Here are the standings for all girls basketball districts involving Big Country schools through Jan. 18 (with last week’s results, Tuesday’s schedule):
Category: Stephenville Yellow Jackets
BIG COUNTRY PREPS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Cisco’s Edgar is the top dog
The Cisco Loboes may have only played one game last week (beating Hamlin 76-41). But senior guard Layne Edgar made the most of it.
Scoring 39 points with a 5-of-9 tally from 3-point range, he narrowly missed a monstrous triple-double, finishing with nine rebounds and eight assists.
In his spare time, he collected six steals in a truly dominating performance worthy of our Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for the Week ending Jan. 16.
Evan Ren’s 2020 True Grit Team: The toughest, hardest-working players in the Big Country!
Most of us know a football player who lives in the weight room, who’s always dependable and who always does what his coaches ask him. He always puts the team first. He’s early to arrive and late to leave. And he seldom needs direction because he always pays attention.
You know the type. But you seldom hear about them, since there is no specific category to put them in and the media doesn’t recognize these qualities.
This is the guy who always sets a good example. He doesn’t complain and above all else, is tough mentally and physically. He’s not necessarily the best player on his team (though some are). But he’s definitely the guy who gets the most out of whatever talent he was born with.
Welcome to the 2020 “True Grit” team — the one place in the Big Country where guys who fall into this category are recognized for it.
All-Big Country Preps Superlatives: Wishert, Morton, Dillingham and Fanning take top honors
Here are our superlative award winners for the 2020 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
All-Big Country Preps Football Team: First-Team Roster
Here are our first-team selections for the 2020 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
All-Big Country Preps Football Team: Second-Team Roster
Here are our second-team selections for the 2020 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
All-Big Country Preps Football Team: Third-Team Roster (w/ honorable mention)
Here are our third-team selections for the 2020 All-Big Country Preps football team. For the rest of this year’s selections, click the links below.
BIG COUNTRY PREPS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dublin’s Escobar takes the top spot
He’s been consistently pouring in points since the season’s outset. So it’s not a surprise that Dublin senior guard Daniel Escobar has taken our first Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for 2021.
Helping the Lions to wins over Eastland (69-42) and Millsap (79-43), Escobar finished the week with a total of 63 points through the two games, including a 38-point night in the Eastland win.
But scoring was only a portion of his overall contribution.
PHOTO GALLERY: Brandon McAuliffe’s top 100 football photos for 2020
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
PHOTO GALLERY: Daniel Youngblood’s top 100 football photos for 2020
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
PHOTO GALLERY: Stephenville-Abilene High girls basketball (42 images)
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by clicking on the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery. The “BigCountryPreps.com” watermark will be removed from all purchased photos.
GAME STORY: Third-quarter run fuels No. 10 Stephenville past Abilene High 54-40
The Abilene High girls basketball team hung with Class 4A No. 10 Stephenville for a half Tuesday, leading the Honeybees as late as the one-minute mark of the second quarter. But SHS closed that period on 4-0 run and outscored the Lady Eagles 21-7 in the third to account for the final margin in a 54-40 win at Eagle Gym.
Turning up the pressure out of halftime, the Honeybees converted smothering full-court defense into easy offense to build a double-digit lead by the 4:59 mark of the third quarter. And AHS was never able to work its way back into the game after that.
Continue reading “GAME STORY: Third-quarter run fuels No. 10 Stephenville past Abilene High 54-40”
CAPITAL FARM CREDIT WEDNESDAY NIGHT PODCAST: Cisco’s Kevin Stennett joins the show talks about CHS’ upcoming regional semifinal with Hawley
VIDEO PODCAST NO. 11: Cisco coach Kevin Stennett joins the show and to talk about his experience at CHS and this week’s regional semifinal clash with Hawley. Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood examine this week’s regional semifinal pairings.
Top games of this week discussed: All playoff pairings involving Big Country teams from Class 1A-4A this week are mentioned.
Top games of last week discussed: Sweetwater vs. Celina, Hawley vs. Sundown, Albany vs. Ralls, Wall vs. Bushland, Brock vs. Denver City, Jim Ned vs. Dalhart, San Saba vs. Panhandle.
CAPITAL FARM CREDIT/BCP PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Cisco’s Long takes this week’s award
Cisco quarterback Hunter Long is only a sophomore. And he made his share of sophomore mistakes against an early-season schedule that featured 3A DI powerhouses from Wall and Jim Ned.
Maturity, however, is beginning to catch up with the CHS signal caller, who has gradually developed into one of the top Class 2A weapons in the Big Country.
His latest effort typified his development — passing for 210 yards and rushing for 101 in a 46-15 area round rout of Olton.
Along the way, Long accounted for five Cisco touchdowns, rushing for three and passing for two more to help push the Loboes into the regional semifinals.
It also earned him our Capital Farm Credit/BCP Player of the Week award for the week ending Nov. 21.
“Hunter played a great game,” Cisco coach Kevin Stennett said. “He is getting better every week and his execution of our offense has been outstanding during the playoffs. He made very few mistakes, if any, against Olton and has really emerged as the leader of our offense.”
Class 4A Area Round Report: Springtown too much for Big Spring in shutout
REGION I-4A DIV. I
Springtown 56, Big Spring 0 — The Porcupines were too much for the Steers on Friday, using a 483-237 yardage gap and 6-1 advantage in the turnover margin to score a shutout victory.
Big Spring quarterback Gabriel Baeza passed for 182 yards and rushed for a team-high 46 yards, but he was hurt by four interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.
Springtown, which led 35-0 by halftime, was paced by quarterback Camden Chesney, who threw four touchdown passes, and Dakota Strahan, who rushed for two scores and added a pick-six on defense.
