the Yellow Jackets to a successful and memorable season in 2012 .

“I’d like to throw for at least 2,000 [yards] and try to get close to 1,000 rushing, but my main goal is to make the playoffs,” he said after a 7-on-7 contest during the summer .

Coward put up totals of 1,600 passing yards, 400 rushing and 27 total touch-downs as a junior last sea-son, his first as full-time

starter after splitting time under center with Chaston Cuffee, who enters his first season at the University of Missouri, in 2010 .

“The new offensive sys-tem is awesome,” Coward said, referring to new coach Jeff Merket’s style of of-fense . “You can get a team like [Arlington Heights] that’s athletic and just run

them into the ground be-cause we’re just going non-stop, and keep going, play after play, to the point where they’re just gassed . It turns the best [opposing] players into just average players .”

While Coward is adapt-ing to a new head coach and the new offense, there is one constant on the field that he relies heavily on .

“[Coach Kelm] is more than just a coach,” Coward said . “He’s almost like a brother to me . I don’t know how else to put it . He’s just a brother . He’s always there for me . We’ll talk about what happened after a play, what I should’ve done, what I can do to change it . He’s a good coach .

“Coach Merket and I have actually really bonded lately . We’re still getting used to each other . He knows what he’s doing and he’s got a great system . I think he’s a great coach .”

As is the case at all levels of football, from Pee Wee to the NFL, the quarterback po-sition is typically the leader of the team, and that is some-thing that Coward takes seri-ous .

“Keeping my footwork up and just maturing as a player,” Coward said regard-ing areas he’s improved on since last season . “And com-ing into a leadership role and being the figure that I need to be out here on the field in front of my teammates . I feel that it’s not really always my job to be the vocal leader, but lead by example, and that’s what I try to do every time I can .”

Everyone involved with the Yellow Jacket football program realizes that Cow-ard is the key cog in the 2012 season, and his leadership is something that both Merket and Kelm said was impor-tant .

“I expect him to be a lead-er, to be a team captain and to be a coach on the field,” Merket said . “He’s probably our most seasoned returner,

Gr e at ex p ectat i o n s

David Beans/Special to the CTRSenior quarterback Quade Coward looks to end his impressive high school career by leading the Jackets to the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

See COWARD, Page 9

6



Similar to how the Cleburne offense has spent much of the summer getting accustomed to a new coordinator, the Yellow Jacket’s defense is adjusting to a new way of life, also .

“The biggest thing this year is we’ve got to eliminate big plays and create turnovers,” said new defense coordina-tor Chris Lackey . “So as long as we’re doing that, I think we have a good shot to win a lot of ball games .”

The Jackets surrendered 28 .6 points per game last season, and while that is a relatively high number, it was a huge step in the right direction for a defense that allowed 44 points per game in 2010, when the Jackets went 1-9 .

The defense returns six starters from last year’s squad, but will miss defen-sive back Chaston Cuffee, who received a scholarship to play at the University

of Missouri .Kameron Pickett, Khalil Hall, James

Thornburg, Cannon Martyniuk and Bre-zuan Miller will look to be some of the players that the defensive coaches will count on this season .

“We’ve got a heck of an offense, so as long as we make teams drive on us and not give up big plays, and we can create a couple of turnovers, we’re go-ing to be a pretty good football team,” Lackey said . “I think they’re liking the new system . We’re pushing them and the kids are responding, so I think they’re going to pick it up and do a good job .

“Our inside linebacker, Brezuan Miller is going to be a key to what’s going on . Khalil Hall should be a lock-down corner who can also come down and make the tackle .”

Coach Ross Taylor looks to bring his winning ways from the baseball dia-mond as the defensive line coach, Jason

Payne will coach the outside lineback-ers and Waylon White will command the inside linebackers . Lackey, who is the defensive coordinator, will control the secondary .

“As long as we improve each week and cut the big plays and mental mis-takes, we’ll be alright,” Lackey said . “We may be a little undersized all around, so we’ve got to have all 11 men flying to the football .”

Lackey said he’s interested in seeing his defense in action on Thursday, add-ing that even though Southwest might be a little more athletic and bigger, he still expects the Jackets to be aggres-sive .

“I expect it to be a fun game,” he said . “We’re going to get after them ear-ly . We’re going to put forth our best ef-fort . We always talk about attitude and effort, especially on defense, because a lot of defense is effort . I think we’re go-ing to fare pretty well .”

Defense looks to improve on 2011 season

David Beans/Special to the CTRTwo Yellow Jacket defenders combine for an impressive tackle during Cleburne’s scrimmage against Arlington Heights on Aug. 24. New defensive coordinator Chris Lackey said his unit is quickly improving.

7



The Oregon Ducks have be-come synonymous with the no-huddle, fast-paced, hurry-up of-fense that has become more and more relevant at all levels of foot-ball .

The Cleburne Yellow Jackets are in the midst of transforming into one of those teams, starting in 2012 with the arrival of a new head coach, new offensive coor-dinator, and new offensive system altogether .

“We’re going to spread it out, be fast-paced, do a lot of reading and be up-tempo,” said Cleburne offensive coordinator Sam Skid-more, who enters his first season at Cleburne after moving from Brownwood . “I’d say it’s very similar to what teams like Clem-son and Oregon does . A lot of our run game is similar to Oregon . It’s not exactly the same, but similar .”

The Yellow Jackets put up 27 .5 points per game in 2011, with a high of 48 points against district opponent Crowley . Cleburne only scored single-digit points in two of its 10 games last year, in games two and three where the Jackets scored six points — both games resulted in losses .

If things go according to plan, Jacket faithful should see the scoreboard light up a few more times this season, Skidmore said .

“Our goal every time is to score on every drive,” Skidmore said . “That’s always going to be our goal . I’ve learned that if you expect great things, you’re more likely to get greatness . If you ex-pect average, you’re going to get bad results .”

Skidmore will be the running game coordinator while new head coach Jeff Merket will take re-sponsibility over the passing game and make most of the play calls .

