Month: September 2019

FEATURE: Cooper DB Davis a tone-setter for Cougar defense

Last year as a junior, Cooper’s Dylon Davis led the Cougar defense primarily by example, sliding over to safety when teammate LaDainian Diaz went down and providing strong enough results there to earn third-team All-Big Country Preps honors.

Building on that experience, the senior defensive back has focused this year on becoming a more complete leader.

Back at cornerback now that Diaz has recovered from his torn ACL, Davis is as effective on the field as ever — evidenced by his two interceptions in the Coogs’ 21-20 season-opening win at Keller. But it’s on the practice field and in the locker room where he’s seen his impact grow the most, and that hasn’t happened by accident.

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BCP GAME OF THE WEEK: Cisco, Wall square off in a clash of area powers (w/ Evan Ren’s Big Country Picks)

LAST WEEK: 43-13, .767

SEASON TOTAL: 43-13, .767

The beauty of Week 1 of the football season is that it throws all sorts of new questions into your face. The beauty of Weeks 2 and 3 is that most of those questions get answered. 

Our Big Country Preps Game of the Week — Wall at Cisco — should serve as a moment of clarity. 

Just how good is this Wall team that routed perennial power Mason 47-7 at the Puncher Dome last week? Entering as a nine-point favorite, the Hawks shattered the computer projections leading some to believe this could be a vintage Hawks football team. 

At this point, however, we don’t know exactly where Mason stands. 

We do, however, have a pretty fair idea about Cisco, which handed a rapidly improving (albeit young) Class 4A Sweetwater team a 49-27 loss in the Mustang Bowl. This is your standard, tough Cisco football team with an excellent running game and physical defense. 

So we’ll find out precisely where Wall is on Friday. 

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FEATURE: Abilene High linebacker Franklin a coach on the field

First-year Abilene High head football coach Mike Fullen asks a lot of his linebackers. That’s particularly true of those two inside guys in his 3-4 defensive scheme.

In addition to being playmakers against both the run and pass, Fullen’s inside backers must be respected leaders and coaches on the field, relaying signals from the sideline and helping get their teammates lined up where they’re supposed to be.

Fortunately, senior D’Anthony Franklin ticks all of those boxes.

A three-year varsity lettermen and two-year starter for the Eagles, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Franklin has grown into one of the top defensive players in all of the Big Country. And having worked with him now from both a defensive coordinator and head coaching role, Fullen has a strong appreciation for everything the standout brings to his team.

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FEATURE: Wylie offense shows promise despite mistakes in season opener

It would be easy to assume based on the halftime score (29-0) and final tally (49-19) that the Wylie Bulldogs’ season opener at Georgetown was a total washout. The type of game you move on from after film study, never to revisit again.

But lost in the lopsided score was a 424-yard offensive output that could have yielded very different results had it been accompanied by fewer mistakes. And while the Bulldogs’ four turnovers and 13 penalties can’t be erased — and the disastrous effects of each stand as the overarching story of that game — there was plenty to like about the effort.

Take, for instance, that Bulldog quarterbacks Jaxon Hansen and Balin Valentine combined to complete 71 percent of their passes (22 of 31) for 292 yards. Or that Wylie ball carriers averaged 4.3 yards per rush attempt behind a relatively inexperienced line. Or that Hugh Sandifer’s squad responded from a nightmarish end to the first half to score 19 points in the second — topping their 2018 per-game scoring average by more than three points in those final two quarters.

All of those are things the Bulldogs can build on, Sandifer said, so long as they learn from and clean up their mistakes.

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BCP Podcast No. 60: Evan, Daniel talk Big Country pigskin with Texas Football’s Greg Tepper

As the managing editor of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine and an analyst for Fox Sports Southwest, Greg Tepper is respected statewide for the passion and knowledge he brings to his Texas high school football coverage.

This week, Tepper took a few minutes to chat with Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood about the Big Country football scene and his work for this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wenesday Night Podcast. 

Also in this episode, Evan and Daniel discuss the biggest surprises of high school football’s opening week and preview some of the Big Country’s top matchups in Week 2.

Continue to check back at BigCountryPreps.com each Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when Evan and Dan discuss the current happenings in Big Country High School sports — often with an interesting sports figure from around the area.

