With the girls basketball season upon us, it’s time to take a look at the local and area players who will be making the biggest impact for their teams during the 2023-24 season.
For the first installment in a three-part series that will cover all positions, we’ll be focusing on the Big Country’s top guards, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this season.
We hope you enjoy reading through our selections.
NOTE: This will be our final installment of Big Country Volleyball Statistical Leaders for the 2023 season
Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m. roughout the regular season.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
With much of the reporting from Friday’s 34-30 win by Hawley over Stamford going to a stunning game-winning touchdown scored by Camden Ables, someone got lost in the shuffle.
That would be our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Diontay Ramon, a Hawley senior receiver-DB without whom, the Bearcats’ last-minute miracle never would have materialized.
For starters, Ramon hauled in 11 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. He also had four carries for 23 yards and another score, but we’re just warming up.
Wylie 33, Amarillo Palo Duro 16 — The Bulldogs raced out to a 21-3 first-quarter lead and were never threatened after, locking up a playoff spot with a comfortable win over the Dons.
Bear Meng passed for 198 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 79 yards and another score to lead Wylie (6-3, 3-1), which also got 57 yards rushing from Malachi Daniels. Braden Regala (4-75) and Derrick Evans (3-66) both had receiving touchdowns, but Evans was knocked out of the game and taken to the hospital in the first quarter.
Abilene High 24, Amarillo High 14 — The Eagles wrapped up their outright district title, outscoring the Sandies 10-0 over the final two quarters to break a halftime tie.
Chad Lara rushed for Brayden Henry rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown and Brayden Henry ran for 91 yards and two scores for Abilene High (8-2, 6-0), which outgained Amarillo High 415-283. Dylan Slack added 227 yards passing, hitting Jackson Howle seven times for 100 yards and Ryland Bradford eight times for 82 yards.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Amarillo High-Abilene High football (68 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Cross Plains-Abilene TLCA football (18 images)”
Hico 27, Meridian 7 — The Tigers (7-3, 4-2) concluded their regular season with a win at home. And will now enjoy an open date in Week 11, during which their playoff seeding will be determined by the outcome of the Wortham-Dawson game.
Price Mullin rushed for 124 yards and Buck Powell rushed for 105 to lead Hico, which overcame four fumbles and an interception with 304 yards rushing as a team.
Celeste 42, Santo 7 — The Blue Devils had three 100-yard rushers in a 408-yard ground assault, building a 22-0 halftime lead on their way to a blowout win over the Wildcats.
Anthony Powell led the effort for Celeste (7-2, 4-1), finishing with 183 yards and three touchdowns, while Jason Minter added 111 yards and one TD and Brock Stewart had 107 yards and two scores
Ozona 28, Forsan 14 — Hudson Fowler passed for 247 yards and a touchdown and Marcus Gonzales rushed for 96 yards and a score to lead the Lions to an upset win over the Buffaloes.
Ozona (5-4, 3-1), which led 7-0 at halftime and 21-7 after three quarters, finished with 374 yards of total offense, getting big receiving days from Michael Daniels (4-100, 1 TD) and Matthew Daniels (4-93).
Brock 69, Ponder 12 — The Eagles rushed for 536 yards and gained 671 yards total in a blowout win over the Lions, improving to 6-3 overall and 5-0 in league play with the victory.
Brody Woods, who passed for 129 yards and two touchdowns, led all rushers with 161 yards on the ground, while Brett Tutter rushed for 158 yards and two scores and Vance Guthrie had 69 yards and three TDs.
Windthorst 54, Seymour 22 — The Trojans (7-2, 5-0) clinched the district title with a lopsided win over second-place Seymour.
Brock Belcher threw for 137 yards, rushed for 127 and accounted for four TDs to lift Windthorst, which blew the game open with a 32-14 second half.
Wichita Falls Hirschi 42, Sweetwater 7 — The Huskies wrapped up their third consecutive district championship with a lopsided win over the Mustangs.
Hirschi (5-3, 3-0) held Sweetwater to just 173 total yards, using a 21-point second quarter to go to halftime up 28-7.
Roscoe 34, Miles 33 — Ivan “The Terrible” McCann bulldozed his way to 231 yards rushing and four scores to lift Roscoe to an important district win over visiting Miles.