“A lot of the offense is a com-bination [of schemes],” Skidmore said . “We got some of the zone read stuff from Denton Guyer

and put our own little twist on it . We’ve thrown in some of Merket’s stuff when he was at Stephenville with Art Briles . It’s a combination and mesh of a lot of things .”

A lot of expectations are riding on the shoulders of quarterback Q u a d e C o w -ard, and Skidmore and quar-t e rbacks coach Ky Kelm say that he is the ideal quar-terback for the type of offense that Cleburne will run this season .

“He’s got good footwork, he’s got good speed, he’s got great arm strength and he’s very accurate,” Skidmore said . “It’s just a matter of taking time to learn the timing of routes . That takes work depend-ing on the coverage you’re going against . The 7-on-7 this summer really helped . His timing on when

to throw balls and anticipating on when the receivers will come open has gotten a lot better . He’s come a long ways .”

“In this passing offense, we expect Quade to be great,” Kelm said . “He’s a passer . This spread

o f f e n s e w a s m a d e for him . H e ’ s 6 - f e e t , 4 inches

tall, 200 pounds, he’s a pocket passer, but he can go out and run . This offense is perfect for him .”

With so much attention being paid to Coward, opposing defen-sive coordinators and defenses will have their hands full due to the number of playmakers the Jackets have on offense, said Merket .

“We’ve got a lot of playmak-ers,” he said . “We’ve got five or six guys who can do things with

the ball: Tucker Nolen, Al Bay-lor, Khalil Hall, Kameron Pickett, Dede Pollard, Kibo Grant, along with Quade and Daniel Richard-son, who has also looked great playing quarterback .

“None of those guys will have success at all if we’re not success-ful up front, though . That’s where the success of our team lies and they know it . If we’re not good up front, then we’re going to struggle all year . Coach Skidmore’s doing a good job with those guys .”

Hall had 20 receptions for 228 yards and two touchdowns last season, but should have a huge season as Coward’s primary target .

Even though the players have had to process a lot of new infor-mation in just a short amount of time with the integration of a new playbook, new terminology and new schemes, Skidmore is pleased with the progress the Jackets have shown .

“They’re definitely starting to pick it up,” he said . “It takes time . We put the base [packages] in and we’re going to add different things during the weeks .

“They’re picking things up very nicely . It reminds me a lot of bringing this offense when I was at Brownwood, where they were used to one thing . This group is way ahead of where we were in Brownwood .”

Though it was a small sample size, during the live-action portion of Cleburne’s scrimmage against Arlington Heights on Aug . 24, the Jackets’ fast-paced, no-huddle at-tack appeared to wear down the Heights’ defensive players after only a few plays, and as Cleburne continues to become increasingly familiar with the new offense, Kelm expects big things from the Jackets’ offense this year .

“Once we get to district, we’ll be rolling,” he said .

David Beans/Special to the CTRLeft: Jeff Merket said that wide receiver Khalil Hall will be one playmaker that the offense and quarterback Quade Coward will rely on to make big plays this season. Right: Coward throws the ball during scrimmage play against Arlington Heights on Aug. 24.

Cleburne fans in store for non-stop excitement from Jacket offense

“Our goal...is to score on every drive.”

— Sam Skidmore

8


so he needs to step up and fill that role, and so far he’s done that . We’re happy with his progress . He, just like everybody else, is learning a new system . He’s still going to make mistakes and we’re going to correct them with film and practice .”

“He’s the leader of this team,” Kelm said . “As he

goes, the team goes . He’s a perfect fit for this offense . When he became the true starter last year, with the way he performed, is when you could see him become the leader .

“He’s not the most vocal leader . He leads by his ac-tions and what he does on the field, and if he needs to say something, he’ll step up and say something .”

Thursday, when the Jack-ets open the season at Fort Worth Southwest, is a day

that Coward said he has been looking forward to for quite some time, and he expects the wait to be worth it .

“We’re both 0-0,” Coward said . “It’s a new start and we just want to start it off with a bang . We’re looking forward to not just hitting somebody new, but it actually count in the standings . I can’t wait . It’s what we’ve been work-ing for all summer .”

“We expect not good things, but great things from Quade,” Kelm said .

DATE OPPONENT TIME RESULT

Aug . 30 at Southwest 7 p .m . ______

Sept . 7 Weatherford 7:30 p .m . ______

Sept . 14 Azle 7:30 p .m . ______

Sept . 21 BYE WEEK

Sept . 28 Waco High* 7:30 p .m . ______

Oct . 5 at Joshua* 7:30 p .m . ______

Oct . 12 at Burleson* 7:30 p .m . ______

Oct . 19 Burleson Centennial* 7:30 p .m . ______

Oct . 26 at Crowley* 7:30 p .m . ______

Nov . 2 Everman* 7:30 p .m . ______

Nov . 9 at Waco Univ .* 7:30 p .m . ______

*8-4A contest

David Beans/Special to the CTRQuarterback Quade Coward, center, and quarterbacks coach Ky Kelm, right, have devel-oped a strong relationship during their three years of work together. Kibo Grant, left, dis-cusses a play with Coward and Kelm at the Jackets’ scrimmage against Arlington Heights.

cowardcont. from pg. 6

2012 Jackets’ Path

Quade Coward’s 2011 stats114 passes completed 222 passes attempted 51% completion rate1,600 passing yards 15 touchdowns 9 interceptions130 rushes 400 rushing yards 12 touchdowns

David Beans/Special to the CTRJeff Merket, center, addresses the Cleburne Yellow Jackets in their first practice of the 2012 season at the midnight practice on Aug. 6 following the Lady Jackets’ traditional midnight run for the volleyball teams.

