Richardson honored for big game

September 26, 2012, 1:55 pm by Mark Goodson

From Staff Reports

Mike Richardson accolades from his record-setting performance against Bonere Champion last week continue to mount.

He is one of six student-athletes to earn the Built Ford Tough Texas High School Football Players of the Week honors.

He earned the honor as the Class 4A player.

Last Thursday, Marble Falls senior Richardson turned in one of those instant classic games. The 6-1, 193-pound Richardson completed 35 of 45 passes for a Texas state record 724 yards and seven touchdowns as the Mustangs edged Boerne Champion, 62-55.  Champion’s Kyle Poeske, the Ford Player of the Week in Weeks 0-1, threw for 595 yards, fourth best in Texas history, but came up just short.  "We had a couple of 600 plus yards games when I was at Southlake Carroll,” said first-year Mustangs Coach Todd Dodge, "but I’ve never seen anything like this.”  Six of Marble Falls’ scoring drives consumed six plays or less, but it was Richardson’s one rushing TD that gave the Mustangs just enough to hold on against the previously unbeaten Chargers.  The previous state pass yardage mark (683) was held by Wichita Falls’ Dylan Sheffield, a Ford Player of the Week in 2011.

A stellar 3.8 GPA student, Richardson runs track and participates in the Elementary Mustang program, which mentors local elementary school students.  Through four games this season, he has thrown for 20 touchdowns and only one interception.

"It is so much fun to coach this young man,” says Dodge, who spent the last six years at FBS North Texas and Pitt.  "He knows he has to lead and his style is to encourage everyone around him.  He has an amazing work ethic, eating lunch at the field house instead of the cafeteria, just so he can watch more video and learn to be better.  When you realize this was only his fourth game in our offense, it’s amazing how far he has come.”