NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – New Braunfels and New Braunfels Canyon will square off at Cougar Stadium for the highly anticipated 2024 Wurst Bowl this Friday in week two of the high school football season.
The annual rivalry game gives the tight-knit community of New Braunfels an excuse to put aside their life-long friendships and become a divided town.
“It’s awesome, it’s a huge rivalry game,” said New Braunfels head coach Brad Molder. “Especially when you’re friends with the head coach — I want them to win every game, but one.”
“What makes it even more fun is obviously coach (Brad) Molder (does) a great job. I’ve known him for a long time; he’s a friend of mine, minus this week,” Canyon head coach Sean McAuliffe added.
It’s not just play callers Molder and McAuliffe who are friends outside of Wurst Bowl rivalry week — players on both sides grew up intertwined within the New Braunfels community.
“(It’s) probably one of the most important games we play because the whole town shows up, and whoever wins this determines what color this town will be — red or blue,” said Canyon cornerback/safety Tapiwa Hananda. “The last two years, it’s been red, and we’re going to keep it going for another year.”
The Cougars trail the Unicorns 32-9 in their all-time series, but Canyon is responsible for the last two wins — including last year’s 32-28 win at Unicorn Stadium.
“It’s something I’ve always watched growing up, and now that I’m older, it’s really cool to be in it,” Canyon junior running back Jackson Regan said. “It’s a small town Texas rivalry, it’s historic, it’s big.”
“I remember watching it as a kid,” said New Braunfels senior quarterback Clayton Namken. “It’s just awesome getting to play in it. We’re all super excited. We’re out here at 6 am practicing and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
New Braunfels — who is returning 18 lettermen, including three starters on offense and four on defense — is coming off a 48-0 win in week one over Madison.
“It’s just fun, especially when it’s an away game — you’re out there and you kind of feel like a villain,” said New Braunfels senior defensive back Cole Redding. “Our main goal is to get better every week. Last week, we put some stuff together and played really well.”
In their first season in District 13-5A-D1, the Unicorns were pleased with a win by shutout to open the year.
Namken was 11 of 14 for 295 yards and one touchdown. The senior added 31 yards on the ground on 11 carries and four more touchdowns. Meanwhile, the Unicorns held the Mavericks to less than 100 yards passing (and) less than 20 yards rushing while forcing four turnovers.
Although, the Unicorns know they’ll be tested come time for the Wurst Bowl.
“It’s going to expose some things early that we need to see since we didn’t get a padded spring ball to prepare us for district play,” said Mo. “The whole goal is to get into the dance — to get yourself into playoffs — and take it one week at a time, but to do that, you have to be prepared. I think our non-district schedule is a tough one, and it’s going to get us prepared.”
Conversely, the Cougars dropped their season opener to Austin High 45-35.
“It was important because we really saw the weak parts of our team and the parts we really need to work on so we can better ourselves later on during the season,” added Hananda. “It was a tough loss, but we’re bouncing back from it.”
It was a tough loss but a strong effort against a tough week one opponent.
“I walked off the field knowing that I got kids who are going to play hard and fight till the very end, and that’s all you can ask for,” McAuliffe said. “For these guys, we’re going to have to be able to hopefully slow them down a little bit in the run game and try to take that away if we can. And they take deep shots. They’ve got a really good quarterback — who is a Texas A&M baseball commit — with a big-time arm.”
Canyon lost its opening game last year before winning two straight games. The Cougars were 7-4 overall last season with a 5-2 district record. This year will mark Canyon’s first season, moving up from 12-5A to 29-6A.
KSAT will air the Wurst Bowl, featuring New Braunfels versus New Braunfels Canyon, on the BGC App at 7:30 p.m. from Canyon Stadium.
Prior to kickoff, KSAT will air our new live pre-game show, KSAT Gameday, live out at Canyon Stadium from 6:30 p.m.
Read more reporting and watch highlights and full games on the Big Game Coverage page.