9


10

2012 CLEBuRNE YELLOW JACKETS

Kameron Pickett Kibo Grant Khalil Hall Nick Solis Dee Dee Pollard Will Roden Chad Cochran

Al Baylor Tucker Nolen Jeremy Fuentes Quade Coward Ryan Tamaro Anthony Jagneaux

Nolan Reynolds Cannon Martyniuk Kendall Nettik Brezuan Miller Trenton Holmes Taylor Bird Jordan Ebbens

Daniel Richardson

David Beans/Special to the CTR

Brent Burton Dustin Fish Greg Funderburk Joe Hough Chris Leshinski Jason Payne


11

James Thornburg Jordan Ebbens Ty Steele Eduardo Venegas Tyler Todd Hosbaldo Ruiz

2012 CLEBuRNE YELLOW JACKETS

Josh Hodges

Tanner Galvin Will House Ricky Langbata Murry Pritchard Hunter Hicks Tyler Rogers Eddie Cassio

Tory Endtricht Zach Cox Enrique Ayala Jeff Merket Ky KelmChris Lackey

Philip Permenter

Sam Skidmore

Ryan Stepp Taylor Ross Waylon White Marlon Winn


12

staff reports

Following a 1-9 season in 2010, the Jackets took a step in the right direction last season with a 4-6 re-cord . Cleburne was eliminated from postseason play in the final week of the regular season . The Jackets played in District 7-4A last year, but make the move to 8-4A in 2012 . Here’s a look back at last year’s games .

Game 1Cleburne 33

Dallas Madison 6

With Cleburne 364 days re-moved from 2010’s humbling 62-9 defeat to Dallas Madison in the home opener, the Yellow Jack-ets put on a defensive clinic and showed off a potent running attack at Pleasant Grove Stadium as Cle-burne defeated the Trojans, 33-6 .

Quade Coward finished 10-for-19 for 189 yards and three scores . Cooper Walls caught two of those touchdown passes and finished with four receptions for 102 yards .

Walls’ second touchdown re-ception was a 56-yard strike from Coward, but the receiver thrashed and tore his way into the end zone with two Madison defenders along for the ride for the last 10 yards try-ing to bring him down .

The score put Cleburne up 13-0 in the first half and the Trojans were stunned .

Cleburne amassed 190 yards on the ground in 39 carries with senior Patrick Morgan and junior Khalil Hall accounting for 124 of those yards .

Hall had 74 yards on just five carries and twisted and tore through the Trojans defense as a receiver as well .

Coward rushed for 59 yards and a 9-yard touchdown .

The story of the game was the Yellow Jackets’ defense .

After giving up five scoring plays of 70 yards or more last year,

Cleburne forced Madison to turn the ball over on downs eight times .

The Trojans were forced to go to the air for their offense and they weren’t effective there with quarter-back Terry Ross completing just 13-of-37 passes for 159 yards .

Cleburne nearly doubled Madi-son’s offensive output with 405 to-tal yards .

The Jackets last won their sea-son opener in 2009 against Fort Worth South Hills .

“The effort was fantastic,” Cle-burne Head Coach Phil Young said . “I think everybody in that stadium felt we played hard . We really em-phasized playing physical and we

wanted to make our presence felt .“We’ve still got a ton of stuff to

work on, but those two goal-line stands were huge for us .”

Madison put a scare into the Cleburne crowd, scoring just 48 seconds into the third quarter with a 3-play drive that was capped off by Justin Edwards’ 10-yard touchdown plunge .

That was about it for the Trojans .“We did a good job of bending

but not breaking,” Young said . “Our defense was determined not to let them in the end zone once they got inside our 10 .

“We got real stingy at that point . You don’t get that result every time,

but it sure is nice when you do .”

Game 2Frisco Centennial 24

Cleburne 6

The Cleburne Yellow Jackets suffered their first setback of the 2011 season on Friday night at Yel-low Jacket Stadium after a 24-6 loss to Frisco Centennial .

A week removed from an im-pressive 33-6 victory over Dallas Madison on the road, the Cleburne offense, which churned out more than 400 yards in the win over the Titans, managed only 200 in Friday night’s loss .

Cleburne’s Cooper Walls had four catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns against Madison . He was limited to just two catches for 15 yards on Friday night .

The Jackets were limited to just 17 rushing yards a week after piling up more than 200 .

Quarterback Quade Coward fin-ished 16-of-25 through the air for 183 yards .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young remained positive after the loss, citing the 1982 edition of the Jackets who went 13-2 and also lost their second game of the season to sit at 1-1 .

“I told our boys after the game

David Beans/Special to the Times-ReviewCleburne’s Khalil Hall (3) breaks free on a play during the Yellow Jackets’ 24-6 loss to Frisco Centennial in 2011.

A look back: 2011 Jackets took a step forward


13

that the reason [Centennial] was cheer-ing so loudly was because they know they escaped,” he said . “The mistakes we made were correctable . They fought their guts out and I’m not disappointed in one thing they did .”

For the first half, Cleburne looked like the team in control . The teams swapped turnovers in the opening quarter but Cen-tennial took the lead on an early field goal .

The Titans’ defense immediately keyed on Cleburne’s rushing attack which was so effective in its Zero Week victory .

Running backs Patrick Morgan and the shifty Khalil Hall were stymied for small gains, if any . Coward fared simi-larly on his attempts .

“Our offensive line is youthful,” Young said . “We’ve got some protection issues to figure out, but we won’t hang our heads . We’re going to learn and find a way to fix it .”

Cleburne took the lead, 6-3, at half-time, after Coward capped off an 11-play, 73-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run .

Centennial’s Austin Schotts changed the game for the Titans by returning the second-half kickoff 90 yards for a touch-down to give Centennial the lead for good .

“It was a momentum shifter,” Young said . “They’re a very good football team, there’s no doubt about it .

“That hurt because it gave them all the momentum in the second half .”

Schotts sealed the deal for the Titans with his 24-yard tipped touchdown re-ception late in the fourth quarter .

Centennial finished with 125 rush-ing yards . Quarterback Lamar Jordan accounted for 83 of those while also throwing for two scores and 127 yards on 13-of-24 passing . He was also picked off twice .

Young said his quarterback will con-tinue to learn despite the tough loss .

“He’s a tough competitor,” Young said . “This is only his second true varsity start . He’s young and he’s learning .”

Game 3Waco University 19

Cleburne 6

WACO — Waco University used three second-half touchdowns from Darious Burns as the Trojans overcome a stagnant first half to defeat Cleburne, 19-

6, at Waco ISD Stadium in a non-district affair .

