JOSHUA — With the Region I-3A Division I bi-district game against Whitesboro rapidly slipping away, Jim Ned needed a hero on Friday night at Owl Stadium.
The Indians found one in junior Joshua Kelso.
But what happened to put Kelso in position to possibly save the Indians season?
EARLY — Two turnovers inside the Pilot Point 10-yard line and a muffed punt weren’t in Wall’s game plan in Friday’s Region I-3A Division I bi-district game at Longhorn Stadium.
But with their defense pitching a shutout, the Hawks easily overcame a series of frustrating mistakes to earn a 20-0 win.
Sophomore running back Noah Garcia made a triumphant return to the Cooper lineup Friday, rushing for three touchdowns to propel the Cougars to a 49-41 win over El Paso Eastwood in a Region I-5A Division I bi-district matchup at Trooper Stadium.
Garcia, who was taken off the field on a stretcher during his team’s regular season-ending loss to Amarillo High, scored on runs of 48, 3 and 8 yards, while Daelin Campos added TD scampers of 53 and 35 yards to help the Coogs overcome a six-touchdown game by Eastwood quarterback Christian Castaneda.
ROSCOE — Playing a rematch of September’s 27-26 nondistrict classic, Cross Plains and Christoval’s Region II-2A Division II bi-district playoff Friday was expected to be a competitive one. In the end, the sequel may have been better than the original.
In a game that went back and forth for all four quarters, it was the Christoval Cougars (8-3) who secured a 40-34 victory on Brayden Wilcox’s 13-yard touchdown run with 1:17 left in the game.
With the players he had back from last year’s team, Cooper coach Aaron Roan knew coming into this season that he had a good secondary.
So when his team allowed 351 passing yards in a season-opening loss to Keller — and saw standout safety and captain LaDainian Diaz lost for the year to a torn ACL in the process — he didn’t panic. He simply made a couple of personnel adjustments and continued the course as planned.
That confidence has proven well-placed as the Cougars finished the regular season allowing just 180.5 passing yards per game with 12 interceptions. And entering Friday’s bi-district playoff against an explosive El Paso Eastwood team, Roan remains confident in his ball-hawking secondary to make the plays it must to help the team win.
7:30 p.m. Friday at Trooper Stadium, El Paso
What it means: This is the playoff opener for both teams, so only one of these squads will still be playing next week. Eastwood, the District 1-5A Division I champion, comes into this matchup on a six-game winning streak, while Cooper must regroup from a 58-27 home loss to Amarillo High that dropped the Cougars from second to fourth in the District 3 standings. The Coogs have won nine of their last 10 bi-district playoff games and are 14-0 all-time against El Paso schools. That record includes an 81-26 win over Eastwood in the 1994 area round in the only previous meeting between these schools.
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ABILENE — One team walked away with a narrow escape. The other walked away with life lessons.
Brock’s thrilling 34-27 win over Breckenridge, that saw the Eagles overcome a furious second-half rally by the Buckaroos, offered a full range of emotions for both sides, ranging from fear, to relief, to elation, to devastation.
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Big Country girls basketball teams combined to post a 4-1 record on the opening day of the Polk-Key City Classic on Thursday, which saw Jim Ned, Cooper, Abilene High and Wylie cruise to comfortable victories and Sweetwater drop a close one to San Antonio Stevens.
Jim Ned got the day started with a 52-26 win over Lubbock Coronado at Hardin-Simmons’ Mabee Complex, where Cooper followed with a 51-37 win over Little River Academy. Abilene High and Wylie then took care of business on their home courts, routing El Paso Franklin (53-26) and Salado (64-25), respectively, to join the Lady Indians and Lady Cougars in Friday’s winners bracket.
Sweetwater had a chance to win its tournament opener, playing Stevens to a tie early in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Falcons pulled away late for a 54-46 win at Abilene High’s Eagle Gym.
Continue reading “Big Country teams strong on first day of Polk-Key City Classic”
SAN ANGELO — After starting the season 0-5, it would have been easy for the Albany Lions to pack up camp and coast for the remainder of the year.
