After kicking off our girls basketball position rankings series with the guards on Tuesday, we now turn our attention to the forwards.
For the second installment in our three-part series, we rank the area’s top 10 players at that position with some others to watch for in 2022-23.
We hope you enjoy our list.
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 2022-23 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.
As with any such list, these rankings are subjective. We hope you enjoy reading through our selections.
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.
Comanche 49, Merkel 14 — The Indians wrapped up at least a share of their first district championship since 2018, rushing for 404 yards and gaining 510 yards total in a blowout win over the Badgers.
Leading 7-6 after one quarter, Comanche (8-1, 4-0) outscored Merkel 28-8 over the middle two quarters to pull away.
With some people projecting Zephr as an underdog in last week’s game with Sidney, very few people were expecting ZHS to provide us with the Big Country Preps Player of the Week.
Nonetheless, here we are.
Zephyr senior running back Jayden Millican takes the spotlight after rushing for 285 yards and six touchdowns in a 68-20 win over over Sidney. But he wasn’t finished there.
Comanche 77, Dublin 7 — The Indians strengthened their grip on the district lead, improving to 3-0 in league play with their fourth consecutive victory.
Comanche (7-1 overall) abused the Lions for 512 rushing yards, getting 310 yards and four touchdowns rushing from Sawyer Wilkerson on just 11 carries. Cayden Davis (4-78), Ezequiel Medrano (6-43) and Layden Welch (2-15) also had rushing scores, while Welch hit all four of his pass attempts for 140 yards and two touchdowns.
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.
Comanche 53, Jacksboro 33 — The Indians abused the Tigers on the ground, rushing for 349 yards and six touchdowns on their way to a 20-point win.
Sawyer Wilkerson fueled the effort, rushing for 272 yards and four scores to help Comanche (6-1, 2-0) to a 36-11 halftime lead. Quarterback Layden Welch also had a big game, hitting 10 of 12 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 28 yards and two more TDs.
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.
Comanche 45, Millsap 28 — The Indians took care of the Bulldogs in three-score win, racing out to a 35-7 halftime lead to remove all intrigue early.
Comanche, which got a big rushing day from Sawyer Wilkerson (11-134, 3 TDs) extended its lead to 45-14 by the start of the fourth quarter to improve to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in district play.
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.
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Dublin 34, Florence 23 — The Lions took care of business against the Buffaloes, outscoring FHS 21-14 in the second half to pull away for a two-score win.
Dublin (2-3) led 13-9 at halftime, before using a 14-0 run through the third quarter to create some distance. The Lions got a pair of touchdown passes from Kaden Gaitan to Dalan Rasberry, while Gaitan added a rushing score and Cameron Patton scored twice on the ground.
Florence, which finished with 355 total yards, was led by quarterback Ryland Carlile (10-24-1—139, 3 TDs), running back Jose Maldonado (36-164) and receiver Zakary Webb (8-85, 2 TDs.
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.
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).
Bangs 28, Merkel 13 — The Dragons rushed for 230 yards in a workmanlike win over the Badgers, racing out to a 21-7 halftime lead and holding from there for the victory.
Guy Powell led the effort for Bangs, rushing for 150 yards and two touchdowns, while Kenny Cole passed for 89 yards and Hunter Newton received for 63.
Merkel, which fell to 1-3 with the loss, was paced on the offensive end by quarterback Joey Zink (10-17-2—151, 1 TD passing; 19-71 rushing) and receiver Maddox O’Malley (5-102, 1 TD receiving; 1-1-0—49, 1 TD passing).
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.
Dublin 24, Anson 21 — The Lions broke into the win column, outscoring the Tigers 10-7 in the second half to pull out a hard-fought win.
Quarterback Chris Teten passed for 244 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 60 yards and two additional scores to lead the effort for Dublin, which improved to 1-2 with the win. Severiano Ruiz (3-56, 1 TD) and Dalan Rasberry (5-54) were Teten’s top receiving targets, though seven Lions receivers caught passes.
Anson, which was outgained 341-304, was led in the loss by running back Tegen Saiz, who ran for 208 yards and two TDs on 29 carries.
Two games into the 2022 football season, the Comanche Indians have already doubled their win total from a year ago and mustered nearly 100 points. But that’s only part of one of the area’s better “feel good” stories as fall unfolds.
Comanche has also introduced a prime candidate to make fans do a double-take as they pore over the area’s weekly stat sheets moving forward.
Displaying a scintillating blend of thunder and lightning, sophomore running back Sawyer Wilkerson gained 103 yards on 12 carries in Comanche’s season-opening 49-7 victory over Brady. Then, last Friday during a 42-18 thumping of Bangs, Wilkerson upshifted to race for 273 more yards (on 18 carries). That means every time this year that a stadium announcer has uttered the words, “Wilkerson with the carry,” the back has carried the ball an average of 12½ yards.
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.
Merkel 14, Stanton 0 — The Badgers bounced back from a season-opening loss to Clifton with a shutout win over the Buffaloes.
The game was scoreless until the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, when Joey Zink hit Maddox O’Malley with a long touchdown pass to put Merkel (1-1) up 8-0. The Badgers would add a second touchdown later to put the game out of reach.
Conner Willyerd had a big interception for MHS late in the third quarter, halting a potential scoring drive for Stanton and keeping the game scoreless into the final period.
Comanche (4-1) — The Indians were idle on Friday night. They’ll return to action next week with a home game against Millsap in the district opener for both teams.