After managing just 32 yards on 16 plays in the first half, Burns helped lead the charge for the Trojans in the final 24 minutes .

The Jackets started the game in domi-nating fashion, but failed to put points on the board . Cleburne took up almost nine minutes of the first quarter on an 18-play drive . The Jackets converted two fourth down plays, but failed to convert a fourth-and-goal on the University 25 after Quade Coward was tackled in the backfield on consecutive plays .

Four plays later, Connor Martyniuk intercepted an Alvin Sanders pass and returned it to the University 14-yard line . Facing another fourth-and-goal, this time from the University 14-yard line, Cle-burne again opted to go for the touch-down .

Cleburne’s offense outgained the Tro-jans’ offense, 47 yards to nine in the first quarter .

The Jackets’ misfortune on fourth down continued in the second quarter . After receiving the ball on the University 48, Cleburne advanced 15 yards before Coward’s incompletion on fourth-and-nine gave the Trojans another chance to break the 0-0 stalemate .

Even when Cleburne was converting big pass plays late in the second quarter, the Jackets were hit with illegal blocking and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after the completed throws .

On third-and-12 from the Cleburne 49, Coward rolled out and hit Cooper Walls in stride for a 26-yard completion to help snap the Jackets out of their funk . On fourth-and-1 from the 14, Cleburne sent Coward up the middle but the Tro-jans came up with their fourth stop on fourth down in the first half .

It was a stunning reversal of fortune for the Jackets who came into the game with nine fourth-down stops credited to their defense . In the first half, the Trojans gave Cleburne a taste of its own medi-cine .

The Jackets ran 39 plays to Univer-sity’s 16 plays in the first half . Cleburne outgained the Trojans 163-32 in total yardage .

When Cleburne did finally punt with 7:22 left in the third quarter, the Jackets’ luck changed when University muffed the return and Walls jumped on the loose ball . On the next play, Cleburne’s luck again took a turn for the worse when

Coward was picked off by Antwon Nich-ols, who returned it to the Cleburne 39-yard line .

The Trojans were forced to punt for the fifth time and Cleburne took over at its own 17 . On third-and-10, Coward tossed another interception which the Trojans returned to the Cleburne 37-yard line .

University’s Darious Burns began to pick up steam on the next drive . He rushed for 22 yards on three plays and punched in the first score of the game from two yards out with 3:54 remain-ing . The ensuing extra-point attempt was blocked and the Trojans were left with a 6-0 advantage .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young said his team has to get better at finishing off scoring opportunities .

“We need to be more selfish in the red zone,” he said . “We played well tonight, outgained them, but we couldn’t finish very well inside the 20s .

“We’re very young right now and we need to keep improving on our running game .”

Cleburne was aggressive from the get-go .

“We’ve got to get a better mentality about striking people and not sitting back on our heels,” he said . “I give a lot of credit to University . They’re a very good football team and they’ve gotten tremen-dously better each week .

“The two teams they lost to are good, playoff-type teams . They could easily have been sitting there at 3-0 coming into tonight’s game .”

Game 4Cleburne 41Granbury 27

The Cleburne Yellow Jackets defeat-ed the Granbury Pirates, 41-27, at Yellow Jacket Stadium to kick off District 7-4A play .

Cleburne used Zach Haler’s 25-yard interception return for a score to ice the win . The Jackets were buoyed by a stel-lar offensive performance which netted 19 first downs .

Kameron Pickett started things off for the Jackets by taking the opening kickoff 86 yards for the touchdown .

The Jackets forced a fourth down situ-ation for the Pirates, but the ensuing punt was muffed which set the Pirates up at the Cleburne 29-yard line .

After several big runs from Justice


14

Love, Granbury quarterback Nick Fotu found Conner Green on a sev-en-yard slant route on second-and-goal from the Cleburne 7 for the tying score .

On the ensuing kickoff, Pickett struck again .

With 7:08 left, he returned the kick 81 yards into the end zone for his second touchdown . Cleburne led, 14-7, without having its offense take the field .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young likened the returns to win-ning the lottery .

“How often do you see that?” he asked . “Our kickoff return team played excellent . We did a good job of sticking our cleats in the ground of weathering Granbury’s second-half charge .”

After Cleburne’s defense forced another three-and-out, the Jacket of-fense went to work for the first time after a 10-yard punt on the Gran-bury 48 .

The Jackets advanced to the Pi-rates’ 5-yard line, and on third-and-goal, Quade Coward found Cooper Walls in the back of the end zone for the score . The ensuing extra point attempt was blocked, and Cleburne held a 20-7 lead .

The Jackets had momentum in the second quarter after driving to the Granbury 18-yard line before Andy Anderson lost Cleburne’s sec-ond fumble of the first half .

Granbury returned the favor on second-and-10 with its second fum-ble of the contest . Cleburne recov-ered on the Pirates’ 29 .

Coward capitalized for the Jack-ets on first-and-10 from the Gran-bury 12 by running it in himself for the score to put Cleburne up 27-7 .

The Pirates answered on their next drive with big runs by Davis and Love before Fotu finished the job with a 1-yard touchdown dive . The extra point was good and Gran-bury trailed, 27-14 .

Cleburne converted a fourth-and-13 late in the second quarter which led to a Jackets 12-yard touchdown reception by Connor Martyniuk .

Granbury scored on its opening possession of the second half when Love ran it in from 11 yards out to cut the lead to 34-21, and the Pirates

threatened again after forcing the Jackets to punt on their first posses-sion of the third quarter .

A fumble and several big defen-sive stops by Cleburne forced Gran-bury into a fourth-and-goal situation from the Jackets’ 22, where Fotu’s heave fell incomplete .

Coward finished 11-of-18 for 122 yards and two scores . Fotu fin-ished 12-of-19 for 165 yards with a touchdown and an interception .

“We really had a great first half,” Young said . “We controlled the ball and the clock in the second half . We held the charge and won the game .

“Andy Anderson is a positive-yardage guy . Also, when we get inside the 10, we put Connor [Mar-tyniuk] in because he’s a very tall kid and he’s sure-handed . That’s what we want in goal-line situa-tions .”

