Cedar Park posts 35 consecutive points in rally over CC Veterans Memorial to advance to state

SAN ANTONIO — There was no fiery halftime speech.

No objects thrown or walls kicked.

And there was certainly no panic.

The message Cedar Park coach Carl Abseck gave to his team during the break Friday as it trailed 21-17 was simple.

“I just told them to stay the course, relax and do what we’ve been doing all year up to this point,” Abseck said.

The Timberwolves certainly took it to heart and came out looking like their usual selves in the second half as they scored 35 consecutive points and outscored Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial 44-7 on the way to a 61-28 win in a Class 5A Division I semifinal at Alamo Stadium.

“We knew what we had in the first half but we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Cedar Park quarterback Ryder Hernandez, who threw for 380 yards and a mind-boggling seven touchdowns. “We went in the locker room and said we just had to score the first drive out and that’s what we did. We clicked from that point on.”

And it wasn’t just on the offensive end.

After giving up more than 250 yards of offense the first two quarters, the Timberwolves defense — known by the moniker “Black Rain” — forced two turnovers and held the Eagles to less than 30 yards on their four third-quarter possessions.

“We’re just a four-quarter team,” senior linebacker Shelby Battles said. “We’ve trained this way all year to play four quarters. We don’t play a half. We play two halves. We came in the locker room and told people to pick their heads up, then came out in the second half and played with our hair on fire because we want to go to (AT&T Stadium for the state championship game).”

Cedar Park (14-0) took less than two minutes to take the lead for good in the third quarter as Kevin Adams’ 1-yard touchdown plunge capped off a 69-yard drive.

The Timberwolves defense forced a fumble on Veterans Memorial’s ensuing possession, then two plays later Hernandez hit Gunnar Abseck for a 6-yard score and the rout was on.

Hernandez tossed touchdown passes to Josh Cameron (19 yards), Cade Haught (11 yards) and Abseck (12 yards) again as Cedar Park led 52-21 early in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles (13-1) eventually scored on a long drive midway through the fourth, but by that point the game’s outcome had long been decided.

Hernandez’s seventh touchdown pass came on an 8-yard toss to Preston Scott.

“The offensive line was doing a great job all night and giving me a lot of time,” said Hernandez, who didn’t realize how many touchdowns he had thrown until he was informed after the game. “The running backs were doing well hitting the holes, and I was just putting the ball in the receivers’ hands and letting them do the rest.”

It was a battle of two teams that entered the game 13-0 and had mostly dominated the competition all season with prolific offenses. Cedar Park had scored at least 50 points nine times coming in, while Veterans Memorial eclipsed the 50-point mark seven times and its closest margin of victory was 17.

The Timberwolves had a slow first half offensively — by their standards — as they only scored twice and lost two fumbles, though their defense picked up the offense each time, forcing a punt and a turnover on downs.

Veterans Memorial opened the scoring on the game’s first drive on Carter Senterfitt's 39-yard touchdown pass to Nana Amo-Mensah.

Cedar Park recorded a safety when the Eagles were called for holding in the end zone on a pass attempt, then took its first lead early in the second quarter as Hernandez hit Cameron for a 42-yard score.

Senterfitt’s 8-yard TD toss to Jeylon Beasley and Amo-Mensah’s 8-yard touchdown run sandwiched Hernandez’s 59-yard scoring bomb to Jack Hestera, and though the Eagles led at halftime, they left opportunities on the table by not taking advantage of the Timberwolves’ fumbles and missing a 25-yard field goal.

But with the way Cedar Park’s offense played, it likely wouldn’t have mattered.

Cameron finished with five catches for 121 yards, Hestera hauled in seven catches for 104 yards and Abseck tallied five catches for 69 yards as Hernandez spread his seven touchdowns to five different receivers. The Timberwolves finished with 496 yards of offense.

Senterfitt threw for 257 yards and added 71 yards rushing to lead Veterans Memorial.

Cedar Park now heads to the state championship game in Arlington, and like Carl Abseck’s halftime speech, it will be business as usual going into it.

“We’re going to approach it like every other week,” Battles said. “We’ll come out and have a Monday practice like we always do and go from there. It’s one day at a time. But for the seniors, we’ve been dreaming of this since we started playing football.”