Sweetwater 56, Big Spring 30 — The Mustangs offense was too much for the Steers defense, piling up 586 yards of total offense in a thorough victory.
Sweetwater (4-0), which rushed for 368 of those yards, got big games from quarterback Caiden Ortiz (10-17-1—218, 3 TDs passing), running backs Korda Moore (13-183, 3 TDs rushing; 2-30, 1 TD receiving) and Uriah Martinez (9-122, 2 TDs rushing; 1-19, 1 TD receiving) and receiver Jadyn Forbes (5-146, 1 TD receiving).
Sweetwater 53, Pecos 40 — Korda Moore rushed for 128 yards and three scores and Caiden Ortiz passed for 224 yards and two touchdowns to lift the Mustangs to their third consecutive win to open the season.
Behind those two and Amare Arevalo, who caught eight passes for 114 yards and a TD, Sweetwater built a 31-26 halftime lead before outscoring the Eagles 22-14 in the second half.
Snyder 30, Levelland 0 — Quarterback Easton Stewart had another big game for the Tigers, following last week’s Big Country Preps Player of the Week-worthy effort with 308 yards and two touchdowns passing to lead the Tigers another lopsided win.
Stewart also rushed for 15 yards and another score as Snyder raced out to a 23-0 halftime lead over the Lobos. In addition to the quarterback’s efforts, Snyder also got 82 yards rushing and a touchdown from Daenin Smith and productive receiving performances from Jay Castillo (3-126, 1 TD), Dom Dominguez (4-78) and Jacob James (6-61, 1 TD).
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.
Sweetwater 42, Idalou 20 — Caiden Ortiz completed 11 of 16 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Mustangs to a blowout win over the Wildcats in their season opener.
Korda Moore added 89 yards and a touchdown on the ground, while Jadyn Forbes caught three passes for 80 yards and two scores to help Sweetwater to a 25-7 halftime lead.
SNYDER — There comes a point in time for every successful football program where you can identify a key turning point. Sometimes it’s one game, a series of games or an entire season.
Oddly enough, a turning point can also be hidden — masked behind a mediocre record that camouflages the achievement. And I can give you an example of it: The 2022 Snyder Tigers.
At first glance, the 4-7 record is uninspiring and not worth a second look. But if you choose to dig a bit deeper, you’ll come to the realization that the Tigers and coach Wes Wood have something noteworthy brewing out west.
The question isn’t whether or not the Snyder Tigers will field a better team in 2023. All of the current indications are that they will.
What everyone is waiting to see, is how the Tigers’ improvement stacks up in a district that will improve across the board this season.
That is the nature of District 3-4A DII in 2023, with every club expecting to field a far better product than they did last season. And on paper, there is ample reason to believe it will happen.
Count Snyder among them, with nine starters back on both sides of the ball, 23 lettermen, an experienced quarterback and a nice blend of offensive weapons.
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 move to Class 4A Division II with the Snyder Tigers. On Monday we will take a look at the Sweetwater Mustangs, followed by the Big Spring Steers on Tuesday.
Continue reading “COUNTDOWN TO TWO-A-DAYS: The Snyder Tigers … eight days to two-a-days”
LUBBOCK — Big Country athletes combined to claim 18 medals and clinch 13 automatic berths to the state track meet at the Region I-4A meet over the weekend at Lowrey Field.
The area accounted for 11 gold medals, two silvers and five bronzes as Stephenville and Sweetwater claimed top-five team finishes on the girls side and Stephenville and Brownwood finished in the top 10 in boys competition.
Stephenville’s Victoria Cameron headlined the meet for the Big Country girls contingent, leaving Lubbock with four gold medals, while Stephenville’s Creece Brister won both throwing events on the boys side.
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: Snyder-Glen Rose softball bi-district playoff series (227 photos)”
After a thrilling extra-innings win over Glen Rose in Friday’s series opener, the Snyder softball team needed to win just one game on Saturday at Cougar Diamond to advance in the Region I-4A postseason.
When Ava Aviles launched a home run in the top of the sixth inning of Game 2 that landed on top of the batting cages to give Snyder a one-run lead, it appeared as though the Lady Tigers were on the verge of sweeping the series.
Glen Rose’s Mia Fletcher answered with a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning, though, to propel Glen Rose to a 6-5 win before her squad scored early and often in Game 3 to secure a 10-3 win and complete a series rally.
Trailing 5-1 and down to their final three outs, the Snyder Lady Tigers needed a spark Friday in Game 1 of their best-of-three bi-district series against Glen Rose.