Denney Faith’s squad didn’t have that mentality, and it paid off Thursday night with a 47-7 Region I-2A Division II bi-district win over Rocksprings at San Angelo Stadium in a game that marked the Lions’ sixth straight win.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 12)”
Braden Campbell, senior at Breckenridge High School, signed his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday. Campbell, who went to state last season in the pole vault, will join the West Texas A&M track team as a decathlete in fall of 2019.
That’s significant, for more reasons than one.
West Texas A&M is one of the top 20 Division II track programs in the country, finishing 15th in the NCAA DII Outdoor Championships earlier this year.
A combined seven WTAM athletes, men and women, garnered All-Amercian honors last season.
LAST WEEK: 33-6, .846
SEASON TOTAL: 384-85, .818
There is no Big Country Preps Game of the Week once postseason begins. From this point forward, they are all the Game of the Week.
I’ve said pretty much the same thing for more than a decade.
But, as always, that won’t prevent us from taking a look around the area each week to spot some of the more intriguing matchups as the playoffs progress.
So … let’s dive in, shall we?
The Regular season is over, and the high school football playoffs are here. In this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast, Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood take a look back at the most important games of Week 11 and ahead to the postseason, focusing on the Big Country’s biggest threats.
Playing college baseball has been a dream for Wylie catcher Caleb Munton since he was a child. On Wednesday, he took a major step toward making that dream a reality.
At a ceremony in Bulldog Gym in front of family, friends and members of the local media, Munton signed his letter of intent to play for Texas State, making official a commitment to the Bobcats that dates back to October of 2017.
“It just makes it feel real,” said Munton, a standout catcher for the Bulldogs. “When I first verbally committed, that was so long ago and it just felt like Texas State was a distant thing in the future. But now that I’ve signed, it really feels real, and I’m just ready to be there now.”
The Cooper boys basketball team knocked down 13 3-pointers Tuesday in a 68-56 win over Abilene Christian at Cougar Gym.
Josh Henry led the barrage, hitting five treys on his way to a team-high 19 points, while Deven Bailey, Jose Rodriguez and Desean McDonald combined for six 3s in scoring 11 points each. Ben Thompson also had a productive night, scoring eight points for the Coogs.
ACHS, meanwhile, was led by Sterling Weilert, who hit three 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 25 points.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by pushing the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by pushing the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
The Abilene High boys basketball team gave first-year coach Justin Reese the best present they could on Tuesday night at Eagle Gym, celebrating his 41st birthday with a 65-42 win over Odessa High in the Eagles’ first game of the season on the court that Reese called home as a player in the 1990s.
AHS never trailed, racing out to a 15-6 first-quarter lead and controlling the game from there in improving to 1-1 on the young season.
“It’s the best birthday present,” said Reese of the win — his first at his alma mater after spending the past nine years as the head boys basketball coach at Richardson.
After falling 47-37 to Goldthwaite on Saturday, the No. 15 Eula girls basketball team needed to rebound for a Top-15 matchup Tuesday night against the surging Gorman Lady Panthers. To say the Lady Pirates were able to rebound is an understatement.
Behind a double-double performance from center Abby Matties and the hot hand of Kailey Fenton, Eula was able to overcome a slow start to defeat No. 12 Gorman 47-23.
HASKELL — While Haskell’s vaunted Tee Pee has gotten plenty of attention for decades for being one of the toughest basketball venues in the Big Country, there is another factor currently at play for HHS girls basketball: the Maidens are just plain good.
The combination of a 3-0 Haskell girls team playing with a raucous home crowd behind it has proven overwhelming thus far, with the latest victim, 14th-ranked 1A power Lipan, falling 54-24 on Tuesday.
The tickets are punched.
The matchups are set.
Now it’s time to dance.
15 area teams are now alive in the search for gold, so let’s not waste any time in looking back on the end of the regular season and looking ahead to the postseason’s biggest games of the opening round.
Abilene High (idle) — With their bye week scheduled for Week 11, the Eagles (5-5, 2-4) could do nothing but watch as their playoff hopes were officially dashed with a 28-15 Weatherford win over Hurst Bell.