The Plowboys led 34-21 late in the third quarter before absorbing back to back Miles touchdowns, both of which were followed by missed PATs.
Cisco 38, Anson 19 — The Loboes kept their district title hopes alive with a win over Anson on the road.
Kannon Orsagh threw for 109 yards and two scores and Gus Hart rushed for 74 yards and another TD to lead Cisco, which needs to defeat league-leading Hawley next week to give itself a chance at the No. 1 seed.
Brownwood 28, Andrews 14 — Ike Hall ran for 193 yards and two touchdowns and Levi Pearson added 106 yards and a pair of rushing scores to fuel the Lions to a win over the Mustangs in their final game of the regular season.
Brownwood (9-1, 4-0), which clinched the outright district title with the victory, led 14-0 after a quarter and held off Andrews from there to win by two scores.
Coahoma 41, Lubbock Roosevelt 22 — Jaidyn Vineyard rushed for 204 yards and three TDs on 23 carries and Boy Cox threw for 217 yards and three more TDs to lead the Bulldogs to a crucial win over Roosevelt.
By pulling off what many see as an upset, the Bulldogs have now forced a four-way tie for second place — a log jam that will be (at least partially) broken up next Friday.
Coleman 35, De Leon 7 — Brayden Torres passed for 229 yards and a touchdown, while Jadin Jackson rushed for 61 yards and two scores and had a 57-yard TD pass to help the Bluecats pull away for a comfortable win over the Bearcats.
Brent Bouldin added 56 yards rushing and both Blaze Hronek (8-121, 1 TD) and Hunter Lackey (7-116) topped the 100-yard receiving mark for Coleman (7-2, 4-1), which led 20-7 by halftime.
Comanche 48, Merkel 0 — The Indians rushed for 330 of their 436 yards, getting big games from Sawyer Wilkerson and Colt Schwertner in a blowout win over the Badgers.
Wilkerson finished with 139 yards and two touchdowns while Schwertner added 102 yards and one TD to lead Comanche (5-4, 2-2), which built a 28-0 lead by halftime.
Wall 50, Early 6 — The Hawks locked up the district title behind 429 yards rushing as a team.
The Hawks used seven different ball carriers on the night, four of whom found the end zone. Garrett Guy, topped the stat sheet with 98 yards and one TD.
Jim Ned 36, Vernon 32— Brayden Shipman rushed for 241 yards and two scores, including a 63-yard run with 1:00 left in the game to set up the game-inning TD.
With the win, Jim Ned (7-2, 3-1) is now in a first-place tie with both Iowa Park (4-5, 3-1) and Clyde (8-1, 3-1) with one game left in the regular season.
Stephenville 34, Alvarado 7 — Ryan Gafford threw for 209 yards and three scores to lead the Yellow Jackets (7-2, 3-0) to an easy win over Alvarado.
Tristian Gentry, the Big Country’s leading receiver, was the top target, hauling in seven catches for 161 yards.
It took the Abilene High football team a little while to get going Friday at Shotwell Stadium, but by the end of the night, the Eagles were celebrating a 24-14 win over Amarillo High and a perfect run through District 2-5A Division I play.
The victory, which was needed to lock up the outright district title for Abilene High, was anything but easy. But thanks to a gutsy performance by the defense in the early going and a strong offensive effort from the second quarter on, the Eagles never trailed in improving to 8-2 on the season and 6-0 in district action.
After holding leads of 7-0 and 14-7 in the second quarter, coach Mike Fullen’s squad went to halftime with the score tied at 14. That set the stage for an exciting second half that saw the Eagles outscore the Sandies 10-0 to put the game away.
Hawley’s game-winning play is viewable at the 1:30 mark of the video above. It came on
4th and 8 at the Stamford 45 with 0:47 to play.
HAWLEY — Call it a great play, call it luck or call it a miracle. But Hawley freshman Camden Ables was praying from the time the ball was snapped until the end of an incredible game-winning play that saw him twist, turn and break five tackles in a 45-yard TD reception on 4th-and-8 with 47 seconds to play in a thrilling 34-30 win over Stamford.
Ables’ TD was the final score in Friday’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week — a roller coaster affair that had already seen three lead changes in a battle for first place in District 4-2A DI. The play spoiled a dramatic Stamford comeback, that saw the Bulldogs (7-1, 4-1) rally from separate deficits of 6-0 and 20-10.
