Second half dooms Rattlers against Madison Mavericks

San Marcos learned some valuable lessons at Heroes stadium Friday night.

After jumping out to a two-score lead at halftime, the Rattlers were stunned in the second half with a 35-0 run by Madison leading to a 49-28 loss for the Purple and White. San Marcos’ offense wasn’t able to get into scoring position in the second half, and the Maverick offense flipped the script completely with explosive plays and long drives.

“We had a really good game in the first half. We were hitting on all cylinders,” acting head coach Kurtis Kloiber said. “We were gonna get the ball back in the second half and have the chance to go up 21 points, and then the game just kinda flipped on us a little bit. I challenged the kids to just get a little bit better this week. I thought we did. We just didn’t play complimentary football.”

The Rattler defense started off with a bang though, and it’d be a preview of things to follow. San Marcos forced a fumble on their first defensive play from scrimmage and shut out the Maverick offense throughout the first quarter.

The Purple and White capitalized off the turnover with senior quarterback Kutter Gage Webb getting the ball to senior receiver Tony Diaz who took it to the end zone to give San Marcos a 7-0 lead.

Their lead wouldn’t last for long though — senior Madison receiver Lavonta Henry returned the following kickoff for a score of his own to tie things up at 7-7.

San Marcos and the Mavericks would trade punts back and forth for the remainder of the first quarter, but the scoring would get started again early in the second. Senior Madison running back Ethan Morrison took a long run to the house after the Purple and White’s defense thought the play had already been called dead to give the Mavs a 14-7 lead.

The Rattlers would drive all the way inside Madison’s 10-yard line on the following possession once again off the back of multiple big plays through the air from Webb and Diaz. The senior duo tried to connect in the end zone after the Cavs forced a fourth down, but the ball was just outside of Diaz’s fingertips.

San Marcos would get back to scoring soon — this time on defense. Senior defensive back DJ Cano caught a tipped pass by the Rattler defense and ran it to the end zone for the Purple and White’s first pick six of the night tying things up at 14-14.

The Purple and White wouldn’t stop their defensive scoring there.

On the next possession Diaz would read Maverick Quarterback Landon Gill and get a 40-plus yard pick six of his own beating multiple defenders after the interception to add a defensive touchdown to his stat sheet as well. The score regained the lead for San Marcos, giving them a 21-14 advantage late in the second quarter.

The turnover party would continue for the third straight drive for San Marcos, with the Rattlers forcing a fumble and recovering after the Cavs crossed midfield. San Marcos capitalized off a turnover for the second time on the next possession, with the Rattlers milking the rest of the first half clock ending with a scrambling score from Webb inside the red zone to give the Purple and White a 28-14 lead heading into the break.

“(Our first half defensive plays) were really important, we kind of wanted the kids to make a statement after getting varsity experience — they were a little shell shocked last week. I told them this week we’re just gonna work on stance, alignment and keys. Honestly, I thought if we had to grade us on these things I thought we did a pretty good job, but obviously we didn’t make the plays (we needed to).”

Madison would flip the script in the third quarter.

The Mavericks came out looking like a different team to start the second half, shutting down the Rattlers’ offense and forcing punts on each of their possessions in the quarter.

Their offense came alive after two long scrambles from Gill that pushed them past midfield on their first drive of the second half. Gill connected with Henry on a touchdown pass in the San Marcos red zone afterwards to cut the lead to 28-21.

Madison (2-0) would rinse and repeat on their next possession. After stopping the Purple and White’s offense, Gill and the Mavs would move the ball down the field methodically before once again distributing a touchdown pass to Henry to tie the game at 28-28.

The Mavericks drive to start the fourth quarter took the clock down. On top of milking the clock, Gill and the Madison offense would once again carefully drive down the field and put the ball in the end zone — this time on a Gill read option scramble near the goal line.

San Marcos (0-2) would have a miscommunication on a snap on their next drive causing a fumble and the Mavericks recovered. Gill would scramble for a long touchdown on the following play to all but ice the game at 42-28 late in the fourth.

An interception followed on the next drive for San Marcos, with Madison’s second-half onslaught continuing to ensue. Gill would throw a pass to Morrison out of there backfield in the red zone to put the final cherry on top of their second half making it 49-28.

The Rattlers will return to the gridiron for their first home game of the season against San Antonio Wagner at Toyota Rattler Stadium on Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m.

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