The Snap call _ writer Roderick Singleton
Lancaster Controversial call- This does not talk about the Lancaster true touchdown which was called back or other bad calls the Refs made in this game.
From the By Travis Stewart
DCTF Managing Editor
2012 Division II Cedar Park 17, Lancaster 7
Outside of maybe Houston Lamar and Allen, this was the most physical game of the weekend, as both defenses played out of their minds from kickoff to the final whistle. The hitting was fierce, with several pops audible all the way up in the broadcast booth.
Lancaster got in front early behind a Demarcus Ayers' QB keeper, but Cedar Park closed the running lanes at the corner after that, and the pace began to shift to the Timberwolves. Behind a dizzying array of ball carriers, Cedar Park slowly started churning out hard-fought first downs, eventually scoring in dramatic fourth-down fashion on a short Ethan Fry run with seconds left to play in the first half. The second began much like the first, with both teams continually hurting themselves with penalties — Lancaster finished with 12,
Cedar Park 9 — as Lancaster continually false-started off of Cedar Park's defensive shifts and the Timberwolves were caught holding.
Things got more intense when Cedar Park QB Nate Grimm twisted his ankle severely on a sack in the third quarter and sat until midway through the fourth (he was on crutches after the game). But controversy struck twice in the third and fourth quarters; Lancaster, punting from deep in its own endzone, cried foul when Cedar Park poked the snap out of the long snapper's hands, forcing a fumble that CP would eventually turn into a tie-breaking field goal in the fourth (10-7).
At least one story would suggest the Tigers' frustrations were justified. On the next possession, Lancaster WR Nick Harvey was intercepted on a end-around pass attempt, and Cedar Park started the drive of the game — a 14-play, 54-yard jaunt that took more than seven minutes off the clock and ended in a Mikal Wilson 14-yard run and a 17-7 lead. Lancaster, though it had just three minutes to work with, wasn't dead — the Tigers drove to the Cedar Park redzone and, from the Timberwolf 12-yard line, threw an apparent touchdown pass to make it a one score game with 1:25 left to play. But the receiver was incorrectly and befuddlingly ruled out of bounds, and on the next play, Lancaster fumbled a bad snap and Cedar Park recovered to ice it. That touchdown call was horrendously poor, and it very well could have made this a different ball game. But don't mistake that error for an undeserving winner — Cedar Park played brilliant football, and their no-superstar approach wore down Lacnaster on both sides of the ball. Attrition was CP's best player, and coach Joe Willis and Co. earned the school's first-ever title.
By
Cedar Park lineman forces fumble by swiping away snap…legal play? Lancaster coach Chris Gilbert: ‘You can’t do that.’
Cedar Park’s go-ahead points during Friday’s Class 4A Division II championship followed a controversial call that may have incorrectly gone against Lancaster.
Lancaster faced fourth and 37 at its own 6-yard line and lined up to punt. The snap from deep snapper Derrick Leonard never made it to the punter, though.
Cedar Park nose tackle Ben Harral swiped the ball during the snap to cause a fumble. Lancaster recovered, but turned the ball over on downs at its own 6 on the play. Cedar Park kicked a field goal on its next possession to take a 10-7 lead.
Lancaster coach Chris Gilbert said swatting at the ball is illegal and the play should have been ruled dead.
“That was huge,” Gilbert said. “That’s like cheating. You can’t do that. And the officials refused to acknowledge it. That gave them a score.”
That’s not the way Cedar Park coach Joe Willis felt about it, though. Willis said the ball was lifted up before it was snapped and became live. At that point, Willis said, Harral was free to make a play for the ball.
“If our kid did that then he made a heads-up play,” Willis said, “because that’s a live ball once it’s lifted off the ground. … I don’t know if he snapped it off his leg or what. When it comes up off the ground it’s live.”
Harral said Cedar Park had scouted Lancaster’s deep snaps and thought it could take advantage.
“We had scouted that he likes to pick up the ball before he snaps it,” Harral said. “So we put in a play where I would go ahead and try to get a piece of the ball. We tried it the first time, I nicked it a little bit and we got it the second time. I ended up getting a good piece of it and it just popped up in the air.”
NCAA rules, which are used by the UIL, indicate that the play should have been blown dead in either of the two possible scenarios. First, if the snap was illegal and the ball was moved in two separate motions, it would be an illegal snap and play would be stopped. If, on the other hand, it was a legal snap, swatting at the ball would be illegal and the play would be blown dead.
Here are the relevant subsections from the NCAA rulebook,
Section 23, Article 1:
Subsection B states: “The snap starts when the ball is moved legally and ends when the ball leaves the snapper’s hands.”
Subsection E states: “Unless moved in a backward direction, the movement of the ball does not start a legal snap. It is not a legal snap if the ball is first moved forward or lifted.”
Subsection F: “If the ball is touched by Team B during a legal snap, the ball remains dead and Team B is penalized. If the ball is touched by Team B during an illegal snap, the ball remains dead and Team A is penalized.”
Mesquite Poteet coach Randy Jackson, who was at the game as a fan, said his team had noticed the same tendency by Lancaster deep snapper Derrick Leonard to lift the ball. He said he considered having his team make the same effort to swipe at the ball during Poteet’s regional final against Lancaster two weeks ago.
Jackson said he spoke to a Dallas chapter official after Saturday’s game, and the official told him that swiping at the ball was illegal.
“I’ve been a head coach for awhile,” Jackson said, “and I didn’t know that rule. I’d never seen it and it never happens.”
By Greg Tepper
DCTF Associate Editor
Class 4A Divison II -- Cedar Park 17, Lancaster 7
There are two things that I will always remember about this game. The first: a pair of suffocating defenses. We knew Cedar Park's defense would be exceptional, but the game that Lancaster played, especially Defensive MVP Daeshon Hall (the only player from a losing team to take home MVP honors), was exceptional. The other thing: a couple of controversial calls, specifically the shenanigans on Lancaster's punt that ended up giving Cedar Park the ball deep in Tiger territory, and Lancaster's touchdown that wasn't in the fourth quarter that would've pulled the score to within 17-14. In any case, Cedar Park was the better side, but this game was nip-and-tuck the whole time, and with explosive playmakers on both sides like Ethan Fry and Demarcus Ayers, it felt much, much closer than the final score.
