Category: Albany Lions

by Evan Ren

BIG COUNTRY PREPS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Brock junior takes the award with one big half of play

Every now and then, two quarters of playing time is enough to have a enormous impact. That was the case several times last week in a Friday night filled with lopsided finals throughout the area.

Topping that list: Our BCP Player of the Week, junior running back Brett Tutter, who helped lead Brock to a 77-27 win over Ponder. 

Tutter got only 16 carries in two quarters of play, but finished with an eye-popping 318 yards and five touchdowns as Brock (5-4, 4-0 District 4-3A DI) earned its fifth straight win after an 0-4 start. 

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by Evan Ren

DISTRICT 6-2A DIV. II WEEK 10 REPORT: Albany, Cross Plains, Miles secure Week 10 victories

Albany 55, Hamlin 6 — Coy Lefevre rushed for 191 yards and two touchdowns and Adam Hill rushed for 95 yards and three scores to lead Albany past area rival Hamlin.

The Lions quickly built a 41-0 halftime lead before putting things into cruise control. It was the fourth straight win for the Lions since an injury-plagued 3-2 start and clinched the district title.

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by Evan Ren

DISTRICT 6-2A DIV. II WEEK 9 REPORT: Albany, Cross Plains and Miles all notch district wins

17Albany 55, Roscoe 0 — After a lengthy injury Cole Chapman returned to the Albany lineup at quarterback and had an immediate impact, hitting 5 of 11 throws for 105 yards and three scores.  

The Lions (6-2, 3-0) also ran the football effectively, charting 131 yards as a team, including 94 yards rushing and two scores from Coy Lefevre. 

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by Evan Ren

DISTRICT 6-2A DII WEEK 8 REPORT: Albany, Roscoe remain unbeaten in district, Hamlin falls to Miles

Albany 56, Cross Plains 0 — London Fuentes threw for 182 yards and three scores and Coy Lefevre rushed for 127 yards and two more touchdowns as Albany (5-2, 2-0) shut out Cross Plains. 

Albany built a 42-0 lead by the break before coasting to the finish line. 

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by Evan Ren

BIG COUNTRY PREPS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Cisco’s Long takes our top spot after huge night vs. Olney

With a difficult Olney team paying them a visit on Friday, the Cisco Loboes could ill afford a misstep in their quest to win District 4-2A Division I — not with Stamford and Hawley still on their plate. 

Cisco turned to veteran quarterback Hunter Long to get the job done and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week responded with an eye-popping 338 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 20 carries to help Cisco (6-1, 3-0) to a 34-15 win.

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by Evan Ren

DISTRICT 6-2A DIV. II WEEK 7 REPORT: Roscoe, Albany and Hamlin win their district openers

Roscoe 28, Cross Plains 6 — Jax Watts threw for 214 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 33 yards and another score to lead the Plowboys to a win over previously unbeaten Cross Plains. 

Outgained 317-167, Cross Plains fell to 6-1 and 0-1.  Noah Moses led the Buffaloes with 40 yards rushing and one TD to go with 14 solo tackles and a fumble recovery.

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by Evan Ren

DISTRICT 6-2A DIV. II WEEK 6 REPORT: Plowboys fall to Sunray while the rest of the league takes a night off

Sunray 47, Roscoe 17 — The Plowboys (2-2) were the lone team in District 6-2A DII to take the field

on Friday and came up on losing side of a 30-point spread at Lubbock Cooper. 

Sunray finished with 631 yards in total offense, including 472 on the ground to improve to 5-1.

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by Evan Ren

BCP GAME OF THE WEEK: Comanche rallies from 14-point deficit to stun area power Albany

ALBANY — For Comanche, it had all the ingredients of a landmark win, including coming from behind and facing adversity to beat a perennial power on the road.

Comanche’s stunning 31-28 victory at Albany on Friday was the sort of win that second-year Comanche coach Jake Escobar had yet to achieve with the Indians — the sort of win that often signals the arrival of a program.

Sawyer Wilkerson rushed for 181 yards and two scores and the CHS defense forced five turnovers to lead the Indians (4-1), who overcame an early 14-0 deficit to get the win. 

Albany, which was missing four starters including quarterback Cole Chapman, fell to 3-2. The Lions, who were crippled by an interception in the end zone and a pick-six, were led by Adam Hill’s 128 yards rushing and two touchdowns. 

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by Evan Ren

BIG COUNTRY PREPS GAME OF THE WEEK: Brownwood entertains red hot Glen Rose (w/ Evan Ren’s Big Country picks)

LAST WEEK: 51-10, .836
SEASON TOTAL: 131-42, .757

Football picks are something I take pride in and it irritates me to no end when I stink it up. So let’s just say, I burned some midnight oil to get that situation corrected last week. 

As a result, the column recovered with a solid .836 percentage in Week 3, salvaging my bruised ego after a disastrous Week 2 tally. In all, 51 of 61 area picks hit the mark last week, elevating my season’s record above 75 percent. 

That’s more like it.

