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Slow start, turnovers doom Rattlers in loss to San Antonio Johnson

San Marcos Football
Saturday, September 8, 2018

San Marcos dug itself an early hole it couldn't get out of.

San Antonio Johnson opened its 48-28 win over San Marcos on Friday with a 74-yard touchdown catch from senior wide receiver Truman Hickock.

The Jaguars recovered an onside kick and got the ball back on the Rattlers’ 27-yard line. After losing 14 yards on the first play, junior running back Justin Rodriguez gashed San Marcos with a 41-yard touchdown run. Rodriguez scored again on the next series three minutes later after Johnson held the Rattlers to a three-and-out.

San Marcos muffed the next kickoff and Johnson recovered again, this time on the Rattlers’ 18-yard line. The Jaguars cashed in again, this time with a touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Ty Reasoner to sophomore receiver Shane Johnson. Senior kicker Brody Patty fanned the fire just a bit more with a 20-yard field goal on Johnson’s next drive.

Before anyone could catch their breath, San Marcos trailed 31-0 with just under four minutes left in the first quarter.

“We need to start faster,” head coach Mark Soto said. “We just made too many mistakes early in the game, got us down … we can’t dig a hole that big.”

The Rattlers didn’t quit, though. On the first drive of the second quarter, the team took 10 plays to march 44 yards down the field to Johnson’s 26-yard line. Junior quarterback Cameron Vidrine found senior receiver Mhyson Williams down the sideline, who reached the endzone to finally get San Marcos on the board.

Johnson was held to just a field goal the rest of the quarter.

“We challenged them at halftime,” Soto said. “We challenged them to come out and play how Rattlers are taught to play.”

Jamon Johnson took the challenge to heart and shifted into another gear. 

On the Rattlers’ second drive of the third quarter, the senior running back picked up 21 yards on five carries to push the team down to the Jaguars’ 31-yard line. On 2nd and 9, he emerged out of the backfield to snag a pass from Vidrine and rumbled his way into the endzone.

Johnson finished the game with 20 carries for 115 yards and two catches for 42 yards.

Junior quarterback Alex Garcia led the team through the final buzzer with another two touchdowns in the fourth quarter – a 27-yard dart to senior receiver Elijah Edwards and a 54-yard bomb to Williams.

“I mean it’s a new team, but we’ve been through two games,” Soto said. “They’ve been in the fire. Now it’s time to work and figure out and make adjustments in-game.”

After digging themselves in a 31-point hole, San Marcos actually outscored San Antonio Johnson 28-17 in the final three quarters. The loss drops the Rattlers to 0–2 and gives the Jaguars their first win of the season.

Soto said the team needs to continue to work on getting off to a stronger start as the team heads to Laredo next Thursday to play the United Longhorns at 7 p.m.

“Right now, it could be a young group,” Soto said. “It could be the hesitation, the trusting in each other. They haven’t quite gelled yet. So, you’ve just got to keep on working at it, keep on practicing, keep on pushing hard. And, you know, we’ve got good coaches in this place. And we’ve got great kids. They’ll learn and they’ll move on.”

San Marcos Record

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