SMHS FOOTBALL
SMHS FOOTBALL
Rattlers shut out rival Canyon to clinch home playoff game
NEW BRAUNFELS Buck Steyn threw for 293 yards and a touchdown and the San Marcos defense held Canyon to 13 total yards Friday as the Rattlers, who had already punched their playoff ticket, finished the regular season with a 20-0 win against the Cougars in District 29-6A football action at Cougar Stadium.
The win sets up the Rattlers’ first home playoff game in nine years when they host District 30-6A second-seed Eagle Pass at San Marcos Toyota Stadium 7 p.m. Friday.
“It means a lot,” senior running back Donovan Garcia said. ”We came a long way. We put in a lot of hard work. If there’s anybody who deserves it, it’s us. Some people will say it wasn’t fair, but we don’t say nothing like that. We just keep on fighting and keep persevering through any adversity that comes our way.”
Telling his players after the game that they will play their Bi-District game at home, Head Coach John Walsh knows about how special a home playoff game will be to both the team and the community.
“You want to get in the tournament, and then just to have the opportunity to [play in front of] our home crowd,” Walsh said. “We feed off our home crowd, so to be able to play at home in round one is big. … [Our players] didn’t know till just now, so you heard that energy. But I think it’s going to be good for our fans” Elliott Gray caught six passes for 88 yards and ran for another 28, including a 21-yard touchdown, and running back Justin Tardy ran for a game-high 124 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries as the Rattlers offense rang up 465 yards.
The San Marcos defense sacked Canyon quarterback Knox Ford five times and held the Cougars, who were shorthanded without leading rusher and Utah State committee Jack Reagan on the sideline with a season- ending injury, to negative-16 yards on the ground.
“It starts off in practice,” senior defensive end I’zayah Young said. “Making sure that my guys are locked in, staying focused, making sure we got to do what we got to do. It’s about the little things that matter and today we had a few messups. But we stayed focused, positive and disciplined the whole day.
“They just couldn’t score on us. I generally feel like we do have the best defense right now.”
Steyn’s 56-yard catchand- run strike to Hank Harris in the first quarter opened the scoring and then the turnover bug started biting.
San Marcos, which had fumbled only three times in district play without losing a single one, lost fumbles on three consecutive drives in the second quarter, which temporarily kept the game close.
Turnovers, and another 100 yards of penalties, are things San Marcos has struggled with all season.
Meanwhile, the defense held Canyon to 21 yards on 20 plays without a first down in the first half - save for one that came via penalty.
“The story of our offense is, we have to stay in front of the chains,” Walsh said. ”We have proven we can pick up some good first downs but we just have to stay ahead of the chains. We talk about the penalties and we break them down, but we just have to get better at it because it puts our defense in bad situations.”
The win over Canyon was the first for San Marcos since 2019 and the first time the Rattlers shut out the Cougars since 2000.
Seniors Elliot Gray and Rene Reveles celebrate Gray’s 20-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. The Rattler offense churned up over 460 yards of offense despite three turnovers and over 100 yards of penalties. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
Senior Colson Geesee makes the tackle for loss for the Rattlers. The Purple Thunder defense held the Canyon offense to just 13 yards of total offense and -16 yards rushing. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
The Rattlers posted their first shut out on defense since 2017 and their first shut out over the Canyon Cougars since 2000. Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
