Wall 74, San Angelo TLCA 0 — Gunner Garza ran for 92 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries, and Gunner King went 6 for 7 for 129 yards and three TDs passing to fuel the Hawks to a blowout win over the Eagles.
Caden Sturm, Hagen Surber and Kaden McFarden also had rushing scores for Wall (7-1, 2-0), which got scoring catches from Surber, Slayton Hallmark and Brady Neal.
Wall 50, Llano 14 — Gunner King passed for 292 yards and five touchdowns while Hudson Surber received for 140 yards and three scores to lift the Hawks to a blowout win over the Yellowjackets.
Caden Sturm (19-106, 1TD rushing) and Evan Boehle (5-71, 1 TD receiving) also had productive games for Wall (6-1, 1-0), which built a 36-0 led by halftime and took a shutout into the fourth quarter.
Even in an otherwise “quiet” week, six-man players find a way to make a lot of noise.
With many of our teams enjoying an open week prior to district play, Knox City and Roby got into a knock-down drag-out six-man game, with the Greyhounds winning 86-80.
So great was this game, that our Big Country Preps Player of the Week emerged from the losing side of this matchup, with Roby quarterback Eli Weatherly taking our Player of the Week award for the Week ending Oct. 3
Midland Christian 34, Wall 26 — A rocky second quarter put the Hawks in a 20-12 halftime hole they could never climb out of in suffering their first loss since the 2024 playoffs.
Trailing 9-7 after a quarter, the Mustangs outscored WHS 13-3 in the second to take an eight-point lead that they would stretch to 34-19 in the fourth quarter on their way to snapping a 21-game win streak for the Hawks.
EARLY — The Early Longhorns football players and head coach talked a lot about toughness after Friday night’s game. The Longhorns showed toughness in the second half of their 45-20 win over the Bowie Jackrabbits in a nondistrict meeting of Class 3A Division I teams.
Isaac Ybarra rushed for 231 yards and three touchdowns to lead Early, while quarterback Caden Wilson added 58 yards and two TDs rushing along with one scoring pass.
The Longhorns (5-1) dominated the second half, outscoring the Jackrabbits (4-2) by a 24-6 margin. Early’s defense also forced Bowie into four turnovers — three interceptions and one fumble — in seven second-half possessions.
Early converted the four turnovers into 17 points as the Longhorns wrestled control of a game in which they trailed 14-7 late in the second quarter.
De Leon 51, Early 20 — Lane Couch ran for 167 yards and two touchdowns and Bryce Burkeen received for 148 yards and three TDs to lead the Bearcats to a lopsided win over the Longhorns.
De Leon finished with 496 yards of total offense while limiting Early to 188 in building a 37-7 lead by halftime.
Wall 51, Ozona 6 — Gunner King, the area’s second-leading passer entering Week 4, regained the top spot with 337 yards and five touchdowns in a blowout win over the Lions.
The senior QB also ran for 60 yards and a score, while Jager Thompson received for 110 yards and a TD and Gunner Garza added 78 yards and a score on the ground.
HAWLEY —There was nothing cute about Early’s 21-14 win over Hawley in Friday’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week at Forrest Field. It was largely a two-man game in the EHS backfield with one zone read play after another between quarterback Caden Wilson and running back Isaac Ibarra.
This, backed by a sturdy Longhorn defense which limited Hawley to only two scores, lifted Early to a 4-0 record on the year in a physical game spent largely in the trenches.
Ibarra rushed for 103 yards and two scores, Wilson rushed for 55 and threw for 80 and the EHS defense forced two key turnovers to keep the ‘Horns unbeaten.
Hawley (2-2) was led by Jagger Wiley with 150 yards passing and one TD and Brycen Stofel, with 103 yards rushing and one score.
LAST WEEK: 55-14, .794
SEASON TOTAL: 165-48, .774
The Early Longhorn have quietly stayed under the radar while posting a 3-0 record thus far, notching wins over Merkel, Breckenridge and Ballinger — the last two of which were quite convincing with scores of 47-18 and 34-0.
The secret is out, the Longhorns are good.
But in this week’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week, not only will Early face its most challenging test thus far at Hawley, but it will likely go into the matchup as a slight underdog.
