Abilene High 24, Amarillo High 21 — Ethan Joyner ran 112 yards, while Brayden Henry ran for 111 yards and passed for 34 yards and three touchdowns to help the Eagles rally from a 21-0 second-quarter deficit to secure a thrilling win over the Sandies.
Down 21-7 at halftime, Abilene High (4-2, 2-0) tied the game with a pair of third-quarter touchdown passes from Henry. Elisha Batendji then hit a 40-yard field goal with 5:10 remaining in the fourth quarter for what proved to be the winning points.
Wylie 29, Abilene Cooper 22 — After allowing 22 points and 232 yards rushing in the first half, the Bulldogs shut the Cougars out in the second to score a hard-fought win over their crosstown rivals in our Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
Jadin Karleskint passed for 246 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a team-high 76 yards to lead Wylie (4-2, 2-0), which also got productive efforts from Blaze Ruffin (3-119, 1 TD receiving) and Julius Laine (17-71, 1 TD rushing; 2-36, 1TD receiving).
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene High-Amarillo High football (91 images)”
All of District 8-2A Division II was idle on Friday, with district play opening next week.
Here’s a quick look at the approaching matchups:
Goldthwaite 65, Hubbard 0 — The Eagles rolled up 424 yards in total offense, whle holding Hubbard to 40 in an easy district win.
Blake Howard threw for 213 yards and four scores and added one rushing TD to lead Goldthwaite (3-2).
Hubbard fell to 2-3.
Wall 35, Idalou 21 — Landon York threw for 307 yards and two scores and Wall rushed for 95 yards via committee in a tough win at Idalou.
The Hawks improved to 6-0 in their final non-district game of the season. Idalou fell to 3-3.
Haskell 56, Seymour 42— Haegen Pinkerton passed for 221 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 182 yards and three more scores to lead the Indians to a three-touchdown win over the Panthers.
Brazos Bendle added 60 yards and two TDs on the ground and 37 yards and another score receiving for Haskell (1-1, 3-3), which also got receiving touchdowns from Zakeem Billington (2-62), Colton Gober (1-48).
Brownwwood 62, Ingleside 0
The Lions (3-3) rolled up 548 yards in total offense to reach the .500 mark for the first time this year.
Trent Buffington rushed for 111 yards and two TDs while Carson Noe and Grant Gray threw two touchdown passes each to lead Brownwood, which had built a 55-0 lead by halftime.
Limited to only 36 total yards, Ingleside fell to 2-4.
Glen Rose (0-5), idle — The Tigers were open yesterday but will see action again next Friday when they play host to Godley.
Glen Rose’s record could be deceiving. The combined record of the Tigers’ opposition thus far is 20-5 and four of those losses were by a combined 26 points (four scores).
Levelland 41, Snyder 14 — The Tigers trailed just 14-7 at halftime, but the Lobos came out the break with 20 unanswered points in the third quarter to pull away for a lopsided win.
Aedyn Claxton passed for 244 yards and a pair of touchdowns and had a team-high 67 rushing yards for Snyder, which got receiving touchdowns from Kason Rinehart (5-85 receiving) and Andres Martinez.
San Angelo Grape Creek 49, San Angelo TLCA 12 — TLCA was the lone district team to see action on Friday, falling to its archrival Grape Creek in league play.
TLCA fell to 0-5 with the loss and will open district play at home against Sweetwater next Friday.
Fort Stockton 42, Big Spring 21 — Gerry Diaz threw for 273 yards and four touchdowns, hitting Nikki Sotelo seven times for 146 yards, to help the Panthers pull away for a three-touchdown win over the Steers.
Nick Almendarez added 151 yards on the ground for Fort Stockton, which outgained Big Spring 515-428 and won the turnover battle 2-0.
Olney 33, Crosbyton 0 — The Cubs (2-3) were the lone districts member to hit the field on Friday and came away with a win over struggling Crosbyton.
Tucker Cortinez threw for 343 yards and four scores to lead the Cubs.
The victory was the second in succession for Olney, which travels to Abilene TLCA next Friday.
Albany (3-2), Idle — The Lions were open yesterday, but will see action again next Friday when they travel to Miles (1-4).
Albany will enter that game on a two-game losing skid, having fallen to Coahoma (5-1) and Anson (5-0) in succession.
