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.
Hico 49, Hubbard 0 — Hico (6-3, 3-2) maintained its hold on the No. 3 seed with a win over struggling Hubbard (0-8, 0-4).
Price Mullin led the Tigers with 127 yards and two scores on only eight carries. Carson Keller got into the act as well, throwing for 128 yards and two more TDs.
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.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Dawson-Hico football (51 images)”
HICO — Entering Friday’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week, the Hico Tigers wanted to run the ball, control tempo and contain Dawson’s big play threats in order to win a crucial matchup in Disctrict 10-2A DII. They achieved all three.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they hurt themselves with three drive-killing turnovers and further aided Dawson with three 15-yard penalties in a 14-7 loss to the Bulldogs at Tiger Stadium.
Brant Boatright threw touchdown passes of 48 and six yards and Colby Springer rushed for 108 yards on 16 carries to lift Dawson (6-1, 3-0), which held on to its one-score lead throughout a scoreless second half.
LAST WEEK: 41-7, .854
SEASON TOTAL: 307-71, .812
Big Country Preps makes a point of sharing the love and we look for opportunities to take our Game of the Week to as many different places that make sense each year.
Yet since our inaugural season in 2018, a rebuilding Hico football team missed our spotlight game for five straight seasons.
That drought ends this week when BCP visits Hico for the first time as the Tigers (5-2, 2-1 District 10-2A DII) host Dawson (5-1, 2-0) in a crucial matchup with high seed implications.
One top-notch performance after another.
That’s the 2023 résumé of Clyde senior quarterback Blake Carr, who has once again taken our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award after leading the Bulldogs to a 60-36 rout of Vernon on the road on Friday.
It is the second time this season Carr has taken the top spot.
Hico 23, Wortham 22 — Price Mullin rushed for 127 yards and two scores to lead Hico to a stunning win over favored Wortham.
The Tigers (5-2, 2-1) built a 23-6 lead then held off a fierce Wortham rally to get the win. WHS fell to 5-2 and 2-1 with the loss.
Mart 23, Hico 0 — The Tigers fell short in their upset bid of Mart (6-0, 2-0), but burned up enough clock to keep things competitive.
The Tigers (4-2, 1-1) were limited to only 145 yards in total offense, but were sound throughout, with no turnovers.
JD Bell led Mart with 239 yards rushing and one score. Buck Powell led Hico with 29 yards rushing on six carries.
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.
Photo by Chase Seabolt, HubCityPreps.com
Entering District 2-5A Division I play off back-to-back losses, the Abilene High football team needed a fast start and a strong performance on the road against Lubbock Monterey to get back on track and kick off its league schedule the right way.
Led by senior quarterback Dylan Slack, the Eagles got both, building a 49-7 halftime lead on their way to a 59-14 win over the Plainsmen.
Slack’s fingerprints were all over the win as he hit 15 of 20 passes for 217 yards and five touchdowns while adding another score on the ground — a performance worthy of this week’s Big Country Preps Player of the Week award.
Hico 41, Frost 6 — In an anticipated low-scoring defensive battle, Hico blew the roof off that theory by routing the Polar Bears.
Buck Powell rushed for 125 yards and one TD on nine carries and Carson Keller rushed six times for 107 yards and two TDs.
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.
Frost 55, Centex Sports Association 6 — The surprising Frost Polar Bears improved to 3-1 with a rout of CSA.
Frost, which led 35-0 at the break, amassed 356 yards rushing as a team and 428 yards in total offense.
When it comes to individual performances, there are big games and there are big games.
And then there’s what Cooper junior Daniel Bray did against San Angelo Central last week in leading the Cougars to their first win of the season.
The explosive tailback, who had been limited some in the first two weeks by a nagging ankle injury and the growing pains of a young offensive line, broke out in a historic way in that 53-45 victory over the Bobcats. By the time the game was over, he had rushed for a school-record 366 yards and seven touchdowns on just 21 carries, making a case for our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award that was too compelling to pass over — even in a week with a number of other monster performances.
While their program is battling through a difficult rebuilding phase, the Colorado City Wolves and second-year coach Monty Leaf are learning to recognize key points along the way.
It hasn’t been easy.
