Cedar Park delivers physical effort in win over Mustangs

October 06, 2012, 12:10 am by Mark Goodson

Staff Photo By Mark Goodson Garrett Gray celebrates one of his two touchdown receptions against Cedar Park Friday night. The Mustangs led early, but Cedar Park put the game away with a 28-point second quarter. The Timberwolves scored three times in the final five minutes of the second quarter.

Cedar Park used its own version of hurry-up offense and scored three touchdowns in the final five minutes of the second quarter to break open the Timberwolves 49-21 victory over Marble Falls Friday night at Mustangs Stadium.

The Timberwolves rushed for 383 yards with eight runners carrying the football on a night when Marble Falls offense met up with its biggest challenge.

Cedar Park (4-2, 2-0) put together drives of 77, 74 and 45 yards in taking control of the game late in the second quarter.

The game was 14-7 early in the second quarter with Marble Falls driving for the tying score in its attempt to match the perennial Central Texas powerhouse.

Marble Falls had picked up three first downs with Mike Richardson connecting with Garrett Gray for one and running back Keith Jerome bursting up the middle for 23 yards on one carry and Ishiah Carson drawing a first on an interference call. Then Jerome added an 11-yard run to the 17 for the fourth first down of the drive.

Then on consecutive plays, the Timberwolves turned the tide with a quarterback sack by Austin Hisler and an interception by Lane Waller. Waller picked off just the second pass of the year off Richardson when the Marble Falls quarterback was trying to hit his favorite target Gray on a second-and-12 from the 19.

"I thought I had made the right read,’’ Richardson said. "That one was my fault, we weren’t on the same page.’’

Cedar Park responded with its uptempo run game and scored in seven plays, covering 77 yards.

Quarterback Nate Grimm hit a 28-yard fade pass to Samuel Brock for the big play on the drive.

Cedar Park’s Wilson scored on a pair of runs from four and five yards to push the score to 28-7.

On the Timberwolves last drive of the first half, Grimm showed his passing ability and hit Nate Fry on a slant pattern to set up another short dive play.

Cedar Park’s defense kept pressure on Richardson all night and finished with six sacks.

Richardson completed 17 of 25 passes for 170 yards, hitting Gray on touchdowns  of 19 and 10 yards. Gray finished with seven catches for 104 yards and gave Marble Falls the early lead with his 19-yarder on a fade route.

Jerome carried the ball 16 times for 102 yards and scored on a 25-yard run. Jerome also had five receptions for 43 yards.

Cedar Park outgained Marble Falls, 510 to 295 in total yards.

Cody Seelig picked off a pass, setting up Marble Falls second touchdown. Marble Falls covered 35 yards in six plays to cut the lead to 35-14 with 6:42 left in the third quarter.

The Wolves pushed it back to 49-14 on another pair of scoring runs.

The Mustangs fall to 3-2 overall and 0-1 in District 25-4A with a road trip to Rouse next week.