Gonzales’ early lead doesn’t last against Wimberley in 59-10 loss

The Gonzales Apaches played a fantastic first quarter against the Wimberley Texans in their district game Friday, Oct. 25, at Wimberley’s Texan Stadium.

After falling behind 3-0, the Apaches moved the ball down the field well against their opponents on passes by quarterback Tyler Hoffman to wideout Damion Hunt. They found the end zone on an eight-yard Ayden Ramirez run. Brandon Duenez connected on the PAT and then Lanom Rhoades recovered a pooch kick on the kickoff at the Texan 30. Duenez would eventually kick a 44-yard field goal to give Gonzales a 10-3 lead with 2:22 left to go in the first period.

After that, it was all Wimberley as the Texans scored 56 unanswered points — four touchdowns in each half — to coast to a 59-10 victory over the Apaches, who fall to 3-5 overall and 1-3 in district play.

The Texans outgained the Apaches by nearly 300 yards, 462-175. Wimberley passed for 261 yards and rushed for 201 yards in their spread offense, while Gonzales passed for 136 and rushed for just 39.

Texan quarterback Cody Stoever showed why last year’ Class 4A Player of the Year is again the favorite to win District MVP. Stoever completed 11-of-18 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns and rushed 14 times for a team-high 86 yards and two scores, including the one that put Wimberley ahead to stay. Benji Olmedo rushed six times for 76 yards and two TDs, while Joshua Belanger rushed five times for 41 yards and two scores. Backup quarterback Jackson Parker was 3-of-4 for 59 yards and a TD late in the game and Jace Morales caught four passes or 100 yards and two scores while Nolan Waida caught two passes for 46 yards and a TD.

Jace Cutrona intercepted two Tyler Hoffman passes, while Waida also came up with a pick.

Wimberley had a 31-10 lead at intermission after scoring 21 points in the second quarter to break open a 10-10 tie. In the first half, Stoever had two TD passes — a 41-yard pass to Waida and a 27-yard strike to Morales after Cutrona’s first interception — as well as TD runs of 13 and seven yards.

On the Gonzales side of the ball, Hoffman completed 10-of-19 passes for 139 yards and two interceptions, while Hunt caught a team-high five passes for 86 yards. Keath White was the leading rusher with 20 yards on 12 carries, while Ramirez had 17 yards on seven carries with a TD. Malveaux rushed for nine yards and caught two passes for 29 yards and Daevien Pitts had a 20-yard reception.

On defense, Brealien Jones had four solo tackles and an assist while Malveaux had four solo tackles. Rhoades had four assists. River VanKirk had two solo tackles.

Friday, Nov. 1 is Senior Night as the Apaches will face a must-win game against the Salado Eagles at Apache Field. Gonzales also must beat Jarrell on the road in the finale on Nov. 8 to have a chance at making the playoffs and, due to the district’s tiebreaker rules, could find themselves battling for either third or fourth place still. The Eagles are also seeking a playoff berth and have winless Smithville at home for their final game next week.

Tiebreaker playoff scenarios

For Gonzales to qualify for the playoffs, they must win both of their last two games against Salado and Jarrell, which would move them to 3-3 in district play. Salado should beat Smithville on Friday, Nov. 8, to also go 3-3 in district play. It would then depend on the outcome of the Navarro-Lago Vista game on this Friday as to how playoff seeding would go.

Option 1

If Lago Vista beats Navarro, which is likely, Lago Vista would finish the district either in first place if they beat Wimberley on Nov. 8 or in second place behind Wimberley if they lose that game. There would then be a three-way tie at 3-3 between Gonzales, Navarro and Salado, who all would have gone 1-1 against each other head to head. Point differentials between the teams, based on their cumulative scores against each other, would determine third place. The cap for points a team can get for a win is 17, even if they win by more than that amount.

Navarro beat Gonzales by 11 (34-23) and lost to Salado by 7 (28-21), giving them a point differential of plus 4. Gonzales would need to beat Salado by 16 or greater to get third place with a point differential of plus 5 or plus 6. Navarro would then be the fourth place team by virtue of having a plus 4 differential, compared to a negative 10 or nine for Salado.

Otherwise, Gonzales would need to beat Salado by at least nine points to get a point differential of negative two, which would tie them with Salado, and then their head-to-head result would put Gonzales into the playoffs as the fourth seed with Navarro as the third seed.

Option 2

If Navarro beats Lago Vista and Lago Vista loses to Wimberley, then Navarro would take second place in district behind Wimberley. Lago Vista, Salado and Gonzales would all be tied with a 3-3 record. However, Lago Vista would be third place due to wins over both Salado and Gonzales (2-0 head to head) and Gonzales would be in fourth place due to a win over Salado (head to head). Salado would be left out in this scenario.

Again, all of this only matters if Gonzales beats both Salado and Jarrell and beats Salado by at least nine points — provided Smithville doesn’t play spoiler on Nov. 8 against Salado.