Big numbers are always great to have when we decide the winner of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award. Solid numbers across multiple tasks are even better.
That was the case with this week’s spotlight player, Buck Powell, of Hico, who helped the Tigers to a 47-14 rout of Maud in the Class 2A DII bi-district round on Friday.
With a new season of boys high school basketball poised to begin, it’s time to take a look at what the Big Country will produce on the court.
Below you will find our top teams in each classification in the Big Country Preps coverage area, from Big Spring in the West, to Brock in the east and from Brady in the south to Munday in the north.
Our rankings of the top teams in each class are given, along with a season outlook, cataloguing our expectations for each club.
Here’s our preview. We’ll see you on the road.
Andrews 62, Big Spring 27 — JaeSean DeBouse ran for 337 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Mustangs to a comfortable win over the Steers in a battle for the league’s No. 3 playoff seed.
Andrews (5-5, 2-2), which led 38-21 by halftime, rushed for 469 yards as a team, getting 59 yards from Jeremiah Mullin and 49 yards and two scores from Merq Saiz.
LAST WEEK: 47-5, .903
SEASON TOTAL: 438-91, .827
With the column hitting at more than 90 percent accuracy last week, we now close the regular season on the upswing and with something uncommon: A local Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
While our weekly picks column generally highlights the top area game outside of the Abilene city limits, this week seems to call for us to stay at home with rivals Wylie (6-3, 3-1) and Cooper (4-5, 3-1) fighting for sole possession of the No. 2 seed in District 2-5A Division II.
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.
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.
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.
Big Spring 63, San Angelo Lake View 43 — Kavien Ford rushed for 374 yards and seven touchdowns to help the Steers snap a five-game losing streak with a comfortable win over the Chiefs.
Gavin Padron added 207 yards and a touchdown passing for Big Spring (2-6, 1-1), which got solid receiving days from Jose Munoz (4-78), Keyshaun Woodruff (6-71, 1 TD) and Zeyire Franklin (3-50). The Steers, who outgained Lake View 634-326 and won the turnover battle 2-0, built a 34-7 halftime lead and led 48-21 after three quarters.
LAST WEEK: 40-8, .833
SEASON TOTAL: 347-79, .814
As Week 9 of the 2023Texas High School football season gets underway, there are multiple high-profile games that would qualify as our Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
But we’re settling for a rare Thursday night matchup at Tarleton State University where seventh-ranked 4A DI Stephenville (5-2, 1-0) will play host to fourth-ranked China Spring (6-2, 2-0) in a game will give the victor sole possession of first place in District 5.
Picking who wins it may come down to throwing darts, but I do believe China Spring has one key advantage.
Brownwood 66, San Angelo Lake View 0 — Ike Hall rushed for 185 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 176 yards and another score to lead the Lions to a blowout win over the Chiefs.
Brownwood (7-1, 2-0) also got productive rushing games from Logan McKibben (7-86, 2 TDs), Xavier Zepeda (11-72, TD) and Levi Pearson (9-52, 2 TDs), while Aaron Edmonds (5-55) and Stone Ratliff (2-59) led the team in receiving.
Brownwood 56, Big Spring 7 — Ike Hall passed for 139 yards and two touchdowns, ran for 110 yards and two TDs and received for 41 yards and a fifth score as Brownwood cruised to a blowout win over the Steers in the district opener for both teams.
The Lions outgained Big Spring 543-347, getting big games from Levi Pearson (21-151, 2 TDs rushing; 2-65, 1 TD receiving) and Xavier Zepeda (2-90, 1 TD rushing) as well. Brownwood (6-1, 1-0) led 14-0 after a quarter and used a 28-point second quarter to take a 42-7 lead into halftime.
LAST WEEK: 37-3, .925
SEASON TOTAL: 266-64, .806
Contrast in styles games make for excellent entertainment and are usually high on our list of potential Big Country Preps Games of the Week.
Friday we have such a matchup when Clyde (5-0) travels to Vernon (5-0) in the District 3-3A DI opener for both clubs. Clyde and its power spread offense capable of running or throwing the ball well, against a run-based multiple attack used by Vernon that seems almost out of the 1950s.
