Breckenridge 36, Benbrook 28 — The Buckaroos allowed more than 400 yards in total offense to Benbrook, but survived a shootout on the road.
Two turnovers, forced by the Breckenridge defense, were a key, along with 243 passing yards, to give the Buckaroos (3-2) their third straight win after an 0-2 start.
TUSCOLA — Jim Ned coach Matt Fanning is one of those guys who barely flinches when someone mentions his accomplishments. So it should come as no surprise that he had to be told early in the season that he was approaching the school record for career wins by a football coach.
That milestone fell in Friday’s 38-12 win over Rockdale, which allowed Fanning to surpass Brad McCoy on the all-time Jim Ned win list with a 54-13 overall record.
Jim Ned 38, Rockdale 12 — Dean Guffey threw for 201 yards and two scores and Aiden Ellis rushed for 150 yards and another TD to keep Jim Ned (4-0) unbeaten.
The Indians rushed for 314 yards as a team while accumulating 515 yards in total offense.
Rockdale dropped to 1-3.
With the win, Jim Ned coach Matt Fanning (54-13) became the winningest football coach in Jim Ned football history, passing former Coach Brad McCoy (53-19).
Breckenridge 41, Cisco 6 — Breckenridge (1-2) earned its first win of the year after forcing five Cisco turnovers.
The Buckaroos, who threw for 218 yards and rushed for 137, built a 27-6 halftime lead and were never threatened after that.
TUSCOLA — What had the early look of a Jim Ned rout got turned on its head by the visiting Wall Hawks on Friday night. And by evening’s end, the Indians needed some late heroics to escape with a 17-14 overtime win in a classic Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
Brayden Shipman rushed for 145 yards and two scores and Jackson Crane provided a game-clinching interception to lift Jim Ned (3-0), which overcame 11 drive-stalling penalties to remain unbeaten.
Following a go-ahead 36-yard field goal by Eric Welch in its overtime possession, Jim Ned gained the game-winning stop on Wall’s first play of the extra period when Crane jumped a comeback route and stepped in front of a Gunner Dillard pass to seal the win with a pick.
Clyde 34, Eastland 21 — Clyde rolled up 441 yards in total offense and shut Eastland out after the break to improve to 2-0.
Blake Carr was 10 of 20 for 237 yards and two scores and rushed for 167 yards and two more TDs to lead Clyde, which closed with 442 yards in total offense.
HOLLIDAY – It took Jim Ned the final three minutes of the first half to turn a deficit against Holliday into a comfortable lead.
Turnovers helped the Indians gain a halftime advantage at Eagle Stadium, and a pair of third-quarter interceptions paved the way for Jim Ned to slam the door on Holliday for a 40-22 victory Friday night.
It was another quality win for the Indians (2-0), who were 0-2 at this point a year ago. It also snapped Holliday’s 30-game regular season winning streak.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Hawley-Jim Ned football (39 images)”
Clyde 40, Cisco 28 — Blake Carr threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 97 yards and another score to lead Clyde to a win over Cisco.
The Bulldogs closed with 483 yards in total offense with senior receiver Daijon Booker accounting for 218 yards of it on seven receptions.
TUSCOLA — Jim Ned may not have appeared diversified in its season-opening rout of Hawley on Friday. But the Indians didn’t really have to be — opting instead to spend much of the night running between the tackles in a punishing 34-12 win over the defending 2A DI state champions in the Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
Brayden Shipman rushed for 169 yards and two scores to top a 300-yard Jim Ned ground attack and Gray Beasley added 216 combined yards of rushing and passing to lead the Indians (1-0), who took control of the game midway through the second quarter at Indian Stadium.
TUSCOLA — At no point since Jim Ned began playing football in 1957, have the Indians had a better six-year run than they are currently enjoying, with a combined 59-16 record, including a 3A DI state title in 2020.