You can also peruse our BCP Podcast archive, which features dozens of our previous shows with prominent coaches and Big Country media fixtures. 

Inquiries regarding these podcasts may be directed to Evan Ren at Evan.Ren@BigCountryPreps.com. 

If you have a suggested topic of conversation or a recommended guest, don’t hesitate to contact us! 

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BCP SIX-MAN SPOTLIGHT: Jayton’s Scogin, Stanaland share bond beyond field

JAYTON — Today, Jayton coach Josh Stanaland and standout Tye Scogin share one of the closest player-coach relationships in the Big Country.

But the genesis of that bond predates either person’s time in his current role for the Jaybirds. 

In fact, to find Scogin’s earliest memories of Stanaland, you’d have to go back to his childhood years at the swimming pool.

“We have been (around) each other almost 17 or 18 years,” the Jayton standout said of his head coach. “When I was a kid, he was my lifeguard most of the time, so my whole life, I’ve been with him. We have kept that bond from when I was a baby to now that I’m a senior in high school.”

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Big Country Preps Player of the Week: Haskell’s Burson captures our first weekly award for 2019-20

We like diversity at Big Country Preps and often use it as a tiebreaker when determining our Player of the Week award. 

We begin the 2019-20 school year with a prime example of this in Haskell senior Logan Burson, who did a bit of everything in the Indians’ season-opening 32-24 win over Quanah.

It all begins with four receptions for 36 yards and a touchdown and two carries for nine yards and another score. But that’s just scratching the surface. 

Burson also added a two-point conversion run, a 76-yard kickoff return to the Quanah 5 to set up a touchdown, a 90-yard fumble return off a PAT that he returned for a defensive two-point conversion and an interception he returned 50 yards. 

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District 3-6A: Week 1 Report

Amarillo Tascosa 19, Abilene High 14 — The Eagles led the defending state semifinalist Rebels 14-13 in the fourth quarter Friday at Shotwell Stadium, but they couldn’t close out the victory in Mike Fullen’s first game as head coach.

A muffed punt led to a Rebels touchdown with 9:17 remaining, and AHS saw its final possession end on a fourth-down interception inside the Tascosa 15-yard line. That turnover allowed the flexbone-based Rebels to run out the rest of the clock with the aid of three third-and-long conversions.

Tascosa ran 77 plays to Abilene High’s 34 and dominated time of possession, but the Eagles stayed in the game with some clutch stops and key drives. AHS held the Rebels to just six points in the first half despite three trips to the red zone, and running back Phonzo Dotson (18-152, 1 TD rushing) led an offense that twice rallied from behind to take a lead.

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District 2-5A Division I: Week 1 Report

Cooper 21, Keller 20 — A bus delay out of Abilene and heavy traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area couldn’t keep the Cooper Cougars from making a successful road trip in the opening week of the high school football season. 

Building a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter, the Coogs responded to multiple Keller rallies, sealing the victory with a two-point conversion stop after a kickoff return touchdown gave the Indians a chance to tie or take the lead with 23 seconds remaining.

Noah Garcia, whose 12-yard TD reception from Aidan Thompson broke a 14-all tie with 34 seconds to play, led the Cooper offense with 124 rushing yards and two total touchdowns. Receiver Daelin Campos also had a big game, catching seven passes for 110 yards. This included a 68-yard scoring strike from Thompson, who passed for 164 yards in the win.

Defensively, the Coogs were led by Dylon Davis, who intercepted two passes from his spot in the Cooper secondary.

https://twitter.com/sportsfreaknut/status/1167632550807900160

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District 3-5A Division II: Week 1 Report

Georgetown 49, Wylie 19 — A slow start and rough close to the first half cost the Bulldogs any chance they had to put some pressure on the Eagles in the second half Friday. But Wylie showed some fight over the final two quarters, finding the end zone three times after going to halftime down 29-0.

Trailing just 10-0 with less than three minutes remaining the first half, the Bulldogs allowed 19 points over the final 2:01 of the second quarter, turning a manageable deficit into an insurmountable one by the start of the second half.

The loss was the 13th in a row for Wylie, which will travel to Lubbock to take on Monterey this week. The Bulldogs will try to build on a solid second-half showing Friday that included three touchdown passes, including scoring receptions of 53 and 25 yards by Creed Cooper. 

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