In the rain soaked fields of Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex, the Mavericks opened up their district schedule against the Stony Point Tigers. McNeil had its ups and downs in non-district play and was looking to gain a fast start in district to get in position for a playoff bid.
The game started out slow as the Mavs fumbled on their first series, but the defense held strong forcing a missed field goal on the Tigers’ first possession. That would be the story for the first half until the Tigers got a lucky deflection off a Maverick player that led to a touchdown a few minutes before halftime.
That was when the Maverick offense awoke. Following a big return by Donnie Holmes, the offense reached into their bag of tricks scoring on a 42-yard pass from Holmes to senior receiver Nick Parinella. That made the halftime score 7-7.
That’s when the rains came, it was a downpour until midway through the fourth quarter, during that time the Maverick offense was stagnant. The defense held strong with good play by senior defensive end Joseph Miele and junior safety Toroti Oke, but found itself down 7 with four minutes to go. They got a stop but a huge blunder was made on the punt when a Maverick player touched the ball leading to a turnover and another Stony Point possession.
“We had a chance to win that game, we just made too many mistakes,” senior defensive tackle Avery Markham said.
The Tigers scored again followed by a Maverick touchdown courtesy of a 15-yard pass from Colton Russell to Ryan Murphy with just a few seconds left on the clock. That made the final 21-14.
“There were 5 plays that made the difference.” senior linebacker Conrad Carine said.
The next Friday, the Mavs took on district rival Westwood. This game was not as close with the Mavs getting off to a slow start going behind 20-0 at halftime. The second half, however, was sparked by a Ryan Murphy punt return that gave McNeil good field position, capitalized by Russell’s 7-yard TD run.
That would be the only score on the night for McNeil as the Mav offense posted 160 yards of total offense. That made the final 34-7.
The Mavs next take on Pflugerville Friday at Kuempel Stadium in Pflugerville.