Both clubs are good at what they do. Both are physical and both are fully aware of how important this league opener is. In fact, this may end up ranking as one of the more physical Games of the Week we’ll see in 2023.
Seminole 51, Big Spring 33 — The Steers put up more than 500 yards of offense but ultimately couldn’t keep pace with the unbeaten Indians, suffering a three-score loss to close out nondistrict play at 1-5.
Gavin Padron passed for 300 yards and two touchdowns, while Kavien Ford rushed for 174 yards and a TD and Zeyire Franklin received for 189 yards and three scores, but it wasn’t enough as Seminole stretched a 30-19 halftime lead to 44-25 heading into the final period.
By Zach Duncan, special to Big Country Preps
Zeyire Franklin is once again one of the Big Country’s top wideouts.
A year after setting a Big Spring school record in receiving yards, Franklin is on pace to top that mark. In five games, Franklin has recorded 34 catches for 613 yards and six touchdowns.
Franklin’s production is no surprise to the Steer faithful, but what has been a pleasant development is the emergence of fellow senior Jose Munoz, whose 48 catches easily lead the area.
LAST WEEK: 46-12, .793
SEASON TOTAL: 229-61, .789
More often than not, Big Country Preps makes an appearance at the annual Stephenville-Brownwood matchup. Because more often than not, it produces a game worthy of one of Texas’ top rivalries.
This year is no exception as Stephenville travels to famous Gordon Wood Stadium for the Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
Brownwood 31, Waco Connally 28 — Ike Hall rushed for 135 yards and four touchdowns while adding 85 yards passing to fuel the Lions to a come-from-behind win over the Cadets.
Behind the dual threat quarterback, Brownwood (5-0) built a 17-14 halftime lead and scored the first touchdown of the second half to take a 24-14 lead. But Connally roared back with back-to-back touchdown runs by Kiefer Sibley to go up 28-24 early the fourth quarter, before Hall’s final TD run served as the game-winner with 5:15 remaining.
LAST WEEK: 44-11, .800
SEASON TOTAL: 183-49, .788
Some weeks are just loaded with competitive area games and Week 5 of the 2023 season falls squarely into that category.
This week’s menu features six or seven games that under normal circumstances, would qualify for our Big Country Preps Game of the Week. This forces us to push some great matchups aside to select our spotlight game.
This week, we go with a battle of unbeatens — Class 3A Division I Clyde (4-0) at Class 4A Div. II Sweetwater (4-0) — at the famed Mustang Bowl at SHS.
Brownwood 46, Glen Rose 34 — Returning to the lineup after missing most of last week’s game due to injury, Ike Hall passed for 286 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 178 yards and an additional score to help the Lions overcome three turnovers in a two-score win over the Tigers.
Brownwood (4-0), which outgained Glen Rose 555-370, also got 89 yards and a touchdown rushing from Jaylan Brown and a big receiving game from Marsello Hooker (2-128, 2 TDs).
Brownwood 24, Burnet 10 — A shoulder injury to standout quarterback Ike Hall wasn’t enough to slow down the No. 7 Lions, who got a strong performance from backup Braeden Stacks in a two-touchdown win over the Bulldogs.
Entering the game in the second series, Stacks hit 12 of 15 passes for 144 yards and three touchdowns, helping Brownwood (3-0) rally from a 10-7 halftime deficit with 17 unanswered points in the second half.
After two weeks, few teams are grabbing the attention of Big Country football fans more than the Clyde Bulldogs (2-0), who have opened with consecutive wins over Cisco and Eastland.
And topping the list of last week’s area performers is Clyde senior quarterback Blake Carr, who posted some eye-popping numbers in last week’s 34-21 win at EHS.
Big Spring 32, Lubbock High 21 — Gavin Padron passed for 411 yards and four touchdowns, hitting Zeyire Franklin five times for 187 yards and two scores, to fuel the Steers to a road win over the Westerners on Thursday.