Game 5Burleson 47Cleburne 27

BURLESON — The Burleson

Elks defeated the Cleburne Yellow Jackets in the War of 174, 47-27, at Burleson Stadium .

The Elks moved to 3-2 and 1-1 in District 7-4A play . Cleburne moved 2-3 and 1-1 in district play .

The story of the night was de-fense, or the lack thereof . Burle-son’s Ayinde Alaajiy and Barrett Cain each ran for more than 100 yards as the Elks’ offense took cen-ter stage in building a 47-13 lead .

“Physically,” Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young said . “They whipped us . We’ve got to tackle bet-ter and we’ve got to catch better . We had way too many incompletions tonight which hit us in the hands .”

Cleburne quarterback Quade Coward started 7-of-7 for 66 yards and a touchdown .

He went 9-of-29 the rest of the way with two interceptions and to-taled 171 yards .

Burleson took the Jackets by sur-prise earlier by recovering an onside kick to start the game .

Quarterback Cain broke off a big 32-yard run and Addison Parish

plunged into the end zone from a yard out . Cain added the two-point conversion and the Elks had an 8-0 lead after 1:30 of play .

After Cleburne went three-and-out on its opening drive, the Elks went 69 yards in 12 plays and capped off another scoring drive when Cain ran into the end zone untouched from four yards out . The big play on the drive came on third-and-six at the Cleburne 44-yard line when Cain pitched a shovel pass to running back Alaajiy for a 24-yard gain and a critical first down .

The Jackets responded with a scoring drive of their own . Cooper Walls capped it off with 11:47 left in the second quarter with a difficult 21-yard touchdown reception from Coward . Walls hauled the pass in near the back of the end zone but managed to keep his feet inbounds .

Burleson looked to be on its way to another score behind big runs from Cain and Alaajiy, but Cle-burne’s Andy Anderson picked off Cain on first-and-10 from the Jacket 38 and returned it into Burleson ter-

ritory .Anderson finished the drive off

with a physical 14-yard touchdown run and carried several Elk defend-ers into the end zone . The two-point conversion attempt failed and Cle-burne trailed, 15-13 .

Burleson responded with some trickery . After several long runs from Alaajiy, who Cleburne strug-gled to contain in the first half, the Elks faced fourth and four from the Cleburne 25 . Holder Trevor Goff fired a 22-yard touchdown pass to wide-open Danny Bishop to extend the Elks’ lead . The extra-point at-tempt failed and Burleson led, 21-13 .

Cleburne looked to be moving towards a potential tying score but Coward, who threw for more than 100 yards in the first half, had a sec-ond-and-15 throw tipped and picked off by Burleson’s Jeremy Rich . The turnover didn’t hurt the Jackets as Burleson was forced to punt after a three-and-out .

Coward tossed his second inter-ception of the half on third-and-15

David Beans/Special to the Times-ReviewCleburne’s Kameron Pickett (1) returned two kickoffs for touchdowns during the Yellow Jackets’ 41-27 win over Granbury in 2011.


15

Get Ready ForFootball Season!

1828 N. MainCleburne, TX817-202-0430

Mon.- Sat. 8-5Closed Sun.

to Kerry Fellers which gave the Elks an op-portunity to score before halftime . Cain con-verted a third-and-15 with a 17-yard run and converted a 32-yard pass to Landen Freelen to set up first-and-goal from the seven with 38 seconds left . Alaajiy plunged it in from five yards out to make it 27-13 after a blocked ex-tra point attempt .

Burleson rushed for 159 yards in the first half .

The Elks used all of 52 seconds and three plays to score on their first possession of the second half . Cain found Skyler McMurray wide open for a 14-yard touchdown pass .

Game 6Mansfield Summit 33

Cleburne 14

Mansfield Summit rolled to a 33-14 victo-ry over Cleburne at Yellow Jacket Stadium to improve to 5-1 and 3-0 in District 7-4A play .

Cleburne fell to 2-4 and 1-2 in district play with its fourth loss in five games .

Cleburne took an early 7-6 lead in the first quarter after Connor Martyniuk made a diving interception in the end zone which had been tipped by Kameron Pickett .

On fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard-line on the ensuing drive, Summit was called for a roughing the kicker penalty which gave Cle-burne an additional chance to score . Quade Coward punched it in from two yards out to give the Jackets the early advantage .

Summit responded in the second quar-ter with 20 unanswered points . Ryan Cuevas went 11-of-13 for 153 yards and rushed nine times for 82 yards and two scores to pace the Jaguars .

After scoring to take a 12-7 lead, Martyni-uk was hammered on the return and fumbled the ball which set up another Summit touch-down .

The Jaguars added another score with 2:26 left in the first half when Cuevas rumbled in from two yards out .

Summit totaled 284 yards of offense in the first half . Cleburne managed 101 yards .

Coward finished 11-of-18 for 170 yards .Each team added a score in the fourth quar-

ter with Marcus Jamison running in from 29 yards out for Summit and Cleburne’s Patrick Morgan scoring in the waning minutes from six yards out .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young said his team hung right with the district’s top team for three and a half quarters .

“It was those last six minutes of the sec-ond quarter where the flood gates came open,” Young said . “I think they went off for three scores then .”

Summit’s 20-point outburst as the first half wound down ended up being the difference .

As Cleburne mounted a late drive in hopes of making it a 26-14 contest, the Jaguars squashed any hopes of a Jacket comeback by stopping Cleburne on fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line .

Summit’s defense swarmed the Jackets all night long with lineman Bryson Henderson constantly frustrating Cleburne’s much small-er offensive line .

Several times during key drives, Coward was dropped for big losses in the backfield by Henderson and his teammates .

“We fought hard against a team that’s re-ally good,” Young said . “We were right there matching them point for point . If we could take the last six minutes of the second quarter and redo it, we’re tied or winning .”

Young said the bigger the game, the more amplified the smallest of mistakes .

“I told them after the game even little mis-takes get magnified and exposed against really good team,” he said . “Against teams which aren’t as good, they don’t hurt you as bad, but they hurt you a lot against better competition .

