Snyder quarterback Easton Stewart barely makes a dent when he steps on the scale, standing in at 5-foot-8 and only 140 pounds. But the SHS junior was plenty big enough to lead the Tigers to a 35-21 upset over Graham last week at Tiger Stadium.
Our BCP Player of the Week connected on 27 of 34 pass attempts for 282 yards and five scores and rushed for an additional 30 to lead the Tigers (3-5, 1-1) to a crucial victory.
Jim Ned 28, Clyde 21 — Troy Doran rushed for 190 yards and three scores and threw for 79 yards and another TD to lift Jim Ned (4-3, 2-0) to its fourth straight win.
Leading 21-14 with 7:21 left in the game, Doran scored what proved to be the game-winner on a 5-yard keeper
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wall-Clyde volleyball (43 images)”
CLYDE — Volleyball is all about gaining, and sustaining, momentum.
With the District 6-3A lead on the line, it was the Wall Lady Hawks who were able to seize momentum early and roll to a 25-19, 25-21, 25-9 win over Clyde on Tuesday night at Bulldog Gym.
Wall scored the first five points of the match, never trailing in the first set, as the Lady Hawks improved to 33-5 overall and 6-0 in district. Including Tuesday’s sweep, the Lady Hawks have won 18 of 19 sets during district play.
Jim Ned 48, Bowie 18 — Brayden Shipman rushed for 124 yards and two scores and Troy Doran threw for 114 yards and two more TDs and Jim Ned won its district opener.
Leading 27-12 heading into the final quarter, the Indians put the game away with three touchdowns over the final 12 minutes.
It was Jim Ned’s third straight win following an injury-plagued 0-3 start.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: De Leon-Clyde volleyball (30 images)”
CLYDE — The Clyde volleyball team picked up a midweek nondistrict match with De Leon to avoid an open date in the middle of district play, and the Lady Bulldogs responded with a resounding three-set win.
Implementing new offensive sets, coach Laura Carr’s squad knocked off the Lady Bearcats 25-20, 25-8, 25-9 on Tuesday nightat Bulldog Gym.
In addition to finding their rhythm in system, the Lady Bulldogs had 17 aces in the three sets, with Chloe Ukle’s five leading the way.
After an 0-1 start in district play with a loss at Wall, the Clyde Lady Bulldogs were facing some pressure last week in tough league matchups against Jim Ned and San Angelo TLCA.
Clyde responded with a pair of wins and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, junior setter Abby Carr was at the forefront of that effort.
Charting 38 assists, 19 kills and four aces, Carr was not only setting up the offense, but when rotating to the front line, she also did a pretty fair job of finishing it.
Some people in the Big Country may not even know where tiny Three Way High School is.
For the record it’s on the outskirts of Stephenville, it plays in District 11-1A DI (six-man) and if our Big Country Preps Player of the Week has any say about it, you’ll be hearing a lot more about the Braves in the near future.
Colt Berry, a senior spreadback, had an eye-popping performance last week in a 73-54 win over Aquilla, amassing 561 all-purpose yards to help the Braves (1-3) to their first win of the year.
A year ago, a sizeable group of first-year Big Country football coaches accepted a difficult challenge — taking over programs where the cupboard needed to be restocked.
—Chris Evans inherited a Hamlin program lacking numbers and experience.
— Britt Hart took over a Stamford program that was so young, that several of his varsity players were less than a year removed from playing in their final junior high game.
— Danny Dudgeon became the eighth head coach since the turn of the century at Clyde, where it is hoped he can build something long-lasting and stable.
— Jacob Marwitz inherited a 1-9 team low on numbers, low on experience and low on confidence at De Leon.
— Jake Escobar took on perhaps the most pressure-packed challenge, where he brought a spread offense to a Comanche program that had been successful running the wing-T. It was a difficult about-face.
Needless to say, 2021 wasn’t a banner season for any of these guys, who to a man, had to set a foundation for success before success could actually be tasted.
Evans was 0-10, Hart was 3-7, Dudgeon was 1-9, Marwitz was 0-10 and Escobar was 1-9. Combined record: 5-45 (.100).
Photos by Rachel Laughlin and Tony Brockway
Clyde’s Chloe Ukle works best under pressure.
The senior libero thrives when opposing teams send volleyballs hurling her way, sprawling all over the court for digs.
“What I love about being a libero is the control that I have of the back row,” Ukle said. “Knowing that I am in control of what goes on in the back row pushes me harder.”
Ukle’s defensive efforts are a key reason the Lady Bulldogs are 20-12 heading into Tuesday’s non-district finale against Glen Rose. Despite facing difficult competition, Ukle leads the Big Country with 5.4 digs per set and has tallied 457 digs for the year.
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:
In a week that featured several performances worthy of capturing the Capital Farm Credit/BCP Player of the Week award, Clyde quarterback Blake Carr narrowly captured the top spot with an explosive performance in a 41-21 win over Merkel.
Carr, a junior, hit 18 of 23 passes for 311 yards and four scores as CHS improved to 2-1 on the year. He also rushed six times for 106 yards and a fifth touchdown on a 46-yard run.
When word came of last week’s epic 62-61 win by Stephenville at Everman, one could only expect there to be some epic performances involved.
There were.
And at the top of that list is our Capital Farm Credit/BCP Player of the Week, Tate Maruska, a junior running back who went absolutely bananas in that game.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Eastland-Clyde football (72 photos)”
CLYDE — The Clyde football team was flagged 23 times on Friday night, with 21 coming against the offense, but the Bulldogs were able to overcome them all, including 11 pre-snap penalties, to shut out Eastland 26-0 on Friday night at Bulldog Stadium.
Led by Blake Carr’s 166 yards passing and 169 yards rushing, the Bulldogs were able to put up 453 yards of offense to offset the 173 penalty yards that went against them.
Clyde coach Danny Dudgeon was proud of the resiliency that Carr, a junior, showed despite having to overcome numerous obstacles.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Serving in a head coaching capacity for the first time in his career last year, Clyde’s Danny Dudgeon admits there are things he didn’t do as well as he would have liked to.
Leading a young Bulldogs team composed primarily of freshmen and sophomores, he and his players were growing together in a lot of ways.
The final result was a tough 1-9 season in which Clyde was outscored by a 358-166 margin. But the bigger, less visible story was the growth that took place on the sidelines and the experience gained on the field — both of which are expected to pay dividends this fall for a Bulldogs squad that returns almost of all of its talent from a year ago.
Things didn’t go quite how Clyde coach Danny Dudgeon or his team had hoped they would in 2021. With a young roster and a first-time head coach last fall, the Bulldogs struggled to a 1-9 record and just their second non-playoff season since 2012.
This year, with a roster comprised almost entirely of returning lettermen, CHS is hoping to put that experience in the rearview.
Of the 36 players to play varsity football for Clyde in 2021, 30 are returning this season, including nine starters on both sides of the ball. And while the Bulldogs will still be young, with more sophomores and juniors than seniors on the roster, Dudgeon feels good about his team’s chances of competing for a playoff spot out of District 3-3A Division I.
Breckenridge (5-0) — The Buckaroos were idle on Friday night but will see action again on Oct. 7 when they travel to Iowa Park in the district opener for both clubs.