Big Spring (1-1) piled up 476 yards of offense, getting 133 total yards from Kavien Ford (19-77 rushing; 5-56, 1 TD receiving) and solid receiving efforts from Jacob Cantu (5-59, 1 TD), Keyshaun Woodruff (2-57) and Jose Munoz (8-52).
Pampa 35, Big Spring 25 — The Steers led the Harvesters 25-21 at halftime, but they couldn’t hold on for the win as Pampa scored one touchdown in each of the final two quarters while keeping Big Spring off the board to rally in the second half.
A Yanez passed for 276 yards and two touchdowns — both to Keyshaun Woodruff (6-64 receiving) — while Zeyire Franklin had seven catches for 110 yards in the loss. The Harvesters, who finished with 453 yards of total offense, were paced by quarterback Brant Hill, who passed for 274 yards with three TD passes to Bryce Lynn (4-166 receiving).
In 2022, the Big Spring offense wasn’t very far off from being a truly excellent unit.
The Steers had 3,400-yard passer, a 950-yard rusher and an 1,100-yard receiver, showing the ability to move the ball at will when clicking. Unfortunately for coach Cannon McWilliams’ squad, turnovers and occasional struggles in the red zone limited BSHS to just 24 points per game in a 6-6 campaign.
With nine regulars back from last year’s offense, including almost every key skill position starter, the Steers are hoping to take the next step this fall and turn all those yards into more points and wins on Friday nights.
In his four years at Big Spring, coach Cannon McWilliams has steadily raised the Steers’ profile to a point where reaching the playoffs is the expectation and winning games in the postseason is a possibility.
But entering Year 5 with 17 of 25 letterman back from last year’s 6-6 squad, the Big Spring coach is hungry for more in 2023.
The Steers bring back all but two offensive starters from a year ago, including a 3,400-yard passer, a 975-yard rusher and an 1,100-yard receiver, to pair with a defense that returns seven starters. And if everything goes as planned this season, McWilliams believes his squad has what it takes to challenge for its first district title since 1990.
Football is just around the corner, and we at BigCountryPreps.com are committed to bringing you the information you need to prepare for your favorite team’s season.
We’ll be releasing our Big Country Preps Preseason Football Preview, the most comprehensive look at the upcoming Big Country football season anywhere, on Wednesday, Aug. 16. But you won’t have to wait until then to sate your gridiron appetite.
Leading up to the first day of fall football practice on July 31, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2023 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
We move to Class 4A Division I with the Big Spring Steers. On Wednesday we will take a look at the Brownwood Lions, followed by the Stephenville Yellow Jackets on Thursday.
Continue reading “COUNTDOWN TO TWO-A-DAYS: The Big Spring Steers … six days to two-a days”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: 2023 State LineMAN Championships (133 photos)”
It’s always a great accomplishment to go to the state track meet in multiple events. But when it’s done in dominating fashion at the Class 4A level or above, you’re generally talking about a very special, gifted athlete.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Victoria Cameron of Stephenville, falls directly into that category and she has the regional hardware to prove it.
Taking four gold medals at the Region I-4A meet, Cameron scored 30 individual points while clinching four berths to the state meet.
LUBBOCK — Big Country athletes combined to claim 18 medals and clinch 13 automatic berths to the state track meet at the Region I-4A meet over the weekend at Lowrey Field.
The area accounted for 11 gold medals, two silvers and five bronzes as Stephenville and Sweetwater claimed top-five team finishes on the girls side and Stephenville and Brownwood finished in the top 10 in boys competition.
Stephenville’s Victoria Cameron headlined the meet for the Big Country girls contingent, leaving Lubbock with four gold medals, while Stephenville’s Creece Brister won both throwing events on the boys side.
A no-hitter alone is often enough to secure the Big Country Preps Player of the Week award. But when it’s backed by a solid offensive performance, it’s very difficult to get knocked off of the perch.
Brock sophomore Jesse Rusinek takes this week’s accolade after holding Eastland hitless in a 15-0 mercy rule win that saw him miss a perfect game by one walk. He fanned 12 in the process.
