Santo 40, Chico 6 — The Wildcats thumped the Dragons, rushing for more than 400 yards in a thorough win.
Behind big rushing efforts by Hut Thornton (14-158, 2 TDs) and Billy Sandoval (8-117), Santo (6-0, 2-0) extended a 14-0 halftime lead to 34-0 by the end of the third quarter.
After an 0-1 start in district play with a loss at Wall, the Clyde Lady Bulldogs were facing some pressure last week in tough league matchups against Jim Ned and San Angelo TLCA.
Clyde responded with a pair of wins and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, junior setter Abby Carr was at the forefront of that effort.
Charting 38 assists, 19 kills and four aces, Carr was not only setting up the offense, but when rotating to the front line, she also did a pretty fair job of finishing it.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Muenster-Santo football (50 images)”
Celeste 34, Lindsay 21 — The Blue Devils limited the Knights to just 188 yards of total offense and led from the 3:31 mark of the second quarter on in a two-score victory over LHS.
Celeste (5-1, 2-0) finished with 290 total yards, passing for 156 and rushing for 134. Anthony Powell (15-91, 2 TDs rushing) and Qua Stephens (6-39, 3 TDs) did all the scoring for the Blue Devils, who led 20-7 by halftime.
SANTO — The Santo Wildcats had every opportunity to fold the tent in their district opener on Friday night, trailing traditional power Muenster 17-7 with 11:19 to play.
Santo however, used a couple of big plays, a big night from Hut Thornton and two fourth-quarter scores to rally with a 21-17 win in the Big Country Preps Game of the week.
Thornton rushed 20 times for 183 yards and a score and Jamie Sandoval scored the game-winner from 41 yards out to lead the Wildcats (5-0, 1-0 District 8-2A DII), who are now in the district driver’s seat after knocking off the league favorite.
Collinsville 26, Lindsay 0 — The Pirates took care of business against the Knights, limiting LHS to just 181 total yards in a shutout victory.
CHS, which improved to 4-1 overall and 1-0 in league play, put up 360 total yards (203 rushing, 157 passing) and outscored the Knights 19-0 in the second half to break open what had been a close game through two quarters.
The Pirates were led offensively by quarterback Logan Jenkins (18-31-2—157, 1 TD passing; 12-84, 2 TDs rushing), running back Rylan Newman (18-119, 1 TD) and receiver Carter Scott (5-85, 1 TD). Lindsay (0-5, 0-1) rushed for all but 40 of its yards and turned the ball over four times.
Santo 34, Rio Vista 7 — The Wildcats stayed unbeaten with another impressive showing, outgaining the Eagles 289-168 in a blowout win.
Santo (4-0), which rushed for 343 of its yards, led 21-7 at halftime before shutting out Rio Vista over the final two quarters.
Quarterback Hut Thornton had a big day for the Wildcats, rushing for a team-high 142 yards and three touchdowns while Rodolfo Vega ran for 65 yards and a TD. Rio Vista was also led by its quarterback, Taylor Pritchett, who passed for 94 yards and rushed or 58 yards and a score.
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:
Santo 27, Hamilton 0 — The Bulldogs had no answer for the SHS running game or defense in a shutout loss to the Wildcats.
Santo outgained the Hamilton (1-2) by a 291-198 margin (220-63 on the ground), building a 21-0 lead by halftime before coasting to the comfortable victory.
Leading the way for the Wildcats offensively was quarterback Hut Thornton, who rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown while passing for 59 yards and another score. Jake Bryan (4-31 rushing) also had a rushing touchdown for Santo, which got a pick-six from Billy Sandoval.
In an era when video-game offenses across the state routinely test the mettle of the ERCOT grid, the Santo Wildcats are quite content to go “Old School” in 2022.
(As a reminder, Old School has a sign outside the door that proclaims: “Offense Sells Tickets. Defense Wins Championships!”)
While it’s still a bit premature to raise trophies, it’s high time to exclaim what the Wildcats have accomplished on the defensive side of the ball so far this fall.
Santo 20, Goldthwaite 7 — The Wildcats limited the Eagles to just 49 yards of total offense while rushing for 203 of their 238 yards in a dominating effort.
Goldthwaite (0-2), which scored its only touchdown on a kickoff return, passed for 25 yards and rushed for 24.
Santo, meanwhile, got a game-high 66 yards rushing from Kash Johnson, while Hut Thornton (8-50), Billy Sandoval (5-15) and Brayden Newcomb (2-4) each had rushing scores for the Wildcats.