Week 4 in the meantime, presents a lineup of some of the most difficult area picks we’ve had this season — including an explosive Glen Rose team facing Brownwood in our BCP Game of the Week. Let’s dive in, shall we? 

Here’s this week’s forecast: 

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by Brandon McAuliffe

GAME STORY: ACHS spikes Albany in nondistrict volleyball matchup

The Abilene Christian High School volleyball team started fast and dominated most of the night on Tuesday as the Lady Panthers swept Albany 25-11, 25-11, 25-22 at Panther Gym in nondistrict action.

Shea Bruntmyer led ACHS to the first six points of the match, highlighted by two aces, as the Lady Panthers improved to 15-9 on the season.

Albany, meanwhile, fell to 10-7 with the loss.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Quarterbacks

After a week of highlighting area playmakers, we wrap up our eight-part preseason position rankings series with the Big Country’s best signal callers.

To complete our look at the area’s top players, we’ve ranked our top 10 quarterbacks with a list of others to watch in 2022.

We hope you enjoy this list and that you’ve enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kick off a new season.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Running Backs

As we wind down our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we arrive finally at the Big Country’s top ball-carriers.

After breaking down this year’s crop of receivers and tight ends earlier today, we move now to the area’s top backs, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch in 2022. Don’t forget to check in Thursday when we conclude our series with the top 10 area quarterbacks.

We hope you enjoy tonight’s list and encourage you to check out the other position groups, which are linked below.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

We’re approaching the final stretch of our eight-part preseason position rankings series, and it’s time to look at the Big Country’s top receivers.

After starting the offensive portion of our series Tuesday with the linemen, we now shift our attention to the playmakers on the perimeter, ranking our top 10 wideouts/tight ends with a list of others to watch in 2022.

We hope you enjoy our list and encourage you to check out the other position groups, which are linked below.   

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Offensive Linemen

With the defensive and special teams rankings behind us, it’s time to look at the area’s top offensive players. And we’ll start with the foundation of any productive offense: the offensive line.

For the fifth installment of our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we turn our attention to the trenches, ranking the Big Country’s top 10 offensive linemen with a list of others to watch in 2022.

We hope you enjoy reading through our rankings.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Kickers/Punters

After recognizing the top defensive players throughout the Big Country over the past three days, it’s time to honor the specialists.

We continue our eight-part preseason position rankings series by naming our top eight kickers and top eight punters to watch this fall.

We hope you enjoy this list and that you have enjoyed our position rankings as we get set to kickoff the 2022 season.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Defensive Backs

After starting with the linemen and linebackers, we turn to the defensive backfield to complete our look at the top defenders in the Big Country.

For the third installment in our eight-part preseason position rankings series, we shift our focus to the secondary, giving our list of the area’s top-10 defensive backs and others to look out for in 2022.

We hope you enjoy our list.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Linebackers

After taking a look at the Big Country’s top defensive linemen on Saturday, it’s now time to examine those who will backing them in 2022.

Continuing with Big Country Preps’ eight-part preseason position rankings series, here’s our top 10 linebackers to watch this fall, as well as a list of the others we’re expecting big things from.

We hope you enjoy our list.

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by Daniel Youngblood

Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Defensive Linemen

With the start of football season around the corner, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact in 2022.

For the first installment in an eight-part series that will cover all position groups, we’ll be taking a look at the area’s top defensive linemen, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this fall.

As with any such list, these rankings are subjective. We hope you enjoy reading through them.

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by Daniel Youngblood

2022 DISTRICT PREDICTIONS: Evan and Daniel make their picks

Without further ado, it is time for us to make our Big Country predictions, district-by-district.

This is the culmination of several weeks of research and two solid months of summertime labor, so we’re more than ready to post it. 

So dive in and study our take on the upcoming season, along with the more than 80 preseason stories we posted earlier today. Enjoy! We’ll see you on the road. 
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by Evan Ren

EVAN REN: Albany’s Denney Faith has faith that his players will put No. 1 ranking into perspective on their own

ALBANY — Football coaches are a superstitious lot. 

They don’t like things that upset the routine. They don’t like anything that can water down their team’s motivation and they certainly don’t like anything that adds fuel to the opposition’s fire. 

Needless to say, many of them aren’t too keen on being picked as the No. 1 team prior to the season. It’s one of those things can upset the apple cart in all three of the aforementioned ways. And believe it or not, 2022 is Albany coach Denney Faith’s first experience in dealing with it.

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by Evan Ren

2022 ALBANY LIONS FOOTBALL PREVIEW: Lofty expectations greet talented Albany heading into 2022

 

ALBANY — If some preseason prognosticators have it right, the Albany Lions could field a team good enough to win the Class 2A DII state championship in 2022. 

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine, for instance, has the Lions ranked No. 1 in the state heading into this season.  Big Country Preps, on the other hand, sees Albany as a top-five team, an overwhelming district favorite and a top regional championship contender.

A No. 1 ranking in our view, will require a few early questions to be answered, due to graduation. 

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