A back-and-forth shootout in the first half gave way to a defensive struggle in the second, but at the end of four quarters, the Wylie Bulldogs were one touchdown better than Cooper in a thrilling 29-22 victory at Hugh Sandifer Stadium.
After allowing 232 yards rushing in the first half of Friday’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week, coach Clay Martin’s defense tightened things up to pitch a shutout in the second. That allowed Julius Laine’s second touchdown of the night to serve as the go-ahead and, eventually, game-winning points midway through the third quarter as Wylie took the Southtown Showdown for the fourth consecutive year.
The victory puts Wylie (4-2 overall) alone atop the District 2-5A Division II standings at 2-0, while dropping Cooper to 3-3 on the year and 1-1 in league play.
Through the first half of the 2025 season, the race for the District 2-5A Division I championship has appeared to be a three-team battle between Abilene High, Amarillo High and Amarillo Tascosa — all of which opened district play with wins last week.
Friday night at Shotwell Stadium, the Eagles and Sandies squared off to see which AHS would be in control of its own destiny ahead of its respective showdown against Tascosa.
In the end, it was the Eagles who knocked off the Golden Sandstorm, 24-21, in thrilling matchup between two teams that had both spent time ranked in the Class 5A Division I top 10 at different points this year.
Photos provided by Rosie Slate
BIG SPRING — For most of his football career, Big Spring senior Marcus Rios has patiently played the role of backup quarterback. This dates back to his middle school days which saw him play as the seventh grade “B” team QB, the eighth grade “B” team QB, the freshman team backup QB, the JV backup QB and the backup varsity QB last year.
Five full seasons as an understudy.
Now, at the age of 17, Rios has at long last, been given the reins of the Big Spring varsity offense and he’s making the most of the opportunity. At present, he stands as one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the Big Country.
We’ve hit Week 6, and district play is just around the corner for most teams in the Big Country Preps coverage area. But before we hit that milestone this season, we’ve got an excellent slate of nondistrict matchups to get through first.
Headlining this week’s schedule of games is a battle of unbeatens in Cherokee in Benjamin, which earns our Game of the Week designation, but that’s just one of several big-time six-man matchups throughout the area.
It’s time now to take a deeper look at all of those in this week’s Six-Man Lookahead column. We hope you enjoy this preview of Week 6 and encourage you to check out our Six-Man/Class 1A Central page for more information on your favorite team(s).
Continue reading “SIX-MAN LOOKAHEAD: Cherokee-Benjamin headlines strong week of matchups in Week 6”
In Abilene High’s 3-4 defense, no player has a more important job than the nose guard.
Manning the interior of the defensive line, that player is responsible for occupying multiple blocks most snaps to route ball-carriers into gaps where waiting linebackers can make plays — ideally at or near the line of scrimmage.
More often than not, the fruit of that player’s (sometimes thankless) labor will show up more in others’ stats than his own. But without those efforts, the integrity of the entire defense falls apart.
This year, those monumental responsibilities have fallen once again on the sizeable shoulders of Jayden Starks. And if you’re searching for a reason to explain why the Eagles defense has been as successful — and disruptive — as it has, the 6-foot-1, 270-pound senior would be a pretty good place to start.
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 our weekly fan polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Sunday night each week and close Thursday evening.
Disagree with our picks or the fan poll consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
LAST WEEK: 52-10, .838
SEASON TOTAL: 251-66, .791
COOPER (3-2) AT WYLIE (3-2)
Our Big Country Preps Game of the Week is a tough call. Cooper comes in playing its best football of the year with back-to-back routs of Lubbock Coronado (59-0) and Wichita Falls Memorial.
Though Ladainian Smith routinely displays his skills on Friday nights in Comanche, he unofficially began making his run to a spot among the elite Big Country running backs some five months ago and about 140 miles south of his hometown.
And it didn’t take place on a football field.
Late last April, running the first leg on the Indian’s 400-meter relay team, Smith helped Comanche earn a trip to Austin for the state track meet. The Indians finished seventh — a noteworthy feat, considering there are 231 Class 3A sprint teams who field sprint relay teams.
But what Smith accomplished as he concluded his stay in the state capital was even more significant: He decided that he had a chance to be special in multiple sports.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Hawley-Albany volleyball (55 images)”
Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Wednesday 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.
