Thursday, April 25, 2024
A strong defensive first half wasn’t enough as the Tolar Rattlers lost 27-7 at Comanche to end the Rattlers’ regular season Friday.
Tolar (5-5, 2-3 District 6-3A DII) was tied 7-7 with Comanche (5-5, 3-2 District 6-3A DII) at the half. The Rattlers fumbled on their first play of the second half, allowing Comanche to take over at the 10-yard line and punch it in shortly after.
“For one half, we played about as good as we could’ve,” Tolar head coach Jeremy Mullins said.
The Rattlers led 7-0 after freshman quarterback Jackson LeCluyse found Matt Moody on a 16-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. Tolar then stopped Comanche late in the first half, but a pass interference penalty gave the Indians new life and Comanche scored four plays later.
“We played great defensively, and if we shut them out in the first half, who knows?” Mullins said. “We just could never get it going.”
Tolar’s running game, normally the Rattlers’ strong suit, didn’t come through against Comanche. The Indians also held the ball for a large part of the second half, making it difficult for Tolar to mount a comeback.
Tolar also had a freshman lineman, Jack Nanders, go down with an injury in the second half.
“That doesn’t help any,” Mullins said. “You’ve got 22 of them in a helmet, and five of them are linemen, so losing one’s never good.”
The Rattlers are happy with their season thus far – they were projected to miss the playoffs by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, and are proud to be in the postseason. But beating Comanche would’ve been the icing on the cake.
“The goal at the beginning of the year was for us to just get on the bracket,” he said. “The vast majority of people didn’t give us a chance, but you’ve proven that you’re a good enough football team.
“Winning Friday, I would’ve really felt good that this was an over-achieving year. At this point, you kind of did what you hoped to do, but in other people’s eyes it’s over-achieving.”
DIFFICULT DRAW
With the loss, Tolar sealed its position as the No. 4 seed out of District 6-3A Division II. That means the Rattlers will play the top seed from District 5-3A DII in the bi-district round, which just so happens to be Gunter, the No. 4 team in the state and a returning state semifinalist.
Tolar is in a similar position as Granbury – the Rattlers proved people wrong by making the postseason, but now they have to face one of the best teams in the state.
Gunter is 9-1 and ran through its district undefeated. The Tigers return 15 lettermen from last year’s team and are known for their unique offense, which puts an Air Force-style flexbone option attack in the shotgun formation. It’s a similar system that Tolar saw against Colorado City in the second round of the playoffs in 2017.
“It’s a mutiple option offense,” Mullins said. “It’s a snap-it-and-go, run-heavy (system).”
The Tigers will also ditch the option periodically and run normal run plays out of their base formation. Either way, the Rattlers will have to lean on their experience playing option teams this year and be disciplined in sticking to their assigned man on defense.
“You gotta know your job, like anything, and you’ve gotta know who has dive and quarterback pitch, because they do it well,” he said.
Gunter runs a four-man front defensively, and has 11 players that are all fast to the ball.
“They’re very sound,” Mullins said. “They look like how you would expect a team to look that’s won it in the past three years, been there the past two and got beat in the semis last year.
“Nothing crazy, just really good at what they do.”
The Tigers are coming off a 58-0 win over Callisburg and a 50-7 win over Henrietta. They aren’t big – many of their lineman don’t crack 220 pounds – but what they lack in size, they make up for in speed, technique and pure aggression.
For a Tolar team that is small in both roster size and player size, the Rattlers will have to match that aggression on every single snap.
“Win the moment,” Mullins said. “We don’t have to be the best team in the state, we have to be the best team in Springtown Thursday night.
“And then win the moment as far as, don’t get overly concerned with winning the game as opposed to, can you win this play? One play at a time, and if we can win a bunch of a little moments, we feel like those add up and you give yourself a chance.”
Tolar and Gunter will kick off from Springtown High Thursday night at 7 p.m.
grant@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066 ext. 254