“Our boys fought hard the whole game and I’m really proud of them .”

Game 7Cleburne 48Crowley 34

The Cleburne Yellow Jackets played like their postseason lives depended on it at Yel-low Jacket Stadium with a 48-34 win over Crowley .

The win moved Cleburne to 3-4 and 2-2 in District 7-4A play and dropped Crowley to 2-5 and 1-3 .

Cleburne had to withstand a furious come-back attempt from the Eagles in the second half . Crowley was led by a stellar effort from running back Larry Cheeks who amassed 314 rushing yards on 34 carries and three touch-downs .

The Yellow Jacket defense had two inter-ceptions late to seal the win . Dustyn Ward and Vincent Maes picked off Crowley quarterback Matt Marner to end any hopes of an Eagles’ miracle comeback .

“They had all the momentum in the second half,” Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young said . “Our defense kind of sat back and they took it at us . I told the assistant coaches that we needed to play like we were still in the lead .

“We did that and our kids played great down the stretch and we rallied the troops .”

The two teams entered the night in a four-way tie with Granbury and Seguin for third place . The Pirates and Cougars battled at

Granbury High School . The winners would have the momentary upper hand in the playoff chase .

After falling to Crowley last year, Cle-burne jumped out to a 35-6 lead by scoring on offense and defense .

Connor Martyniuk caught a 60-yard touch-down pass and returned a fumble 82 yards for the score in the second quarter . Khalil Hall had a 14-yard touchdown run and a 56-yard touchdown pass from Quade Coward to pace Cleburne’s 292 total yards in the first 24 min-utes .

“He deserves a game ball along with sever-al other guys,” Young said of Martyniuk . “Our kids had big hearts tonight and a lot of them rose to the occasion .”

Cheeks kept the Eagles in the game early and finished with 172 rushing yards on 19 car-ries in the first half .

Coward finished 8-of-13 for 166 yards and three scores in the first half and added a four-yard touchdown run with 11:13 left in the second quarter . The Jackets’ final touchdown of the first half was made by a diving Cooper Walls who hauled in a 22-yard touchdown .

Crowley had a chance to score from the 9-yard line with three seconds remaining in the second quarter, but the pass from Marner was incomplete .

The Eagles made things interesting in the second half by scoring on their first posses-sion when Cheeks took it in from 28 yards out to make it 41-20 . The Eagles recovered an onside kick and scored several minutes later when Dalonzo Freeman rumbled in from 13

yards out to make it a two-score game at 41-27 .

Young said the defensive touchdowns Cle-burne scored in the first half ended up being a lot more important than the Jackets thought they would be in the first half .

“At the time, it was just fun to get them,” Young said . “But they ended up being the dif-ference in the game .”

Crowley finished with 423 rushing yards on 56 carries . Dalonzo Freeman had eight car-ries for 53 yards and a touchdown . The Eagles racked up 25 first downs, the most given up by Cleburne all year .

Coward finished 10-of-17 for 201 yards and four touchdowns . He led the team in rush-ing with 72 yards on 10 carries and a touch-down .

Hall caught three passes for 93 yards and two scores . He also rushed for 71 yards on nine carries and a score . Walls caught five passes for 36 yards and a touchdown .

Game 8Cleburne 40Joshua 28

JOSHUA — Cleburne rallied in the second half to defeat Joshua, 40-28, after trailing the winless Owls at halftime, 28-20 .

The Yellow Jackets finished with 291 rush-ing yards and 179 of those came in the sec-ond half as the Cleburne defense held Joshua scoreless over the final two periods .

Cleburne’s Quade Coward finished with 191 rushing yards on 16 carries and three


16

touchdowns . He completed 9-of-16 passes for 123 yards, a touchdown and an interception .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young called it one of the most fun wins of his tenure with the Jackets .

“Our kids didn’t stop believing,” he said . “I’m so tired of people saying things like ‘It’s just Joshua .’ People who say that don’t know sports . Joshua is a very good, well-coached football team .

“They always play us twice as hard as any-one else .”

The Joshua Owls certainly didn’t play like the losers of 25 straight games in the first half .

After struggling to get their running game on track all season, the Owls took Cleburne by surprise with 204 first-half rushing yards and led, 28-20, at the break .

After Joshua fumbled the opening kickoff, Cleburne recovered at the Owls’ 15 and scored when Coward dove in from a yard out . The extra-point attempt failed, and that came back to haunt the Yellow Jackets .

The Owls fumbled the next kickoff but managed to retain possession . A few plays later, Colin Radford broke free on a 51-yard touchdown run . The extra-point attempt put the Owls up, 7-6 .

Cleburne answered with a four-yard touch-

down run by Khalil Hall to take a 13-7 lead, but Joshua scored again when Garrett Hoff-man ran it in from 35 yards out to give the Owls a 14-13 advantage .

Devon Scoggins increased Joshua’s lead to 21-13 in the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown run as the Owls’ offense contin-ued to pick up first downs . Joshua moved the chains 15 times compared to Cleburne’s four first-downs .

The Jackets seemed to regain momentum when Coward scored on a 74-yard touchdown run in which he shed numerous Joshua tack-lers to bring Cleburne to within 21-20 .

Cleburne would’ve taken the lead on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Coward to Cooper Walls, but the play was nullified by a holding penalty .

The Owls got the last laugh in the first half as their final drive was aided by two Cleburne penalties in the red zone . Hoffman found Mi-chael Keeton for a six-yard touchdown pass with three seconds left to give the Owls a 28-20 advantage .

Joshua Head Coach Jerry Bird said his team gained confidence in the running game in the loss .

“I was proud of them for overcoming ad-versity earlier,” Bird said in reference to the

two fumbles on the first two kickoffs . “The kids are starting to believe in what we’re do-ing and they’re executing as a team .

“They’re seeing that when we do that, we can be very successful . When we don’t, it’s very difficult .”

Bird said the Owls relied on Hoffman to make a lot of decisions as Joshua rolled to 272 yards of total offense in the first half .

