Big plays on offense and stingy defense helped the Wimberley Texans (1-0) earn a decisive 42-6 win over the Burnet Bulldogs Friday in Wimberley.
Texan senior quarterback Cooper McCollum said execution was a primary factor for success.
“We’ve had this game circled since we went out in the first round to Crystal City (last season), no one was excited about that,” McCollum said. “We were coming in with some different kind of energy that we almost lacked last year, but we were coming in hard. It’s a bunch of seniors, a bunch of brothers that want to win.”
McCollum shined against the Bulldogs by going 6-of-13 passing for 144 yards and two touchdown passes, while also adding three rushing touchdowns on 9 carries and 128 yards. McCollum’s dual threat ability was difficult for Burnet to stop.
“The thing that you see from him (McCollum) now is just that he is in better control of the offense, very comfortable back there and operates,” Wimberley head coach Doug Warren said. ”You know he’s not trying to win ball games, he’s just executing the offense is all he is doing and he did a great job of that tonight.”
After a sloppy opening possession for the Wimberley offense, the Texans were gifted with a safety and their first two points of the season when Burnet had a bad snap roll out of the back of the end zone on their first possession of the game.
McCollum and the offense then got into a rhythm and produced a 56-yard touchdown pass to junior Christian Marshall later in the first quarter. McCollum followed it up in the second quarter with a 43-yard touchdown run as he juked multiple Bulldogs defenders, while stiff arming another, to get to the end zone and give the Texans a 16-0 lead at halftime.
“I’ve progressed a lot with vision, last year I struggled with vision,” McCollum said. “So I’m starting to see the field better and again I was able to see the lead blockers. I had good protection and it was just wide open from there.”
The second half provided more splash plays from the Texan offense as McCollum scored a 30-yard touchdown on the ground and then added a 45-yard touchdown pass to sophomore running back Juan Olmedo. The offense kept rolling in the fourth quarter when McCollum got his fifth touchdown of the game on a 19-yard run. Texan running back Jake Milam scored on an 11-yard run late in the game.
In addition to McCollum’s rushing attack, sophomore running back Moses Wray finished with 94 yards on 16 carries.
“Offense I thought did pretty good,” Warren said. “They were giving us a little bit of a different look than what we’ve kind of seen. It took us a little bit to get our bearings, but I did like eventually how I thought we were able to run the ball kind of how we wanted to and make throws if we needed them.”
While the offense was hitting on all cylinders, the Texan defense played a bend but don’t break approach that allowed only six points and 196 yards of total offense. Limiting the explosive plays downfield was a key piece to the puzzle for the defense according to Warren.
“In the previous two scrimmages we’ve been susceptible to the long play, the explosive plays, and it’s been a concern of ours,” Warren said. “But other than the one early we limited all those and so I really liked how the kids just hung in there and fought, and made plays.”
Wimberley hosts Giddings (0-1) at 7:30 p.m. at Texan Stadium.
