Windthorst 47, Haskell 7 — Brock Belcher threw for 230 yards and four scores to lead the Trojans to a big win over the Indians in the district opener for both clubs.
Kasen Wiles was the top target of Belcher’s, hauling in eight passes for 148 yards as Windthorst improved to 3-1.
Seymour 75, Quanah 18 — Coming off a lopsided loss to Albany, Seymour got back on the winning track with a blowout of Quanah.
Brayden Loyd threw for 317 yards and six touchdowns to lead Seymour (3-1), which rushed for 221 yards as a team using six ball carriers.
Archer City 21, Anson 13 — Archer City held off a determined Anson team to improve to 2-0 behind 250 passing yards.
Tyler Wilburn thew for 66 yards and one score and rushed for 31 more to lead Anson (0-2).
Seymour 40, Anson 14 — Brayden Loyd hit 17 of 23 passes for 324 yards and five touchdowns to lead Seymour to a win at Anson.
The Panthers also rushed for 62 yards and an additional score.
Anson (0-1) got most of its production on the ground, rushing for 222 yards as a team behind six different ball carriers.
Continue reading “DISTRICT 7-2A DIV. II WEEK 1 REPORT: Seymour wins big at Anson”
HASKELL — In December of 2021, Haskell head football coach Mitch McLemore was given what amounted a death sentence.
Diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer, which has an expected five-year survival rate of less than six percent, the prognosis handed down from his doctors was terminal.
HASKELL — Three years into his tenure at Haskell, coach Mitch McLemore has had a mixed amount of success and disappointments thus far with the Indians.
But at the of the day, however, both of is first two seasons at HHS have produced a postseason berth and a measure of competitive consistency.
This year, with five starters back on both sides of the ball, 20 lettermen and a roster expected to be around 30 deep, there is hope in the Haskell camp that the Indians can continue their trend of competitive football and perhaps even improve on it.
Day 4 of Big Country Preps’ 2023 Photo Tour is now in the books, with three more days of shooting yet to come from practice fields throughout the area.
Here are but a few of the images collected Thursday:
Continue reading “Scenes from Big Country Preps Photo Tour Day 4”
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 continue in Class 2A Division II with the Haskell Indians. On Monday we will take a look at the Santo Wildcats, followed by the Hico Tigers on Tuesday.
Continue reading “COUNTDOWN TO TWO-A-DAYS: The Haskell Indians … 36 days to two-a-days”
AUSTIN — After a slow start in the field events on Friday saw the Big Country net just four medals, things heated up in the evening session when the track events got rolling.
Big Country athletes picked up 10 medals under the lights at Mike A. Meyers Stadium at the University of Texas, giving the area 14 for the day.
On top of that, the Stamford girls team finished in a three-way tie with Refugio and Panhandle with 32 points to claim a share of the state championship. Goldthwaite’s girls finished three points back in fourth.
SPRINGTOWN — Big Country athletes made a big showing at the Region II-2A track meet, collecting a combined 37 medals and clinching 28 state berths over the two-day event at Porcupine Stadium.
Along the way, Albany and Cisco went 1-2 in the boys team race, while Stamford shared the girls team title with Era and Hamilton.
The Albany Lions had the highest point total of any program, boys or girls, collecting five medals on the way to 70 points, while the Cisco boys followed closely behind with 67 points. Stamford finished third in the boys team race with 64 points, while the girls earned 56 points to finish in a three-way tie atop the team standings.
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: Cisco-Haskell softball bi-district playoff (63 images)”
ANSON — The first two games of the Region I-2A bi-district softball matchup between Cisco and Haskell were anything but pretty.
Over the course of five hours, the two teams combined for 29 runs, 32 hits and 27 errors as they split the first two games of the best-of-three series at Anson on Thursday night.
Haskell took the opening game 8-7 in eight innings before the Lady Loboes bounced back with a 14-0 win in the second game.
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 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.
“Damarrius Walker is a very talented young man,” Sweetwater coach Brian Hodnett said. “There isn’t much in track and field that he can’t do!
“We as a staff are excited to see how far he can go this year.”
So is the rest of the area as our Big Country Preps Player of the Week collects the award after scoring 44 points individually at the Hamlin Pied Piper Relays last week.
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: Haskell-Hamlin softball (27 images)”
HAMLIN — In the aftermath of Hamlin’s 10-6 win over area rival Haskell in Friday’s District 7-2A softball opener, dissecting what had just taken place was an exercise in answering a key question.
Yes, the Lady Pipers won, propelled by an eight-run second inning, a solid pitching effort from Zoe Moore and home runs by Samantha Gonzalez and Roxanne Rivera. But what if Haskell (11-8-1, 0-1) doesn’t hit into four inning-killing double plays?
The answer is that Friday’s matchup could have taken a much different turn at several key points, but Hamlin (14-4, 1-0) was the club that executed at every one of them.
“It’s frustrating, but I think they realize where we can improve and the things we need to work on in order to win a game like this,” Haskell coach Emily Dyes said. “We’ve got some good hitters, but we’ve got to get better defensively and minimize our errors every 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: Abilene Icebreaker Softball Tournament (241 images)”
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: Haskell-Anson basketball doubleheader (82 images)”
ANSON — Two of the Big Country’s oldest rivals clashed on Friday when Haskell paid a visit to Anson, resulting in a split of a District 10-2A girls-boys varsity doubleheader.
The Haskell girls took the opener with a come-from-behind 50-41 win, after which the Anson boys earned a measure of payback, dropping Haskell 36-26 in the nightcap.
Cisco 55, Reagan County 0 — The Loboes dominated Reagan County, rolling up 555 yards in total offense, of which 378 were on the round.
Hunter Long and Trent Huston combined for 263 yards rushing and four touchdowns to lead Cisco (9-2), which led 42-0 at the break.
After highlighting the Big Country’s top guards and forwards the past two nights, we now take a look at the area’s best big men.
For the final installment in our three-part boys basketball position rankings series, we rank the Big Country’s top 10 post players.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading through our rankings, and make sure to check back for all our boys and girls basketball coverage this season.
After kicking off our boys basketball position rankings series on Tuesday with the guards, we now shift 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 for 2022-23.
We hope you enjoy our list.
With boys basketball season beginning this week, it’s time to shine a spotlight on some of the players you’ll be reading about throughout the 2022-23 season.
For the first installment in a three-part series that will cover all positions on the area boys basketball scene, we’ll be taking a look at the Big Country’s top guards, ranking our top 10 with a list of others to watch this winter.
We hope you enjoy reading through our list.
Archer City 41, Munday 27 — Joe Castles threw for 190 yards and one score and Elijah Jackson rushed for 143 yards and two more TDs as Archer City defeated Munday.
Munday was led by Chris Garcia who threw for 166 yards, rushed for 180 and accounted for three TDs.
After focusing on the top guards and forwards the Big Country has to offer the past two nights, it’s time to shift our attention to the paint.
For the final installment in our three-part position rankings series, we list our top-10 post players for the 2022-23 season.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading through these rankings, and make sure to come back next week when we’ll feature the top boys basketball players in the Big Country.
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.
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: Seymour-Haskell football (67 images)”
Petrolia 27, Munday 20 — Petrolia narrowly escaped Munday in overtime, improving to 2-6 overall and 2-2 in league play to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
The Pirates must now sweep both Archer City and Seymour and hope that Haskell is upset next week by Electra to get into postseason play.