Abilene High, which closed its season with four consecutive losses, would have made the playoffs as 3-6A’s fourth-place team if the Blue Raiders had knocked off the Kangaroos on Friday, but it couldn’t get the help it needed to extend its season.
AHS, which won five straight games from Week 2 to Week 6, had that streak snapped by a 17-15 loss to San Angelo Central that saw the Bobcats force a late fumble inside their own 5-yard line and drive for a game-winning field goal as time expired. That game was followed by consecutive losses to Haltom City Haltom (28-14), Weatherford (42-23) and Euless Trinity (34-16).
Amarillo High 58, Cooper 27 — The Cougars (5-5, 4-2) raced out to a 20-0 lead just over two minutes into the game, but the Sandies roared back, outscoring Cooper 58-7 the rest of the way to spoil Senior Night at Shotwell Stadium.
The loss dropped Cooper from second in the district to fourth, forcing coach Aaron Roan’s squad to travel to El Paso for its bi-district playoff matchup against El Paso Eastwood, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The Coogs turned the ball over six times in their regular season finale, allowing Amarillo High to pull ahead by the end of the first quarter and pull away in the second half, during which the Sandies (6-4, 4-2) outscored Cooper 27-0.
Plainview 22, Wylie 19 — Wylie (0-10, 0-5) couldn’t hold onto a 19-7 third-quarter lead, falling at home to Plainview to wrap up its first winless season since 1982.
The visitors (2-8, 1-4) got a touchdown pass from Jarren Isaguirre to Logan Patrick to cut the deficit to five with 41 seconds left in the third quarter before pulling ahead on Andrew Villa’s 1-yard scoring plunge with 7:28 left in the game.
Coach Hugh Sandifer’s Bulldogs had a chance to win the game late, using an 18-play drive to push into Plainview territory, but an incompletion through the end zone on fourth-and-9 ended their hopes of a comeback.
Earlier this season I described Coahoma’s Zack Schneider as a 1970s fullback, masquerading as a quarterback.
Accurate or not, for the second time this year we describe him as something else: Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week.
Schneider earned the accolade after rushing for 311 yards and five touchdowns on 24 carries in the Bulldogs’ 39-22 win over Lubbock Roosevelt on Friday to secure District 2-3A Division II’s No. 4 playoff seed.
BI-DISTRICT
Cooper 49, Eastwood 41
AREA
North Richland Hills Birdville 49, Cooper 14
BI-DISTRICT
Big Spring 28, Clint 22
AREA
Hereford 57, Big Spring 13
BI-DISTRICT
Kennedale 58, Brownwood 20
Stephenville 54, Dunbar 31
AREA
Celina 31, Stephenville 21
BI-DISTRICT
Dalhart 26, Snyder 7
BI-DISTRICT
Eastland 49, Boyd 27
Jim Ned 30, Whitesboro 21
Wall 20, Pilot Point 0
Brock 34, Breckenridge 27
AREA
Eastland 35, Denver City 28
Shallowater 44, Jim Ned 35
Wall 21, Bushland 14
Brock 64, Slaton 6
REGION SEMIFINALS
Shallowater 56, Eastland 21
Brock 35, Wall 13
REGION CHAMPIONSHIP
Brock 23, Shallowater 21
STATE SEMIFINALS
Malakoff 23, Brock 21
BI-DISTRICT
Crane 28, Coahoma 11
Tulia 26, Merkel 24
Childress 42, Ballinger 16
Canadian 70, Anson 13
Colorado City 51, Reagan County 0
Spearman 33, Cisco 29
AREA
Canadian 56, Colorado City 26
BI-DISTRICT
Comanche 42, Nocona 30
Holliday 66, Dublin 20
AREA
Comanche 42, Edgewood 38
REGION SEMIFINALS
Gunter 53, Comanche 14
BI-DISTRICT
Winters 26, Alvord 7
Stamford 68, Lindsay 34
Hawley 69, Chico 15
AREA
Panhandle 55, Winters 20
New Deal 64, Stamford 6
Sundown 37, Hawley 36 (OT)
BI-DISTRICT
De Leon 41, Axtell 21
AREA
De Leon 31, Wolfe City 20
REGION SEMIFINALS
De Leon 44, Riesel 21
REGION CHAMPIONSHIP
San Saba 31, De Leon 17
BI-DISTRICT
Christoval 40, Cross Plains 34
Hamlin 52, Miles 0
Albany 47, Rocksprings 7
Haskell 26, Eldorado 22
AREA
Hamlin 58, Windthorst 21
Albany 38, Santo 28
Wheeler 26, Haskell 12
REGION SEMIFINALS
Hamlin 21, Wellington 18
Albany 48, Wheeler 27
REGION CHAMPIONSHIP
Albany 41, Hamlin 28
STATE SEMIFINALS
Gruver 30, Albany 17
Continue reading “Big Country football playoff pairings, results”
Here are the standings for all six-man football districts involving Big Country schools after Week 11 (with last week’s scores and this week’s schedule):
Continue reading “Big Country Six-Man Football Standings (Final)”
Dublin 35, Millsap 34 — Bob Cervetto’s “Cardiac Lions” won their fourth heartstopper of the season on Friday, edging Millsap in their regular season finale.
