Tonight the Timberwolves will face the Canyon High School Cougars in a Bi-District playoff game at 7:00 p.m. in New Braunfels. The team placed third in district after a 28-21 win over Georgetown to close out the regular season.
“I am proud [of the team],” Head Coach Michael Quintero said. “They are fighters. We had some challenges during the game, but our kids kept fighting. They are resilient, and they believe in the coaches and they believe in what we are doing, so I am proud of them.”
Senior tight ends Luca Wilson and Joshua Pecci both scored touchdowns, including the game winning touchdown from Wilson.
“Everyone doubted us this week playing Georgetown,” Wilson said. “We had a couple drives where we didn’t end up scoring, but you can’t be perfect. I am very confident, all we didn’t want was the 4th seed [because] we didn’t want to play Smithson Valley.”
After scoring his touchdown, Pecci went down with an injury in the second quarter, which turned out to be a broken collarbone. Senior tight end Ethan Ludtke went in for Pecci and caught a 42-yard pass, the longest pass of the game.
“I’m proud of [Ludtke],” Pecci said. “He’s one of my good friends, so it was cool to see him ball out and get some catches. I’m hoping he gets a touchdown because that would be really exciting.”
On the defensive side of the ball, the secondary unit played a large role in holding Georgetown’s offense to 21 points. Senior safeties, Cody Manning and Garrison Cockrell, had an impact, recording 15 combined solo tackles between the two of them, and junior cornerback Garrett Nichols had five solo tackles.
“I feel like I played pretty good,” Nichols said. “The whole team played really well. We all ‘ride’ together in the second half. We had a couple of mishaps towards the beginning, but other than that, we came out in the second half and made every play count.”
The team has been practicing all week in preparation for Canyon. Quintero said the team is very confident going into the playoff game.
“We are playing well and the last two weeks we have come together as a team gelling,” Quintero said. “We are doing really good things on offense and defense, so it is always good to come in with a big win like this going into the playoffs because you have a little bit more momentum.”
Tickets can be purchased here for tonight’s playoff matchup.
“I am feeling confident,” Nichols said. “We just need to get healthy and work hard [during] practice, and then come out with energy throughout the whole game [against Canyon]. We [also] will be working on just flying around, flying to the ball, and continuing to make sure everyone is giving full effort.”