Santo 49, Electra 0 — The Wildcats were dominant in their season opener, racing out to a 35-0 halftime lead on their way to the shutout victory over the Tigers.
Santo scored 21 points in the first quarter and 14 in the second, before taking their foot off the pedal after halftime.
The Wildcats (1-0) finished with 349 yards of total offense, 288 of that rushing. Kash Johnson rushed for 108 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries, while Hut Thornton (5-57 rushing, 4-5-0—61, 2 TDs passing), Billy Sandoval (2-58, 2 TDs rushing) and Jake Byrd (2-41, 2 TDs receiving) also had productive games.
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 10 quarterbacks with a list of others to watch in 2022.
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 10 with a list of others to watch in 2022. Don’t forget to check in Thursday when we conclude our series with the top 10 area quarterbacks.
We hope you enjoy tonight’s 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 Tuesday with the linemen, we now shift our attention to the playmakers on the perimeter, ranking our top 10 wideouts/tight ends with a list of others to watch in 2022.
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 10 offensive linemen with a list of others to watch in 2022.
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 eight kickers and top eight 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 2022 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-10 defensive backs and others to look out for in 2022.
We hope you enjoy our list.
After taking a look at the Big Country’s top defensive linemen on Saturday, it’s now time to examine those who will backing them in 2022.
Continuing with Big Country Preps’ eight-part preseason position rankings series, here’s our top 10 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 2022.
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 10 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.
Without further ado, it is time for us to make our Big Country predictions, district-by-district.
This is the culmination of several weeks of research and two solid months of summertime labor, so we’re more than ready to post it.
For some coaches, especially those running option offenses, the loss of a multi-year starter at quarterback can be a stress-inducing thing. And then there’s Santo coach Devin Mann, whose succession plan under center has him sleeping like a baby.
Despite graduating standout quarterback Case Procter, who led the Wildcats to 11 wins in 2021, Mann couldn’t be more confident in his quarterback situation this fall. And the reason for that is simple.
As the son of offensive coordinator Randy Thornton, his new signal caller, junior Hut Thornton, has the flexbone offense in his genes.
Coming off an 11-2 season in which their only losses were to 13-1 Albany and eventual state champion Windthorst, the Santo Wildcats have put themselves in the conversation with the top teams in Class 2A Division II.
With the bulk of its talent back from last year’s team, coach Devin Mann’s squad is looking to continue its climb up that ladder in 2022.
A tough new district with Muenster, Lindsay, Collinsville and Celeste will provide a new challenge for the Wildcats. But with 17 of 24 lettermen returning, including eight starters on both sides of the ball, Mann is hoping that combination of talent and experience will allow his program to further establish itself as a threat in a loaded Region II-2A DII.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Hamlin, Santo and Winters football scrimmage (75 images)”
Day 6 of Big Country Preps’ 2022 Photo Tour is now in the books, with one more day of shooting yet to come from practice fields throughout the area.
Here are but a few of the images collected Friday and Saturday:
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. 17. 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 Aug. 1, we’ll be spotlighting each 11-man team in the area and posing some of the key questions they’ll face in 2022 as part of our annual “Countdown to Two-a-Days” series.
We continue in Class 2A Division II with the Santo Wildcats. On Tuesday we will take a look at the Hico Tigers, followed by the Forsan Buffaloes on Wednesday.
OTHER 2022 ALL-BIG COUNTRY PREPS TEAMS
Character, grit and work ethic aren’t seen in a box score. And it is with our Big Country Preps All-Hustle Team that we wish to honor those players (male and female) who exemplify those qualities.
The All-Hustle team isn’t about who the best baseball and softball players were. It honors the best teammates.
It is here where effort, discipline and coachability — traits that coaches wish they had in every player and upon which championships are built — are honored.
It is for that reason that this team is largely selected by area coaches and described in their own words.
Big Country Preps is now honored to present these individuals to you — the best team players (boys and girls) that the Big Country had to offer during the 2022 baseball and softball seasons.
The players below are listed in no particular order.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Hico-Santo softball playoff (46 images)”
Here are the updated Big Country boys basketball playoff pairings, results through March 5:
Continue reading “Big Country boys basketball playoff pairings, results (March 5)”
Below are the final regular season statistical leaders for Big Country boys basketball in 2022.
This database has been continually updated for our subscribers throughout the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.