Rattlers fall to Timberwolves in regional playoffs

SAN ANTONIO ­– For the third year in a row, the Sharyland Rattlers saw their season come to an end in the third, or regional, round of the state playoffs. After falling victim to San Antonio Madison the past two years, this time around it was the Cedar Park Timberwolves who were too much for the Valley’s top team to handle as they handed the Rattlers a 52-24 defeat.

Friday night’s game, which was played at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio, began well-enough for Sharyland with senior Sean Landez running the opening kickoff 79 yards to the Cedar Park 21-yard line, giving the Rattlers an instant scoring opportunity. However, after failing to pick up a first down in three attempts, the Rattlers attempted a field goal which was subsequently blocked.

A sign of things to come would present itself on Cedar Park’s first play from scrimmage when they ran the ball right up the middle and went the length of the field to give the Timberwolves a 6-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.

On Cedar Park’s next possession, it took them only four plays to increase their lead to 14-0 when the Timberwolves’ quarterback called his own number and ran the ball 57 yards into the end zone.

After an Abraham Chan field goal that hit the crossbar and bounced over for Sharyland, the Rattlers closed the gap to 14-10 when senior quarterback Lance Madden broke into the open and scored on a 19-yard run with 10:52 remaining in the second quarter.

That would be as close as Sharyland would get as Cedar Park scored 24 unanswered points in the second quarter before Madden and Manny Campos connected on a nine-yard TD pass with seven seconds remaining in the second quarter to make the score 38-17 Timberwolves at the intermission.

Cedar Park increased the lead to 52-17 with a touchdown in each the third and fourth quarters. Then Sharyland scored its final score of the game came when Rattlers’ back-up quarterback Cesar Chapa threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Marco Sanchez with just under four minutes remaining in the game to make the final score 52-24.

After the game, Sharyland head coach Ron Adame readily admitted that his boys had simply met their match in the Cedar Park Timberwolves.

“That’s the best team that we’ve seen this year by far,” said Adame. “Our boys battled tonight and they have nothing to be ashamed of because we lost to a really good team. We had trouble matching up to them and we hope they win the state title because that will be an indication of the caliber of team that we lost to tonight.”

With the loss, the Rattlers close out their 2014 season with an 11-2 record and as District 31-5A, Bi-district and Area Champions.