It was the fourth one-score win of the season for Dublin, which amassed 431 yards in total offense. It was also their third one-point win in which the outcome was decided in the game’s final minute.
Millsap had an opportunity to win, after a 24-yard TD pass from Jace Davis to Ray Pacheco with 0:27 to play. But Davis was subsequently stopped on a two-point conversion run preserve the win for the Lions (8-2, 3-2).
San Saba 62, De Leon 12 — San Saba completed a 10-0 regular season and the district title by amassing 466 yards in Friday’s win over De Leon.
The Armadillos pounded out 302 rushing yards by night’s end and forced a staggering seven De Leon turnovers. A 34-0 second quarter put SSHS up 48-12 at the break, all but putting the game out of reach.
Memphis 39, Munday 14 — The Cyclones (3-6, 2-3) rode a 33-point first quarter to a lopsided win over Munday, ending the Moguls’ season at 0-10.
Memphis, which took the district’s fourth-playoff seed, snapped a three-game losing streak that had seen the Cyclones shut out by Wheeler (33-0) and Wellington (60-0).
Munday, which outscored Memphis 14-6 in the second half, got 125 yards rushing, 80 yards passing and two total touchdowns from Cameron Thornton in the loss.
Sonora 47, Brady 12 — The Broncos (5-5, 3-2) locked up this district’s No. 3 playoff seed and dashed the Bulldogs’ postseason hopes with a dominating Week 11 performance.
Sonora, which closed the regular season on a three-game winning streak after losing five straight earlier in the year, outgained Brady 512-152, limiting coach Shay Easterwood’s squad (2-8, 1-4) to just 29 rushing yards on 25 carries.
Quarterback Wesley Dutton had a huge day for the Broncos, hitting five of five passes for 131 yards while rushing for a 130 yards and four touchdowns on just 12 carries. Brady, meanwhile, was paced by Marshall Schmitz with 55 yards and a score on five rushing attempts and Jack Marshall with two catches for 58 yards.
Coahoma 39, Lubbock Roosevelt 22 — The Bulldogs secured the fourth seed behind quarterback Zack Schneider, who rushed for an eye-popping 311 yards and five touchdowns.
The Bulldogs finished with 426 yards and Schneider had a direct hand (running or passing) in 336 of those.
Brock 77, Paradise 21 — The Eagles (9-1, 6-0) closed out the regular season with perhaps their most dominating effort of the year, building a 49-6 halftime lead on their way to a 56-point blowout.
Cash Jones (9-152, 2 TDs), Toby Morrison (10-149, 3 TDs) and Hunter Bramblett (10-134, 2 TDs) all had 100-yard rushing games as Brock piled up 573 of its 643 total yards on the ground. Paradise, meanwhile, gained 288 yards, most of which came in the second half.