After pushing through last year’s 1-9 campaign, C-City opened at 0-2 with losses to good teams from Roscoe and New Home before breaking through with a 15-12 win at Christoval on Friday. And in many respects, it really was a breakthrough.
Hico 31, Cross Plains 7 — The Tigers (3-0) remained unbeaten behind a solid effort from Carson Keller, who rushed for 129 yards and one score and threw for 91.
Cross Plains fell to 1-2, hampered by three turnovers. The Buffaloes were led by Dusty Wyatt, who rushed for 101 yards and one score.
After a summer-long effort to produce our football preview, it is good to be back in our school year routine — a big part of which is our Big Country Preps Player of the Week.
That said, we are proud to hand our first accolade for 2023-24 to Snyder senior quarterback Easton Stewart, who led the Tigers to a 42-0 season-opening win over Slaton last week.
COMANCHE — Strong straight-line winds or a small tornado?
Nothing is verified just yet, but one thing is for certain: Comanche High School has some work to do on both its concession stand and press box after being hit by high winds over the weekend.
The damage sustained was serious enough to force athletic director Jake Escobar to make contingency plans for home dates until further notice.
“The roof of the concession stand flew off about 100 yards,” Escobar said. “Part of the press box roof fell off and our ag building, which is a big tin building —its roof broke open and it was pretty bad.”
Hico 37, Bruceville Eddy 8 — Price Mullin rushed eight times for 127 yards and two scores and Carson Keller threw for 128 yards and two more TDs to left Hico.
The Tigers finished with 415 total yards to begin the 2023 season with momentum.
The 2022 season was a unique one for the Hico football team.
With just one senior in the program, the youthful Tigers were forced to tackle a challenging slate of opponents that were all more seasoned than they were. And, at times, that showed.
But around the Hico fieldhouse, the Tigers are optimistic that last year’s growing pains will pay off in a major way this year. And with 19 of 20 lettermen back, including all 11 starters on offense and 10 on defense, there’s strong support for that belief.
In his first two years as Hico’s football coach, Todd Swearengin faced an uphill climb.
In 2021, he inherited the challenge of trying to install a new system and culture in a program that had won just six games combined over the previous three seasons. And last year, he had just one senior with which to tackle a tough new district schedule.
After going 9-13 over those two campaigns and closing each in the playoffs, Swearengin will be blessed with his most talented and experienced team yet in 2023. And he’s hoping those factors — and another full year in his system — will be enough to fuel the Tigers to their first winning season since 2017.
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 Hico Tigers. On Wednesday we will take a look at the Forsan Buffaloes, followed by the Anson Tigers on Thursday.
Continue reading “COUNTDOWN TO TWO-A-DAYS: The Hico Tigers … 34 days to two-a-days”
Our final Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the 2022-23 school year could have gone any number of directions.
We finally settled on Goldthwaite junior Lainey Jernigan, who swept both the girls 2A hurdles titles at the state meet last week.
Jernigan won the 100 hurdles in 14.62 and the 300 hurdles in 44.12. And the good news for GHS fans is, she’s coming back to defend both crowns next year.
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: Hico-Cisco softball (47 images)”
CISCO — Two very likely playoff teams got a sneak preview of what postseason competition will be like in a nondistrict softball game on Tuesday.
Trailing 6-3 after three innings, the Hico Lady Tigers rallied for a 9-6 win at Cisco in a battle of two clubs who are both chasing potential district championships — Hico in District 12-2A and Cisco in District 8-2A.
Kiersten Fincannon was 4-for-4 with a double, a homer and six RBIs to lead Hico (14-8), which outscored Cisco 6-0 over the final four innings to get the win. Fincannon also went the distance in the circle, scattering eight Cisco hits and overcoming five errors committed behind her to get the win.
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.
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.
Wortham 48, Dawson 40 — In a battle for the District’s No. 2 seed, Wortham rallied from an early deficit to defeat Dawson.
Tanner Bean scored on a 7-yard run with 16 seconds to play to lift Wortham, which will face the No. 2 seed from District 9 in the bi-district round.
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.
Hico 33, Moody 0 —The Tigers improved to 2-0 behind 266 team rushing yards through seven different ball carriers.