“Our running backs did a good job of get-ting off the ball,” he said . “They built confi-dence and that’s something they haven’t had because of how we’ve run the ball all year .”

Young said Cleburne made up its mind to stop Joshua’s rushing attack in the second half .

“It wasn’t much what we said at halftime, but the adjustments we made in the second half,” Young said . “We knew they couldn’t stop us running the ball at them, so we just decided to keep pounding them and grinding them down .

“We had some big stops in the second half, and our defense took over .”

Young said Joshua ran the ball much more than they have before this season .

“We said we were going to stop the run in the second half,” Young said . “A lot of credit goes to Coach Bird and those guys . Joshua is a good team .”

Game 9Everman 35Cleburne 34

With heavy playoff implications abound, the Cleburne Yellow Jackets fell in heartbreak-ing fashion to Everman, 35-34, in overtime at Yellow Jacket Stadium .

Devin Walker’s one-yard touchdown run and Daniel Cruz’s extra point lifted the Bull-dogs (5-3, 4-2) over Cleburne (4-5, 3-3) after the Yellow Jackets scored on their first at-tempt .

Cleburne scored on Quade Coward’s touchdown dive, but the extra point attempt missed wide .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young said the Jackets can’t afford to have those things hap-pen if his team wants to continue making a push for the playoffs .

“We have to make PATs,” he said . “We have to . It doesn’t ever fall on one person, but we have to make those little plays . I know our kids are hurting real bad right now, but they played their guts out .

“This isn’t our death, right here . We have to come out and fight next week .”

Everman had a chance to win the contest


with 18 seconds remaining, but Cruz’s 32-yard field goal attempt missed its mark .

Andy Anderson brought Cleburne to within 28-26 on a 38-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-one as the fourth quarter wound down, and quarterback Quade Coward found Ger-man Hernandez in the back of the end zone for the tying two-point conversion .

With the loss, the already-muddled District 7-4A playoff picture became even more con-fusing .

Summit defeated Seguin, 35-18, to remain unbeaten in league play at 6-0 . Everman is in second place at 4-2 and Granbury is in third at 4-2 after Friday’s 46-27 win over Burleson .

The Elks, who lost their second straight, are at 3-3 and hold the tiebreaker over Cle-burne for fourth place after beating the Yellow Jackets earlier in the year .

Seguin is 2-4 in district play and will take on Cleburne at Wilemon Field on Friday to close out the regular season . Crowley remains alive at 2-4 in district play with a 44-14 win over Joshua . Cleburne needs a win and a Bur-leson loss to Crowley to clinch a playoff spot .

The Jackets struck first on a 10-play, 51-yard scoring drive which was highlighted by a 29-yard completion from Coward to Cooper Walls . Coward capped off the drive with a one-yard touchdown run .

Everman responded on the ensuing drive with a 28-yard field goal from Daniel Cruz . The Bulldogs penetrated to the Cleburne 5-yard line after a 44-yard run by Reggie Kin-caid, but the Jackets’ defense held Everman to a field goal .

Everman responded with a five-yard touch-down run from Lincoln Richards and a 24-yard touchdown pass from Devynn Birdow to Horace Richardson .

On the first score, Connor Martyniuk blocked the extra point to make it a 9-7 game, and the extra point on Everman’s second score was blocked, leaving the Bulldogs with a 15-7 lead . The blocked kick was Martyniuk’s sev-enth this season .

Everman scored on its first possession of the second half when Reggie Kincaid plunged in from a yard out to make it 21-7 .

Cleburne was driving and advanced to the Everman 30 before an unsportsmanlike con-duct penalty pushed the drive back .

The Jackets were forced to punt, but Vince Maes picked off Devynn Birdow just a few plays later to set Cleburne up at the Everman 16 .

The Jackets had third-and-inches from the Everman 6, but Anderson was dropped for a three-yard loss . On fourth and four, Coward’s pass fell incomplete .

The Bulldogs faced third-and-6 from their

own 13 and Birdow’s attempt fell incomplete, leaving Cleburne with another opportunity to tie or take the lead . On fourth-and-6, Martyni-uk was at it again, this time blocking the punt and setting the Jackets up at the Everman 11 .

On third-and-6 from the Everman 7, Cow-ard found Martyniuk in the end zone, but the extra point attempt missed wide, leaving Cle-burne down, 21-20 .

Everman advanced to the Cleburne 25-yard line and Richardson appeared to score on a long run on third-and-8, but a holding call nullified the score . Instead, the Bulldogs faced third-and-18 where Birdow found a streaking Quantence Walker for a 35-yard touchdown . The extra point made it 28-20 .

Game 10Arlington Seguin 33

Cleburne 26

ARLINGTON — In a battle for the play-offs, Arlington Seguin defeated Cleburne, 33-26, at Wilemon Field on Friday night after holding off a furious second-half comeback by the Jackets .

After rallying to tie the game at 26-26, Seguin quarterback Austen Parker put the Cougars ahead 33-26 on a 51-yard run . The Jackets’ final drive stalled out at their own 40-yard line after Cleburne failed to convert a fourth-and-26 .

Cleburne Head Coach Phil Young said when a district as tough as 7-4A has to choose only four teams for the playoffs, sometimes good teams get left out .

“We were two or three plays away from be-ing in the playoffs,” he said . “We beat Gran-bury and they’re in and then we lost to second-place team (Everman) by one point .

“Sometimes good teams get left out and

this is a good team .”Seguin finished with 341 rushing yards in-

cluding 92 by Parker and 110 by Will Martin . Cleburne’s Andy Anderson finshed with 104 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns .

Seguin used explosive offensive plays in the first half by Will Martin, quarterback Kel-ton Moore and the speedy Jordan Hicks to take a 12-0 lead in the second quarter .

The Cougars’ powerful offense churned out 236 yards while holding Cleburne to just 91 . The Jackets punted four times in the first half . Cleburne went for it twice on fourth down and after the second failed opportunity, Seguin’s Moore plunged into the end zone to make it 6-0 .