“I knew the ball was coming to me but I was kind of praying the whole time “Lord, please help me catch this ball,” Ables said. “When I got to the end zone, it felt (like it) was not real. It was unbelievable.”
The Bearcats (7-2, 5-0) then iced the game after Diontay Ramon picked off a Christian Duran pass with 0:41 to play.
The Wylie football team overcame a scary first quarter injury to senior wide receiver Derrick Evans to take a 33-16 District 2-5A Division II win over Amarillo Palo Duro on Friday, clinching a playoff berth at Hugh Sandifer Stadium.
After the game, Wylie coach Clay Martin said that Evans, who took a shoulder to the side of his head and was taken via ambulance to Hendrick Medical Center, had a CT scan that came back negative.
Several Bulldogs said that Evans’ health was on their mind as the game resumed.
Photos by Mandi McDonald, HubCityPreps.com
LUBBOCK — Daniel Bray rushed for 155 yards and three touchdowns on just four carries and the Cooper defense forced five turnovers and returned three for touchdowns to fuel the Cougars to a 61-7 win over the Westerners on Thursday at Lowrey Field.
Behind a running game that pounded out 447 yards on 37 attempts, Cooper built a 21-0 lead by the end of the first quarter, and a pair of defensive scores allowed the Cougars to increase that advantage to 41-7 by halftime.
The victory, the Cougars’ third in a row, improved coach Aaron Roan’s squad to 4-5 overall and 3-1 in District 2-5A Division II play, setting up a big home matchup next week against crosstown rival Wylie in the district and regular season finale for both teams.
In order to account for new schools opening and in keeping the different classifications as balanced and competitive as possible, the University Interscholastic League goes through a realignment every other year.
It’s one of the highlights of what’s typically a slow football offseason, but it gets started before the current season has drawn to a close.
A multi-step process, realignment got under way on Friday with Snapshot Day. All UIL schools are required to turn in their enrollments on the day for the governing body to determine cutoff numbers for each classification and start drawing up the new districts.
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games and select six-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.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
LAST WEEK: 44-7, .862
SEASON TOTAL: 391-86, .820
It really didn’t take long for people to start talking about the Hawley – Stamford matchup in 2023. In fact, this one was on our calendar as a possible Game of the Week before the season even started.
Who will win? That depends on who you speak with. Our Twitter poll is split virtually down the middle and even the computers see this one as a near tossup.
Stamford (7-0, 4-0 District 4-2A DII) enters this game scarcely challenged, rolling over the opposition by an average tally of 45-8. Hawley (6-2, 4-0), on the other hand, comes in with some battle scars after a brutal schedule featuring Jim Ned, Lubbock Roosevelt and Albany.
Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m. roughout the regular season.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
Every now and then, the biggest performances come at precisely the right time. And in the case of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, that couldn’t be more true than it is now.
With his team laboring through a five-game losing streak and in danger of losing a playoff spot, Big Spring’s Kavien Ford came up with one of the best performances we’ve seen this year when he rushed for 374 yards and seven scores on 39 carries in a 63-43 win over San Angelo Lake View.
The win put Big Spring (2-6, 1-1) in a three-way tie for second place with one game remaining in the regular season. It also kept Lake View in sole possession of last place.
Cooper 31, Plainview 14 — The Cougars used a 21-point second quarter to climb out of an early 7-0 hole and were never threatened after halftime in a dominant showing against the Bulldogs.
Cooper (3-5, 2-1) outgained Plainview 284-191, limiting a talented Bulldogs offense to just 3.8 yards per play. Christian Rico (8-52 rushing), Austin Cummins (8-32 rushing; 9-18-1—94 passing) and Troneal Robinson (13-29) all had rushing scores for the Cougars, who also got a TD pass from Cummins to tight end Clayton Gift (3-46 receiving) in the victory.
Photo by Mark Rogers, HubCityPreps.com
Abilene High 63, Lubbock Coronado 10 — The Eagles overcame a sluggish start to rout the Mustangs, scoring 49 points over the middle two quarters to pull away for a lopsided win.
The Eagles, who trailed 7-0 after a quarter, led 21-10 by halftime before putting the game away with a 28-point second quarter. AHS () outgained Coronado 458-219, limiting Coronado to just 26 yards rushing.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Plainview-Cooper football (62 images)”
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