Turnovers, Mistakes Plague Rattlers in Opening Loss

The San Marcos High School Rattlers started the year off on the road visiting the Waco University HS Trojans at Waco ISD Stadium. The Rattlers came into the game attempting to rejuvenate their program with a win after a 2-8 campaign in 2008. However, they would have to go through a high-powered Trojan offense anchored by dual-threat senior QB Randy Price first. Unfortunately for SMHS, that same offense eventually got the best of a tough Rattlers defense en route to a 41-20 opening win.

The start of the game was a high point for the Rattlers as the first throw from Randy Price was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by Bob Eric Rodriguez. Things quickly turned sour for the Rattlers, however, as the extra point was blocked and returned for the two-point conversion by the Trojans. The Trojans then swiftly marched down the field, scoring on a rushing touchdown to make the score 8-6.

At the start of the second quarter, Randy Price came back on the field to run the spread offense for the Trojans. Jeremy Gonzales came up big as he sacked Price and followed up with a fumble recovery on a botched running play by Price that would otherwise have gone for 30 yards. The Rattlers were not able to take advantage of the turnover, and Price ran another one in for a score on the ensuing possession to increase the Trojans' lead to 15-6.

With a few minutes left on the clock the Rattlers tried to move the ball down the field and almost were unsuccessful. However, a timely penalty on the Trojans kept the drive alive and with 14 seconds left in the half Ryan Schweers connected with Tyler “Scooter” Walker for a 27 yard touchdown pass. Walker showed a flash of Reggie Bush as he leaped with the ball outstretched towards the pylon. That ended the half at 15-13 Trojans leading going into the third quarter.

After halftime, disaster struck for SMHS. Schweers was intercepted on a jumped route by Demond Wilson, who took the ball down to the San Marcos 17. Gerrell Griffin then struck with a 3-yard touchdown run three plays later. Things only got worse for the Rattlers as an Andre Ray fumble at the San Marcos 15-yard line was picked up by Manny Dowling for a scoop-and-score. As the Trojan lead quickly increased to 28-13, things seemed increasingly bleak for the Rattlers. However, San Marcos was not done just yet.

With the University lead at two scores at the start of the 4th quarter, the Rattlers dug deep in an attempt to make a comeback. Scooter Walker recovered a fumble in Trojan territory, but the drive then seemed to stall on the first three downs. With 4th and 5 from the 12 yard line, Schweers connected with sophomore Hunter Burttschell for a quick curl route right on the goal line and Burttschell fell backward for the touchdown to make the score 28-20.

From that point on, the game turned into the Randy Price show. Price took the next possession right down the field as he ran for a 40 yard gain, and then followed up with a 20 yard touchdown run right up the middle. After another Rattler punt, Price responded with another score on his second straight rushing touchdown to ice the game for WUHS.

Coach Van Nest said after the game that he thought the team looked good early in the game but turnovers and simple mistakes turned into the 41-20 loss. In his postgame interview, Van Nest noted that "we will have a lot of adjustments to make after we watch the tape on this game." The Rattlers will look to make those adjustments and bring home a "W" next Friday as they hit the road once again to take on the Bastrop Bears. KTSW will have all of the coverage on 89.9 KTSW, ktsw.net and at twitter.com/ktswsports.

-Will McGinnis, KTSW Sports Staff Writer

Texas State Men's Basketball to Participate in Preseason NIT

According to a story on foxsports.com, the Texas State men's basketball team will be participating in the Preseason National Invitational Tournament, or NIT this fall. Four schools have been chosen to host the opening rounds of the tournament at on-campus sites: Duke University, the University of Connecticut, Louisiana State University and Arizona State University. The Bobcats will travel to Arizona State along with the TCU Horned Frogs and Cal State Northridge Matadors. The matchups and dates of the opening rounds are still to be determined, but if Texas State were to move on from Tempe they would play in Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 25.

This will not be an easy field for Texas State to handle, as both Cal State Northridge and Arizona State made the NCAA tournament last year. CSU-Northridge won the Big West Conference, and entered the field of 64 with a 15 seed. They then put a scare into second-seeded 2008 NCAA runner-up Memphis, leading by 6 with only 10 minutes left in regulation. However, three of the starters on the Matadors' squad for that game have been lost to graduation.

The Sun Devils of Arizona State entered the tournament as a 6 seed, and advanced to the second round with a win over Temple before getting bounced by Syracuse. ASU did, however, lose their two leading scorers in James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph to the NBA draft. It's hard to say how good Arizona State will be after finishing 3rd in an always tough Pac-10 last year, but it's safe to say that this should be by far Texas State's toughest game on the road to New York.

TCU is coming off of a tough 14-17 season where they went 5-11 in a relatively deep Mountain West Conference. However, they were able to go 2-1 against Big 12 foes with wins over Colorado and Texas Tech while dropping a decision at home against Nebraska. Additionally, TCU went 2-0 against Southland foes last year with wins over Texas A&M - Corpus Christi and McNeese State. The Horned Frogs bring back 3 of their 4 top scorers but lose their top scorer in Kevin Langford, who averaged 13.0 ppg. This should be the easiest matchup for the Bobcats in the tournament if they do end up playing their purple-clad neighbors from Fort Worth, but it's still far from a guaranteed win.

The full line-up of the preseason NIT is as follows:

ASU: TCU, Cal State Northridge, Texas State
UConn: Hofstra, Yale, Colgate
LSU: Western Kentucky, Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Duke: Charlotte, Elon, Coastal Carolina

There is still no official word from the Texas State Athletic Department about the rest of the 2009-2010 basketball schedule. The Bobcats will be looking to improve their standing amongst the Southland this year after a 14-16 season that saw Texas State's first appearance in the Southland Conference postseason tournament in three years.

-Will Butler, KTSW Sports Director/Blog Editor