BCP Boys Basketball Position Rankings: Guards
With boys basketball season upon us, it’s time to shine a spotlight on some of the players we’ll be writing and you’ll be reading about throughout the 2020-21 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 fall.
We hope you enjoy reading through our list.
CAPITAL FARM CREDIT/BCP PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Albany’s Cotter takes award with two dominating efforts
One dominating performance deserves another.
Having already helped Albany reach the Region I-2A finals with a 17-kill performance in a win over Plains (22-25, 25-10, 25-22, 25-16) last week, Sarah Beth Cotter wasn’t finished.
With AHS facing perennial power Wink in the regional finals Saturday in Big Spring, she helped the Lady Lions reach the state semis with 16 kills, two blocks, four digs and an ace in a stunning 25-14, 25-19, 25-20 sweep of the Lady Cats.
GAME STORY: Stephenville cruises past Benbrook, into area-around matchup with No. 1 Argyle
FORT WORTH — Kason Philips ran for 167 yards and four touchdowns and Gavin Rountree went 8-for-11 passing for 183 yards and two more scores to lead the Stephenville Yellow Jackets to a resounding 56-14 thumping of the Benbrook Bobcats in a Region II-4A Division I playoff game Friday night at Farrington Field.
Philips powered, raced, zigged and zagged to scoring runs of 1, 3, 18 and 40 yards, as the Yellow Jackets struck early and often to improve their record to 6-5. In fact, Stephenville scored on five of its first six offensive possessions. And the Jackets even added a defensive score in between when Ryder Lambert returned a fumble 42 yards to help punctuate a dominant effort by Stephenville in all three phases of the game.
Evan Ren’s regional football projections and bi-district picks
LAST WEEK: 26-4, .866
SEASON TOTAL: 377-81, .823
Week 12 of the football season is here. And you know what that means.
The horses are at the starting gate with a finish line set up in Arlington for the state championship games.
More than 97 percent of the teams won’t make it. And by the time Thanksgiving arrives, 75 percent of them will already be finished. Such is the magnitude of our postseason.
In the meantime, hundreds of teams from Class 1A through 4A have their dreams of reaching Jerry World still intact. Classes 5A and 6A will start their postseason journeys in mid December, after having their seasons delayed by COVID-19.
That said, it’s time to choose which of our Big Country entries have the best shot of conquering their regions. Who are the favorites? Who are the dark horses? An perhaps most importantly, where are the elephants in the room — the teams from outside of our area with the most potential to spoil the Big Country’s chances?
Let’s get started, shall we?
BCP Girls Basketball Position Rankings: Forwards
After kicking off our girls basketball position rankings series with the guards on Monday, 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 to watch out for in 2020.
We hope you enjoy our list.
BCP Girls Basketball Position Rankings: Guards
With the girls basketball season underway, it’s time to take a look at the players who will be making the biggest impact during the 2020-21 season.
For the first installment in a three-part series that will cover all positions, 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 season.
As with any such list, these rankings are subjective. We hope you enjoy reading through our selections.
Big Country football playoff pairings, results
Here are the updated Big Country football playoff pairings, results:
Continue reading “Big Country football playoff pairings, results”
District 5-4A Div. I Week 11 Report: Short-handed Brownwood closes with loss to La Vega
Waco La Vega 62, Brownwood 6 — For a complete report, please read Brandon McAuliffe’s game story.
The outcome of this game guaranteed the Pirates (7-2, 4-1) the No. 2 playoff seed in this district and locked the Lions (4-5, 2-2) into the fourth seed.
Brownwood was scheduled to play Midlothian Heritage on Saturday, but that game was canceled because it would have no impact on playoff seeding.
La Vega will open the playoffs against District 6 No. 3 seed Fort Worth Western Hills (), while BHS will play its bi-district game against Distirct 6 champion Kennedale ().
District 5-4A Div. I Week 10 Report: First-place Heritage holds off Stephenville rally
Midlothian Heritage 42, Stephenville 27 — Playing Heritage with a chance to force their way back into the district title picture, the Yellow Jackets couldn’t capitalize in two-touchdown loss to the league-leading Jaguars.
After falling behind 28-7 at halftime, the Yellow Jackets (5-5, 3-2) pulled back within eight (28-20) early in the fourth quarter, but Heritage (8-2, 4-0) answered with back-to-back touchdowns to put the game away.
Stephenville was led in the loss by running back Kason Philips, who rushed for two touchdowns, and quarterback Gavin Rountree, who had scoring throws to Coy Eakin and Trace Morrison. Heritage was paced by Latray Miller, who ran for 178 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries.
FEATURE: Shift to the outside proving to be a good move for Withers, Stephenville
Photos courtesy of Stephenville High School
Stephenville’s volleyball team took a major step forward by sweeping Brownwood on Friday night.
The 16th-ranked Honey Bees not only avenged their only district defeat, but also accomplished one of their goals in winning the 6-4A title.
Landri Withers has been an integral part of Stephenville’s success once again in 2020, but this time the junior has been making the biggest impact as an outside hitter.
Stephenville coach Shay Douglas said she changed her standout player’s role for multiple reasons that are beneficial both now and in the future.
District 5-4A Div. I Week 9 Report: Brownwood strong in return from COVID layoff
Brownwood 47, Alvarado 14 — Playing their first game since Oct. 2 due to COVID issues, the Lions shook off the rust quickly in a blowout win over the Indians.
Royshad Henderson rushed for 170 yards and four touchdowns, while Blaize Espinoza passed for 206 yards and a score to help Brownwood (3-4, 1-1) take control of the game early.
Brownwood led 21-0 after a quarter and 40-7 at halftime in dropping Alvarado to 2-7 overall and 0-4 in district play.