And all along, the Indians have been propelled by one solid offensive line after another, with no fewer than nine of their linemen going on to play collegiately. It has, in a short period of time, become a trademark of sorts. And at least on paper, it appears to be a Jim Ned strength again in 2023.
TUSCOLA —One year ago, a Jim Ned team that would eventually finish 8-4, struggled out of the gate with an 0-3 start, missing several starters due to injuries.
A year later, that difficult stretch is paying some dividends in the form of uncommon depth and experience.
Entering 2023 Jim Ned not only brings back eight offensive and seven defensive starters, but 23 letterman from last year’s club which went two rounds deep in the Class 3A DI playoffs. Further, the Indians are expected to suit up as many as 38 varsity players in what is looking like a season of promise.
Day 3 of Big Country Preps’ 2023 Photo Tour is now in the books, with five more days of shooting yet to come from practice fields throughout the area.
Here are but a few of the images collected Wednesday:
Continue reading “Scenes from Big Country Preps Photo Tour Day 3”
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 3A Division I with the Jim Ned Indians. On Saturday we will take a look at the Brock Eagles, followed by the Snyder Tigers on Sunday.
Continue reading “COUNTDOWN TO TWO-A-DAYS: The Jim Ned Indians … 10 days to two-a-days”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: 2023 State LineMAN Championships (133 photos)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Jim Ned-Holliday baseball area round playoff (76 images)”
A rocky fourth inning in the field and a number of missed opportunities at the plate were enough to do in Jim Ned in a 9-5 loss to Holliday on Thursday in Game 1 of a best-of-three Region I-3A area-round series at Abilene Christian High School.
Trailing 7-0 after the Eagles broke open a close game with a five-run fourth, the Indians rallied for four runs in the home half of that inning and another in the sixth to pull within two at 7-5. But that was as close as coach Mario Estrada’s team would get due in large part to leaving nine runners on base and having another thrown out at the plate.
With the loss, the Indians (25-6) will now have to take a pair from Holliday (30-4) when the series resumes at 5 p.m. Friday at Iowa Park.
Cover photo courtesy of Stephenville coach Kolt Kittley
AUSTIN —The UIL State Track and Field meet kicked off Thursday with Classes 3A and 4A competing at Mike Meyers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas, and the Big Country had a fairly strong showing.
The closest finish determining who would be on and off the podium came in the Class 3A girls 800 meter run where Ballinger’s Addison Martin ran the race in 2 minutes, 17.522 seconds, edging Holliday freshman Kenli Atwood by a microscopic 0.007 seconds after diving through the finish line in her final event of a storied career.
Martin’s podium finish, where she was just one-tenth of a second off what had been the top qualification mark, was one of 14 medal-worthy performances for area athletes.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Jim Ned-Ingram Moore baseball bi-district playoff (62 images)”
The Jim Ned baseball team rallied from an early 2-0 hole with 12 unanswered runs Friday to score a 12-2 victory over Ingram Moore and complete a sweep of its Region I-3A bi-district series at Abilene Cooper’s Cougar Field.
The Indians got a six-inning three-hitter from Troy Doran and took advantage of six walks and six Warrior errors to close out Moore a day after claiming a 9-4 win in Game 1.
The victory improved Jim Ned to 25-5 and earned coach Mario Estrada’s squad an area-round date next week with District 7-3A champion Holliday, which defeated Breckenridge 8-1 and 7-6 in its bi-district series.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Jim Ned-Wall baseball home-and-series (57 images)”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Region I-3A track meet (118 images)”
The Brock boys track teams clinched its third consecutive region championship Saturday at Abilene Christian University’s Elmer Gray Stadium, and for the second year in a row, the Eagles’ stiffest competition came from Breckenridge.
Brock took first at the Region I-3A meet, tallying 70 team points over the two-day competition, while the Buckaroos finished with 55 points, edging third-place Vernon (54) for their second runner-up finish in as many years.