Coach Regina Cummings’ squad had been limited to just five hits through the first six innings and was shut out until Ava Aviles’ solo home run in the fifth.
But after struggling to find their bats for most of the game against Glen Rose starter Shannon Wright, SHS got the jolt it needed in the seventh in the form of a leadoff home run by Tayla Jamison. That blast to left kick started a six-hit frame that would also feature a two-run shot by Aviles and a game-tying double by Arynne Vasquez to force extra innings, where the home team completed a dramatic 6-5 win with Saleigh Hernandez’s walk-off home run in the ninth.
A no-hitter alone is often enough to secure the Big Country Preps Player of the Week award. But when it’s backed by a solid offensive performance, it’s very difficult to get knocked off of the perch.
Brock sophomore Jesse Rusinek takes this week’s accolade after holding Eastland hitless in a 15-0 mercy rule win that saw him miss a perfect game by one walk. He fanned 12 in the process.
“He was dealin’ out there,” Brock coach Kobe Page said of the stuff Rusinek had in the Eastland game. “When he’s on, he’s pretty tough … just showing up, battling and moving the ball around the strike zone. He was ‘on.'”
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: Districts 5/6-4A area track meet (104 images)”
It’s difficult to trump a no-hitter, though Snyder’s Ava Aviles came close last week.
Aviles, who threw back-to-back two-hitters for Snyder softball, is our first runner-up to her classmate, Player of the Week Ty Davis and his first career no-hitter.
Davis earned a 13-2 five-inning win over Levelland last week, holding LHS hitless in the mercy rule win, finishing with five strikeouts.
“Ty has continued to improve on the mound and has given us some excellent innings this season, none bigger than last Tuesday with his no-hit performance,” Snyder coach Shane Stewart said. ” I am proud of him and looking forward to watching him mature as a pitcher and a young man.”
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.”
Softball tournaments can distort the significance of pitching accomplishments due to inning caps or time limits, rendering perfect games or no-hitters into half-versions of their true selves.
However, there is no denying that tournaments are work, especially for pitchers, and our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, Hamlin southpaw Zoe Moore, earned the accolade with a 4-0 record in the Wichita Falls Sunrise Optimist Tournament 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.
Not much separated the Snyder and Stephenville boys basketball teams in their Region I-4A bi-district matchup Tuesday at McMurry’s Kimbrell Arena.
Three points, to be exact.
In a evenly-matched game that close throughout, the Tigers escaped with a 41-38 win that wasn’t decided until the final buzzer, shortly before which Payton Poston’s game-tying 3-point attempt bounced off the rim and out, finally allowing the Snyder coaches and players to exhale and eventually celebrate.
While Hawley’s Kason O’Shields is better known for his prowess on a football field, the HHS senior is actually a remarkable all-around athlete who is capable of having an impact in a variety of different sports.
This week is a prime example of that, as O’Shields takes our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for the week ending February 18.
Digital photos, prints and keepsakes may be purchased by clicking the link below. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
TUSCOLA — The 10th-ranked Stephenville girls basketball team got its postseason started with a dominating performance Monday, using its patented pressure defense to fluster Snyder in a 66-30 bi-district win at Jim Ned’s Bill Thornton Arena.
The Honeybees shut the Lady Tigers out in the first quarter and built a 25-4 lead by halftime, ending the competitive phase of the game before the start of the third period.
The victory earned coach Jason Hodges’ team a highly anticipated area-round date with No. 11 Sanger (28-5), which routed Springtown 81-17 in its bi-district game on Monday. That matchup is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday in Weatherford.
With our recent bad weather pushing an extra game into last week for the Coleman Bluecats, it gave senior guard Braxton Smith three chances to pile up big numbers.
And he did exactly that.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week opened with 19 points and nine steals in a win over Bangs last Monday. He followed that with 13 points, eight assists and 10 steals in a near-triple double in a win over Winters.
Eula’s Clayton Gray, our Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the week ending Feb. 4, earned the accolade on two fronts. Not only did he post big numbers in consecutive wins over Moran and Rising Star, but he also reached an impressive milestone in the process.
To begin with, the junior guard chalked up 29 points, six boards and four blocks in a win over Moran. He also tallied 43 points, eight boards and four steals in a win over Rising Star.
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: Sweetwater-Snyder basketball doubleheader (100 images)”
SNYDER — With both the Snyder and Sweetwater boys basketball teams riding waves of momentum into Friday’s District 5-4A showdown, fans packed the Snyder gymnasium expecting to see a thrilling encore to the first matchup between the teams, which saw the Tigers take a 40-38 win on a layup at the buzzer.