At this stage, Hawley has faced a tougher overall schedule, but the Bearcats are at home and they’re more accustomed to big matchups.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Ballinger-Early football (78 images)”
Wall 49, Jim Ned 13 — Gunner King passed for 312 yards and two touchdowns, and Gunner Garza ran for 78 yards and three scores and added a 65-yard reception to lead the Hawks to a thorough win over the Indians.
Hudson Surber also contributed to the win, catching six passes for 140 yards and two TDs, as fifth-ranked Wall (3-0) raced out to a 28-13 halftime lead before shutting Jim Ned out in the second half.
EARLY — Ballinger head coach Bryan Gayoso and Early head coach Marvin Wilson have been friends for as long as they can remember and have even spent time working on the same coaching staffs as each other.
Friday night at Longhorn Stadium, the two faced off against each other as head coaches for the first time.
By the time the dust settled on the Longhorns’ homecoming, Early had laid claim to a 34-0 win and improved to 3-0 for the first time in five years while the Bearcats fell to 2-1.
Both coaches relished the opportunity to match wits with one another.
Before Haskell senior quarterback Haegen Pinkerton arrived at HHS as a freshman, the name of Pinkerton was something I associated with the famous detective agency.
I now associate it with statistical insanity, and you should associate it with the Big Country Preps Player of the Week.
Pinkerton, who was behind center in Haskell’s 80-62 loss to Stamford, had one of the biggest nights I can recollect in a losing effort, accounting for seven touchdowns on Friday.
Hitting 15 of 22 throws for 193 yards, three of Pinkerton’s deliveries went for scores. But it was on the ground where he did most of his damage, rushing 29 times for 290 yards and four touchdowns to help keep the Indians competitive.
Wall 42, Canyon West Plains 35 — Gunner King passed for 415 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 32 yards and an additional score to lead the Hawks to a thrilling come-from-behind win over the Class 4A Division I No. 10 Wolves in his first varsity start at quarterback.
Gunner Garza added 110 yards and a TD on the ground and 76 more yards receiving, while Jager Thompson (6-99), Evan Boehle (4-85, 1 TD) and Hudson Surber (5-83, 1 TD) also had productive days catching the ball for Wall.
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 15 quarterbacks with a list of others to watch in 2026.
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 15 with a list of others to watch in 2026. Don’t forget to check in tomorrow when we conclude our series with the top 10 area quarterbacks.
We hope you enjoy this 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 with the linemen, we now shift our attention to the playmakers on the perimeter, ranking our top 15 wideouts/tight ends with a list of others to watch in 2026.
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 15 offensive linemen with a list of others to watch in 2026.
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 10 kickers and top three 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 2026 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 15 defensive backs and others to look out for in 2026.
We hope you enjoy our list.
After taking a look at the Big Country’s top defensive linemen last night, it’s now time to examine those who will backing them in 2026.
Continuing with Big Country Preps’ eight-part preseason position rankings series, here’s our top 15 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 2026.
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 15 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.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps Preseason Football Position Rankings: Defensive Linemen”
The time has arrived for us to make our Big Country predictions, district-by-district.
Several weeks of research and two solid months of summertime labor have gone into this, so we’re more than ready to post it.
With that please 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!
Andrew Reedy was a starting wide receiver for the Early Longhorns from Day 1 of his freshman year. By year 2, opposing defenses keyed on him, and last year as a junior, almost all Longhorns’ opponents double-covered Reedy.
Through those three years combined, Reedy caught 163 passes for 2,518 yards and 28 touchdowns. He also scored nine rushing touchdowns in 2024 and 2025 combined.
Now preparing for his senior season at Early, the question that begs asking: How did Reedy keep catching so many passes if opposing defenses were focused on stopping him?
The Early Longhorns are ahead of last year’s pace, when first-time head coach and athletic director Marvin Wilson was learning on the run.
“My feet are good and wet now,” said Wilson, who finished 5-6 and gained a share of the district championship in his initial season as Early’s coach. “When we started practice this year, you could tell we were way ahead of last year. Everyone knew what to do, and things went a lot smoother.”
It’s a good thing the Longhorns are ahead of their 2025 pace because the UIL realignment elevated them to Class 3A Division I and placed them in a district with Wall, Llano and Ingram Moore. Wall won the Class 3A DII state championship with a 16-0 record last year before also elevating. Llano (13-2) advanced to the Class 3A DI state semifinals last year, and Ingram (7-6) reached the regional semifinals.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2026 All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
Here are our second-team selections for the 2026 All-Big Country Preps baseball team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.