Coach Chad Worrell’s team had already locked up the district’s No. 1 seed going into Friday’s game, but the victory closed out a perfect run through league play. The Eagles’ reward is a bi-district matchup against Breckenridge at 7 p.m. Thursday at Abilene’s Shotwell Stadium.
STEPHENVILLE — The Cooper Cougars opened their season in dominant fashion Saturday, outscoring Stephenville 42-17 in the first half of a 60-29 victory.
Jose Rodriguez led a group of three Cooper players to score in double figures, finishing with a team-high 14 points. Josh Henry followed with 13 points and Ben Thompson scored 10, while Deven Bailey just missed double digits with nine points.
Stephenville was paced in the loss by Skylar Stilwell, who poured in a game-high 16 points.
Continue reading “LOCAL HOOPS ROUNDUP: Cooper boys rout Stephenville to open season”
Snyder 56, Pecos 20 — The Tigers capped an 8-2 season with an easy win over struggling Pecos.
Logan Greene was 15 of 23 for 163 yards and two TDs and JJ Burns rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown to lead Snyder, which faces Dalhart (6-4), at 7 p.m. on Friday in Plainview in the opening round of the playoffs.
A total of seven different Snyder players found the end zone as Pecos finished at 1-9 and 0-6.
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The Wylie girls basketball team rallied from a 13-point third-quarter deficit to have a chance to pull even with Wall in the waning seconds Saturday, but some clutch plays by guard Sawyer Lloyd and some struggles at the free-throw line by the Lady Bulldogs allowed the Lady Hawks to get out of Abilene with a hard-fought 50-47 win.
Wylie (1-2) outscored Wall 20-10 in the fourth quarter, but an 11-of-20 effort from the line in the final period kept the the Lady Bulldogs from ever overtaking the visiting Lady Hawks.
Using an aggressive press that Wall struggled with down the stretch, Wylie had a chance to tie the game with about two seconds remaining, but Karis Christian’s first of two free throws rimmed out and the intentional miss that followed missed the rim, allowing Wall to seal the game on the other end.
Cisco 56, Bangs 20 — The Loboes remained unbeaten by taking control of this game with a 35-7 first half.
Cisco (9-0, 7-0) rushed for 354 of its 497 total yards, led by Bobby Sanderson’s 117 yards and one TD on just seven carries.
Lake View 35, Big Spring 20 — After weeks of battling through a tough schedule as underdogs, Big Spring finally had the opportunity to play as a favorite on Friday, only to suffer an upset loss.
Four turnovers were the problem for Big Spring, which saw 402 yards in total offense go to waste as Lake View (2-8, 1-3) snapped a seven-game losing streak.
Hawley 35, Ozona 12 — District champion Hawley posted a workmanlike effort on Friday while downing Ozona.
True to form, the Bearcats bruised their way to 255 yards on the ground, with Colton Marshall (18-151 yards, 2 TDs) leading the way. Dylan Frazier threw for 120 yards, rushed for 40 and accounted for two more scores.
Breckenridge 28, Clyde 0 — Breckenridge used an incredible defensive effort to lock up the fourth and final playoff seed in this district, holding Clyde to just 65 yards in total offense.
Angel Ruiz rushed for 138 yards and all four BHS touchdowns on 27 carries to lift the Buckaroos (4-6, 2-3), who will face District 4 champ Brock (9-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene.
Albany 34, Hamlin 27 — Ben West threw for 248 yards and four scores and Cutter Edgar rushed for 112 yards to lift Albany (5-5, 5-0) to a stunning win over previously unbeaten Hamlin.
Albany, which limited Hamlin to an astounding 207 total yards, overcame three turnovers to win its 11th straight district championship.
It was the fifth consecutive win or the Lions, who had begun the season at 0-5 against a brutal nondistrict schedule.
China Spring 47, Brownwood 34 — China Spring’s first and only district win of 2018 was enough for the Cougars (5-5, 1-3) to lock up a playoff spot.
Trailing 34-32, China Spring took the lead for good with 6:18 to play on a 1-yard scoring run from Erik Hart. The Cougars put the game away on a 13-yard scoring run by Brayden Faulkner in the game’s final minute.