“He was dealin’ out there,” Brock coach Kobe Page said of the stuff Rusinek had in the Eastland game. “When he’s on, he’s pretty tough … just showing up, battling and moving the ball around the strike zone. He was ‘on.'”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Districts 5/6-4A area track meet (104 images)”
Clyde’s Payton Phillips is no stranger to our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award. She’s no stranger to gold medals either.
And for the third time since last year, the CHS senior has captured our weekly accolade — this time with an armful of hardware.
In her latest performance, Phillips won four separate district championships and took silver in a fifth at the District 6-3A track meet.
It’s difficult to trump a no-hitter, though Snyder’s Ava Aviles came close last week.
Aviles, who threw back-to-back two-hitters for Snyder softball, is our first runner-up to her classmate, Player of the Week Ty Davis and his first career no-hitter.
Davis earned a 13-2 five-inning win over Levelland last week, holding LHS hitless in the mercy rule win, finishing with five strikeouts.
“Ty has continued to improve on the mound and has given us some excellent innings this season, none bigger than last Tuesday with his no-hit performance,” Snyder coach Shane Stewart said. ” I am proud of him and looking forward to watching him mature as a pitcher and a young man.”
It’s not often that a Big Country baseball team charts two no-hitters in the same week. But when two pitchers with the same last name are charting the no-nos it’s about as common as the planets aligning.
That was the case last week with the Albany Lions, who in sweeping Haskell (15-0) and Stamford (11-1) saw Cole and Tyler Chapman (non-siblings) post back-to-back no-hitters.
Cole, a senior, blanked Haskell in four innings of work in a mercy rule win, fanning six. Three days later, Tyler got into the act in a five-inning run-rule win with 12 Ks.
They now share our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award — another rarity.
“We were very proud of our pitchers last week,” Albany coach David Fairchild said. “Both pitchers were in control and in command of their pitches.”
Bangs southpaw Abby Wolf has thrown so many no-hitters this year, that the subject barely raises an eyebrow. But in consecutive district wins over Coleman and Christoval last week, the sophomore managed to create a stir.
Missing a perfect game by one hit batsman in a 7-0 win over Coleman, she followed that with three perfect innings in a 15-0 route of Christoval.
In other words, Wolf tossed nine complete hitless innings last week, along the way walking none and fanning 13.
You know you’re on a roll when you throw a no-hitter and it’s your second-best performance of the week.
That was the case for Hico junior pitcher Kiersten Fincannon, not only threw a no-hitter in a 24-0 win over Meridian, but also tossed a perfect game in a 22-0 rout of Itasca.
It’s always a good sign early in the season when you’re getting good pitching against quality competition. And in the case of the Big Spring Lady Steers, the numbers in the circle thus far are downright encouraging.
Courtesy of senior Alexcia Munoz, the Lady Steers are off to a 5-1 start, including a 4-0 mark from Munoz in last week’s Abilene Icebreaker tournament.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Abilene Icebreaker Softball Tournament (241 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Big Spring-Wichita Falls High football playoff (49 images)”
Anna 33, Stephenville 32 — The Yellow Jackets saw their season come to an end with a heartbreaking loss to the Coyotes in the area round, falling in a game that saw six lead changes, including four in the second half.
After falling behind 14-3 after the first quarter, Stephenville (9-3) rallied to pull within 20-17 at halftime before taking a 24-20 in the third quarter. Anna regained the lead at 26-24 by the end of the third quarter, and the teams traded touchdowns in the fourth, with the Coyotes erasing a 36-32 deficit with the final touchdown with about six minutes remaining in the game.
CLYDE — In his fourth year at the helm of the Big Spring football program, Cannon McWilliams has preached to his team how they need to set the standard for the future.
Despite a 31-7 loss to Wichita Falls High in a Region I-4A Division I area-round game on Friday night at Bulldog Stadium, McWilliams was able to say that this year’s team helped raise the standard.
This year marked the first time since 2018 that the Steers had advanced past the bi-district round of the playoffs. Continue reading “GAME STORY: Big Spring sees season come to an end with second-round loss”