Unfortunately for those on the home side of the gym, the Mustangs had different plans.
Coming in on a two-game winning streak after an 0-4 district start, including a 61-60 victory over Levelland on Thursday, Sweetwater stifled Snyder for four full quarters, building a 23-point third-quarter lead on their way to a 40-27 win over their rival.
Photos courtesy of Lee Scott
The Snyder boys basketball season, seemingly stuck in free-fall mode as recently as a month ago, now has the Tiger faithful thinking this could be a team that makes some noise in the playoffs.
Following a 10-point loss to Shallowater on Jan. 6, Coach Lee Scott’s squad had wrapped up the pre-district portion of the season with a 5-15 record. With District 5-4A play looming on the horizon, not even a good number of “moral victories” mixed among the defeats foretold what would happen next.
Snyder took down Big Spring by 11 points and Sweetwater by two. District favorite Lubbock Estacado slowed the momentum by beating the Tigers 51-42, but Snyder rebounded, both literally and figuratively, by winning its next two district games, 44-36 over San Angelo Lake View and 49-43 over Levelland.
A second win over Big Spring on Thursday (47-34) has the 5-1 Tigers in second place behind Estacado, and Scott has his team thinking that even the powerful Matadors aren’t invincible.
If you haven’t heard of Cisco’s Gavin Landenberger yet, that’s understandable. He and his talented brother, Aiden, were move-ins from Mississippi late last year and weren’t eligible to play varsity ball at CHS.
Now freely able to play, the siblings are making up for lost time and Gavin is currently making enough noise to draw attention from the entire area.
Named as our Big Country Preps Player of the Week, the senior guard absolutely went off last week, beginning with a 28-point night in a win over Albany. He followed that three days later with 32 points in a come-from-behind win at Stamford. The latter saw him hit four straight-3-pointers in an 18-point third quarter.
A limited number of minutes, if the numbers compute correctly, can figure strongly in our selection of Player of the Week.
That is the case with this week’s winner, Gavin Landenberger of Cisco, who opened the week with 29 points, five boards, three assists, and five steals in a win over Haskell last Tuesday.
However, what sealed the deal for the senior guard, was a 20-point, four-rebound, five-assist and five-steal game he charted in a win over Hamlin — numbers he posted in only 18 minutes of playing time.
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Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Pug Parris Classic – Day 3 (79 images)”
Kyla Speights gave the Cooper girls basketball team a 3-0 lead early against Cisco as both teams began the Pug Parris Classic at Cougar Gym on Thursday night, but the Lady Loboes rebounded quickly on their way to a 52-34 win.
Braley Brunson and Brooklyn Hurtado led Cisco with 16 and 11 points, respectively, while Speights’ 14 points led the Lady Cougars.
Having scrimmaged each other already, both coaches knew what they would get from the other squad.
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: Snyder-Ferris football playoff (78 images)”
CISCO — An embattled Snyder football team saw a difficult season come to an end Friday, but not without the same type of fight it has shown all year through adversity after adversity.
The Tigers, who have had more than 10 season-ending injuries this year, found themselves on top of a favored Ferris squad in the fourth quarter of their Region I-4A Division II bi-district matchup at Chesley Field. But ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be as the Yellowjackets scored a pair of touchdowns in the final period to rally for a 31-21 win.
The loss ended Snyder’s campaign at 4-7, but after the game, fourth-year Snyder coach Wes Wood had nothing but positive things to say about his team and the way it competed.
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.
If it’s true that big-time players make big-time plays in big moments, few had a stronger claim to that “big-time” title this past week than Wylie sophomore Hayden Wright.
The Bulldogs free safety not only came through with three interceptions in his team’s 20-10 District 2-5A Division I title-clinching win over crosstown rival Cooper, he recorded all three picks in the fourth quarter as Wylie was trying to hold off a late Cougar rally.
For that effort, which saw him snatch his fourth, fifth and sixth interceptions of the season, the young playmaker has been named the Big Country Preps Player of the Week for the week ending Nov. 5.
Snyder 28, Sweetwater 0 — The Tigers outgained the Mustangs 312-177 and and forced four turnovers to lock up a playoff spot with a four-touchdown win over the Mustangs.
Snyder (4-6, 2-2), which got three rushing scores from Esteban Cabrera (15-85 rushing), raced out to a 21-0 lead by halftime and completed the shutout in the second half, finishing with three sacks and four interceptions in the process.