Bears rout Calvert 64-18, move to 4-1 in 2022 season

San Marcos Academy (SMA) took care of business against Calvert.

The Bears tallied up 64 points against the Trojans on a night that saw senior Cole Krackau score five touchdowns, including a kickoff return and a pick-six on top of three touchdown receptions. SMA’s high-powered offense and second-half shutout propelled the Bears to a 64-18 mercy rule victory over UIL 1A D-II opponent Calvert.

“We’ve faced a battle of attrition this season — so to be able to make adjustments at the half and (see) the kids be committed to the standard of what we’re trying to do here and the overall picture (was great). (Our goals are) to first win a district championship and then see where we can go in the playoffs,” head coach Chris Chacon said. “You know, to get to point B you’ve gotta go through point A first. And you know, (we’re) at the middle point of our season (and) we’ve got one non-district game left after this. (Calvert) gave us everything we could handle in the first half, and in the second half (we) made the adjustments.

“So it was just really nice to just see the guys commit to the scheme, and hopefully we can keep carrying this on as we go play another public school next week on the road at Leakey High School.”

The first half of the Bears’ matchup with the Trojans was very different than the second. SMA (4-1) was still in control for the most part, taking 20-6 and 28-12 advantages in the second quarter. Calvert’s offense was able to do just enough to keep hanging around though, and even had a chance to make the contest a single-digit affair heading into the second half but had a hail mary attempt batted away by a Bear defensive back in the end zone on the last play of the half. SMA headed into halftime with a 28-18 advantage, but wasn’t out of the woods yet.

The Bears knew that.

SMA came out of halftime and junior quarterback CJ Crauthers threw a deep pass to Krackau, who beat a few Trojan defenders in space to score on the Bears’ first play of the half. Calvert (1-4) would once again respond with a long-winding drive down the field, but Krackau — who also plays safety as well as receiver and kick returner — stripped the Trojans in a goal-to-go situation.

That’s when the Bears began to take the momentum and run with it.

On the next play, Crauthers and Krackau connected on another deep pass for a score. Krackau bested Trojan defenders in the duo’s second touchdown connection of the night, extending SMA’s lead to 40-18. The Bears kept their foot on the gas, continuing to score on every subsequent drive while forcing turnovers on every defensive possession. 

This all surmounted to a 36-0 second half, where the Bears fed off the success of their halftime adjustments and never looked back.

“I mean, at the start, yeah, we started slow. We just had to figure out where our offense was and how they were playing us,” Krackau said. “And they had a good game plan at the start for some of our formations — but with them only having seven guys, we just spread them out and let our playmakers go and I was one of the guys that got the ball a lot with five touchdowns going.”

The Bears will hit the road and face off with another UIL 1A opponent Leakey (2-3) in their final non-district matchup. SMA will kick off against the Eagles in Leakey at 6 p.m.