Those performances headlined a successful meet for area competitors, which saw athletes or relay teams from the Big Country Preps coverage area claim 26 total medals — 14 on the boys side and 12 on the girls. That list featured 15 automatic qualifying bids to the state meet May 11-13 in Austin, including 10 total gold medals.
TUSCOLA — What a difference a day makes.
Having suffered an 11-1 mercy rule loss to the Wall Hawks on Thursday, the Jim Ned Indians returned on Friday to hand Wall a 2-1 defeat and force a first-place tie in District 6-3A in the process.
Hagan Headrick delivered the game-winning RBI with an infield single to score Cooper Mascorro with two outs in the seventh inning to lift Jim Ned (23-4, 13-1) which will face Wall in a district tie-breaker for the No. 1 seed on Monday at a time and site to be determined.
WALL — A highly anticipated District 6-3A showdown for the league championship turned into a Wall showcase on Thursday, as the Hawks took the first of two games with Jim Ned 11-1 at WHS.
Luke Kemp tossed a two-hitter with nine strikeouts while Hagyn Barbee and Cale Braden were both 2 for 3 with two RBIs to lead Wall (24-4-1, 13-0)) which can clinch the district title if it defeats the Indians in Friday’s 7 p.m. rematch at Jim Ned.
The Indians fell to 22-4 and 12-1 with the loss.
“We came out ready to play,” Wall coach Jason Schniers said. “I challenged my kids yesterday at the end of practice to make sure we continue to give an effort every day and to make sure that we understand we haven’t really accomplished anything yet.
“We have a good record and we’re undefeated in district but other than that, nothing has been accomplished. It was a reminder about the purpose of what we’re going through over the next two days and boy did our kids respond in a big way.”
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Clyde-Jim Ned softball (73 images)”
TUSCOLA — With two runners on and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Jim Ned’s Libbie Brnovak stepped to the plate with her squad trailing Clyde 5-1 in the District 6-3A regular season finale on Friday afternoon.
Brnovak ripped a shot into right-center that scored Makenzie Ince and Briana Jones, but she was thrown out at third base on a strong throw by Chasity Davis, and the Lady Bulldogs escaped with a 5-3 win to clinch third place outright.
The Lady Indians, meanwhile, tied for fourth place with Wall but still earned a playoff berth by virtue of their sweeping the Lady Hawks in the opening week of district play.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Coahoma-Jim Ned baseball (40 images)”
TUSCOLA — In the aftermath of Jim Ned’s 10-0 win over Coahoma on Tuesday, there was almost no acknowledgement of the fact that Jim Ned’s Garan Millican had just thrown a no-hitter.
The truth of the matter is, many people were completely unaware of it, given that the scoreboard wasn’t accounting for hits. And even those who had suspected that he had thrown a no-no, weren’t sure of it, since they hadn’t seen the official book yet.
Case closed. Millican delivered a five-inning no-hitter in a mercy rule win at Jim Ned, helping the Indians (15-3, 5-0 District 6-3A) to remain in a first-place tie with area power Wall in the league race.
TUSCOLA — The Jim Ned Consolidated Independent School District is facing the reality that as early as the 2024-25 realignment period that its lone high school could move up to Class 4A due to the booming growth that the community is experiencing.
Because of that, JNCISD made the decision to split the head football coach and athletic director duties into separate roles.
Monday night, Indians offensive coordinator Dustin Todd was named the district’s new AD and given a two-year contract during a regularly scheduled school board meeting.
It’s always a good sign early in the season when you’re getting good pitching against quality competition. And in the case of the Big Spring Lady Steers, the numbers in the circle thus far are downright encouraging.
Courtesy of senior Alexcia Munoz, the Lady Steers are off to a 5-1 start, including a 4-0 mark from Munoz in last week’s Abilene Icebreaker tournament.
WOLFFORTH —While 6-foot-2 Holliday post Jalynn Bristow was projected to be major challenge for Jim Ned in Saturday’s Region 1-3A championship game, the Iowa State signee may have exceeded expectations.