Later in the half, Moore found Martin on a 54-yard touchdown pass to make it 12-0 . Seguin could’ve led by more had it not fum-bled inside the 20 early in the first quarter . The Cougars started their opening drive on their own 4-yard line before committing the red zone turnover .

Turnovers kept Cleburne in the game in the first half .

Chaston Cuffee picked off Moore late in the second quarter and returned it to the Seguin 25 . With 40 seconds left in the half,

Coward found Pete Black in the corner of the end zone . The extra point attempt was blocked, which made the score 12-6 . Neither team suc-cessfully kicked an extra point in the first half .

In the second half, Seguin made its open-ing possession count with a 14-play, 80-yard scoring drive that was capped off when Mar-tin plunged into the end zone . Cleburne had a costly personal foul penalty near midfield after an incomplete pass which kept the drive alive .

The Jackets responded with a score on their first drive of the second half when Andy Anderson plunged in for the score . Seguin re-sponded with more big plays .

A 59-yard run by Kelton Warren set the Cougars up at the Cleburne 1-yard line where Warren ran it in on the next play . Seguin then completed a two-point conversion, the first for both teams to make it 26-12 .

Cleburne responded with some trickery . On a double-reverse pass, Coward found Con-nor Martyniuk open for a 59-yard touchdown pass to bring Cleburne to within 26-18 after a failed two-point conversion attempt .

Seguin was riddled by penalties on the fol-lowing drive and ended up punting . Seguin’s punt went just seven yards, setting up Cle-burne in Cougar territory .

The Jackets used a steady dose of Ander-son to pick up key first downs, and he plunged into the end zone with 8:03 left to make it 26-24 . On the two-point conversion try, Coward found Walls for a two-yard completion to knot the score at 26-26 .

On the ensuing drive, Seguin faced third-and-2 from the Cleburne 49 . Parker took it 51 yards on the quarterback option keeper play to put the Cougars back on top . The extra point was good, making the score 33-26 .

Young said the Cleburne program has turned the corner with both freshman teams going 8-2 and the JV also going 8-2 this year .

17

David Beans/Special to the Times-ReviewCleburne’s Connor Martyniuk (6) returned a fumble 82 yards for a touchdown against Crowley in 2011.



The Clebune Yellow Jack-ets will likely welcome a new district with open arms in 2012 after struggling in District 7-4A the past two seasons, going a combined 4-10 in district play .

Cleburne joins Burleson,

Burleson Centennial, Crowley, Everman, Joshua, Waco and Waco University to make up District 8-4A .

There are plenty of familiar faces the Jackets clash with the next two seasons . Burleson, Crowley, Everman and Joshua have been district rivals for several years .

New to the party are Waco High, Waco University and Centennial, who is playing its first season of official UIL dis-trict play .

Looking at last year’s team records, one might not think too highly of District 8-4A . Waco High had the best record in 2011 of all teams at 7-4 .

Cleburne went 4-6, Burle-son went 6-5, Centennial was 6-3-1 playing an “outlaw” schedule, Crowley was 3-7, Everman was 6-4, Joshua went 0-10 for the second consecu-tive season and Waco Univer-sity was 3-7 .

Burleson returns only two starters from last year’s bidis-trict finalist squad, and will fea-ture a new head coach in Gary McElroy . The offense will rely heavily on running back Ay-inde Alaajiy, who had more than 1,300 yards and 11 touch-downs rushing last season .

Centennial is playing its’ first official UIL district sched-

ule . While the program is new, the players on varsity are expe-rienced after playing an “out-law” schedule last year .

Quarterback Tanner Hodg-es, running back DeMarcus Williams and tight end Curtis Amos will lead the offense .

Crowley returns 16 starters from last year’s team includ-ing 40 seniors, and the Eagles should be one of the state’s most experienced teams . The offense features nine returning starters, all seniors, from last year’s squad, including quar-terback Matt Marner and run-ning back Larry Cheeks .

Crowley is looking to make just its third playoff appearance since 1971 .

Everman returns 11 starters from last years playoff team . The Bulldogs field a new start-ing quarterback and running back . The defense lost three players from last year who will play for Division I colleges .

Joshua is in the midst of

a 27-game losing streak and many don’t expect the Owls to compete for a playoff spot .

But junior quarterback Gar-rett Hoffman earned experi-ence as the starter last season, and Coach Jerry Bird said he has all of the tools to be the best quarterback in the district . Linebackers Devon Scoggins and K .J . Evans will both be stout defensively and both will also see some time at running back .

Waco University returns 15 starters from last year, and defensive tackle Ben Hughes leads the way as one of the state’s best interior lineman at 6-feet, 3 inches and 305 pounds .

The Waco High Lions bring back 11 starters from a team that was a bidistrict finalist last year . Marty Herbst takes over as the new head coach for the Lions, and the biggest strength of his team should be its speed . Lineman Andrew Billings, also

one of the state’s top lineman, will be a two-way starter and will be a force on both sides of the line of scrimmage . Adrian Norwood had eight intercep-tions last year .

With a relatively level play-ing field, the playoff chase in District 8-4A should be enter-taining all season long as sev-eral teams are equal in talent .

Waco High is the common vote to win the district, with Everman and Waco University expected to round out the top three .

The fourth spot, also the final playoff berth, is open to any number of teams, as Cen-tennial, Cleburne, Crowley and Burleson are all expected to make a run at the playoffs .

But with so much parity in the district, any result shouldn’t come as a surprise . The old saying, “That’s why they play the game” rings true in high school as much as it does the NFL or college .

Playoff race in District 8-4A should be fun

2012 Varsity Yellow Jackets

David Beans/Special to the Times-Review

18

WMCCONSTRUCTION SERVICES

817-266-7261

is a proud sponsor of the

Cleburne Yellow Jackets


2012 Junior Varsity Yellow Jackets

2012 Freshmen Yellow Jackets

19

20

A Little Ben’sFloral and Wedding Shop

Book Your...

Now!!

25% OFF YOURTOTAL

25% OFF YOURTOTAL

EXPIRES OCTOBER 15TH

Get Your Custom Mums and Supplies for All Schools

2012 Cleburne Football section

Documents