Jamon Johnson runs with the ball during the Rattlers playoff home game against Round Rock Westwood in 2017. The 2017 season remains the last time the Rattlers captured a district championship in football.
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2017 Rattler football team capture district title
Championship Spotlight takes a look at past championship winning teams in San Marcos.
This week will take a look at the 2017 San Marcos Rattler football team, which won the last district championship.
Prior to the 2017 season, San Marcos was coming off a 6-5 season in 2016 and placed second behind the Austin Bowie Bulldogs who defeated the Rattlers 59-7 in the season finale to claim the district title.
The Rattlers hosted the Round Rock Stony Point Tigers in the Bi-District round of the playoffs but lost in a heart breaker 4035.
Going into the 2017 season, the Rattlers returned just four offensive starters and seven defensive starters.
San Marcos was headed up by running back Jamon Johnson who ran for 1,325 yards on 199 carries and 19 touchdowns. Johnson also caught 22 passes for 290 yards and one touchdown.
The Rattler offense was also under the command of quarterback Prudy Calderon who made 92 tackles on defense last year including 30 solo tackles.
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine predicted the Rattlers to finish in third place behind Austin Bowie and Austin Del Valle.
San Marcos got off to a blistering start in nondistrict play going 4-1 beating San Antonio East Central, New Braunfels Canyon, San Antonio Taft and San Antonio McCollum.
The Rattlers lone nondistrict loss of the season came against the archrival New Braunfels Unicorns in a 54-42 defeat.
San Marcos opened up district play against the Austin Akin Eagles, ending in a 36-10 win. The Rattlers continued their winning ways by beating the Austin Del Valle Cardinals 31-15 to set up a showdown with the Manor Mustangs.
Manor took a 21-10 lead going into the fourth quarter but the Rattlers scored 29 points during the period to not defeat the Mustangs 39-36 but also secure a playoff berth.
The Rattlers rolled through Austin Anderson 65-10 to set another district title situation with Bowie.
On the road in a hostile environment, San Marcos trailed 16-3 in the second quarter. The Rattlers cut the lead down to 16-10 before flipping the game on its head.
Receiving the opening kickoff to start the second half, Johnson returned the ball 101 yards for the score as the Rattlers took their first lead of the game 17-16. San Marcos tacked on two more touchdowns to secure a 31-26 win over the Bulldogs and the Rattlers first district championship since 2003.
The Rattlers once again hosted a Bi-District playoff game as they faced off with, the Round Rock Westwood Warriors.
Again San Marcos found themselves in a hole down 36-14 at halftime. Yet again the Rattlers made another outstanding comeback.
Scoring 40 second half points, San Marcos rallied to beat Westwood 64-50 to secure the Bi-District championship. The Rattlers rushed for a combined 639 yards behind Calderon’s 16 carries, 354 yards rushing and four touchdowns and Johnson’s 12 carries, 285 yards rushing and four touchdowns.
San Marcos’ season came to an end in the Area round when the Rattlers fell to the Spring Westfield Mustangs 47-3.
The combination of Johnson and Calderon proved to be unstoppable as the duo ran for a combined 3,114 yards. Calderon finished the season running for 1770 yards on 176 carries and 27 touchdowns. Johnson finished the season running for 1,344 yards on 137 carries and 17 touchdowns.
Calderon signed with the Rice Owls playing as a defensive back.
cmcwilliams@sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
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