Pouring in 24 points (nearly half of her team’s total), Bristow led the Lady Eagles to a 53-40 win to eliminate Jim Ned and push Holliday to the UIL State Tournament. This, despite landing in second half foul trouble and being forced to sit out much of the fourth quarter on the bench.
Jim Ned closed its season with a 35-2 mark, capped by its fifth straight appearance in a regional tournament. Emma Doran led the Lady Indians with 11 points; Lexi Wishert added nine.
WOLFFORTH — A slow start, a hostile crowd and regional semifinal pressure were all in a day’s work for the Jim Ned Lady Indians, who overcame all three handicaps to eliminate Idalou 47-33 on Friday at Frenship High School’s Tiger Pit.
Lexi Wishert had 17 points, including three 3-pointers and Ashlynn Galvin added 10 more to lead Jim Ned (32-1), which now advances to face Holliday (31-3) in the Region I-3A title game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Idalou was led by Logan Heard with 15 points and Maddie Holmes with seven. The Lady Cats finished their season at 25-13.
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WINTERS — With a spot in the Region I-3A tournament on the line on Monday night at Blizzard Gym, the Jim Ned and Ballinger girls basketball teams squared off for the third time this season.
The Lady Indians were seeking their fifth straight berth in the regional tournament while the Lady Cats were in the regional quarterfinals for the first time since 2008.
Despite a strong defensive first half, the Lady Cats struggled to score offensively, and Jim Ned’s offense came to life in the second half to propel the Lady Indians to a 53-18 win and an 8 p.m. date with Idalou on Friday at Wolfforth Frenship.
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EULA — For a half, the Breckenridge girls basketball team gave No. 2 Jim Ned all it could handle Thursday in a Region I-3A area round matchup at Mary Mosley Gymnasium.
But a Lady Indians squad not accustomed to playing in tight games rose up to meet the challenge in the second half, using an 11-6 run through the third quarter to create some cushion in a 42-30 win.
The victory — just Jim Ned’s seventh this year by less than 14 points — earned the Lady Indians (33-1 on the season) a region quarterfinal matchup next week with District 6-3A mate Ballinger, which knocked off Wichita Falls City View 56-46 on Thursday.
As Jim Ned coach Hunter Cooley peers into the figurative rearview mirror at his team’s perfect 14-0 run through District 6-3A and looks ahead to a challenging collection of prospective Region 1-3A playoff opponents, there’s a completely different focal point he’s emphasizing with the Lady Indians.
It can be described in three words: the next opponent.
No matter what Jim Ned has done before, and what the Lady Indians might be able to do in the future, Cooley has learned in two-decades-plus at the school that the only game that matters on the schedule is the upcoming one. And he has made that the team’s mantra as it prepares to open postseason play on Monday against Llano.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Jim Ned-Merkel basketball doubleheader (128 images)”
MERKEL —With first place in the balance on both sides of Tuesday’s varsity doubleheader in Merkel, the Jim Ned girls and boys basketball teams walked into one of the toughest places to play in the Big Country and walked out with a convincing two-game sweep.
The Jim Ned girls (23-1, 6-0 District 6-3A) took the opener in dominating fashion, beating Merkel 52-21. Shortly thereafter, the Jim Ned boys took the nightcap with a 52-38 win to improve to 15-10 and 4-0.
NOTE: This will be our final Player of the Week column for 2022. It will return on Monday, Jan. 9.
It’s always a significant accomplishment to chart a double-double. But when one averages a double-double over the course of five straight games, you begin to put a blip on the area radar screen.
Munday senior Jaxon Bowman did precisely that last week, helping the Moguls to a 5-0 record and the tournament championship at Blackwell. Aside from averaging 11.2 points per game, the senior grabbed a whopping 13 boards per contest to along with a combined 12 steals as Munday improved to 12-2.
