Here are the Big Country’s rushing leaders through Week 11:
With the girls basketball season upon us, it’s time to take a look at the local and area players who will be making the biggest impact for their teams during the 2021-22 season.
For the first installment in a three-part series that will cover all positions, we’ll be focusing on 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.
Midland Greenwood 34, Snyder 7 — The Rangers were too much for the Tigers, limiting Snyder to just 228 yards of offense and one second-quarter touchdown in a comfortable home win.
Greenwood also won the turnover battle 3-0, allowing the Rangers (5-4, 3-1) to pull away in the third quarter despite finishing with just 281 yards themselves.
Snyder, which fell to 6-3 overall and 1-2 in league play with the loss, got its only touchdown on a short run by Bryce Ford to that the deficit to 14-7 at halftime. Greenwood was led by quarterback Ty Flowers, who went 7-of-7 passing for 87 yards and added 69 yards and three TDs on the ground.
It’s never a surprise to see Sweetwater senior quarterback Leo Holsey among the top performers in our Capital Farm Credit/Big Country Preps Player of the Week column.
Since his freshman year, the four-year starter has topped our weekly list multiple times, including this week after helping Sweetwater to a 61-37 win over Pecos on Friday.
Holsey only threw 15 passes, but he connected on 12 of them for 364 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed six times for 75 yards and two more scores, giving him a direct hand in 439 yards and seven TDs.
Sweetwater 61, Pecos 37 — The Mustangs stayed perfect in district play with a blowout win over the Eagles, piling up 553 yards of total offense in a dominating effort.
Coach Russell Lucas’ squad, which has now one four straight games, led 35-9 by halftime and was never threatened after that in improving to 6-3 on the year and 3-0 in league play.
Pecos (4-4, 0-2) rushed for 456 yards in the loss, getting 336 yards and three touchdowns rushing from star running back Ezekiel Saldana, but the Eagles never pulled closer than 19 points of the lead after halftime.
LAST WEEK: 35-11, .760
SEASON TOTAL: 322-74, .813
This week’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week will send me south to historic Hufford Field in Coleman, where the Bluecats (6-0) will play host to perennial power Cisco (6-1) in what is essentially the District 4-2A Division I championship.
Opened way back in 1934, Hufford is one of the Big Country’s oldest and most unique venues and if you are looking for a game to go to on Friday, this one will not only offer some good football, but some nostalgia as well.
The immense rock wall surrounding the field was built in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration or WPA as the nation battled its way out of The Great Depression.
Hope to see you there.
Here are this week’s picks:
It’s one thing to rush for more than 300 yards and three scores against a struggling program. We see that all the time from the area’s top running backs.
But it’s an entirely different thing when those yards come against a solid team with a sturdy defense. That’s earning it the hard way.
Jim Ned’s Xavier Wishert, our Capital Farm Credit/Big Country Preps Player of the Week, took that route on Friday night when he charted 313 yards rushing and three scores on just 20 carries in a 37-20 road win over the Wall Hawks.
Snyder 28, Monahans 21 — The Tigers bounced back from last week’s loss to rival Sweetwater with a huge victory, handing the Loboes their first defeat of the season.
Coach Wes Wood’s squad (6-2, 1-1) played an outstanding first half, using 21 second-quarter points to take a 28-0 lead into the halftime break, before Monahans (6-1, 0-1) rallied in the final two quarters to pull within a touchdown.
Snyder was outgained 430-282 and lost the turnover battle 2-1, but the Tigers made the plays they needed to hang on for the win, forcing a turnover on downs inside their own 20 in the final minute to preserve the victory. Jorge Martinez led the effort for SHS, rushing for touchdowns of 74 and 71 yards and intercepting a pass to set up a 37-yard TD reception by Tim Henderson.
LAST WEEK: 40-7, .851
SEASON TOTAL: 287-63, .820
Week 8? Are you kidding?
I ask the same question, or some variant of it virtually every year. We just finished with two-a-days. How can we possibly be this deep in the season so quickly?
Yet hear we are. A cold weather snap approaching. Thanksgiving right around the corner —as are the playoffs.
This week’s Game of the Week will see me traveling north to Ralls where the surprising Roscoe Plowboys, off to their best start in years, will be in a showdown for the district lead.
The column hit at 85 percent accuracy last week and is now up to 82 percent on the year. So we’ll see if we can keep the momentum going through the home stretch.
Let’s have a look at this week’s picks:
Each week here at Big Country Preps, we’ll post our picks for all of that week’s 11-man games, in addition to the results of Evan Ren’s Twitter polls for each matchup.
For those interested in voting, polls go up on Monday night each week and close Thursday morning.
Disagree with our picks or the Twitter consensus? Let us know in the comments section below.
Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
We will continually update the database throughout the regular season.
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Midland Greenwood 42, Pecos 17 — The Rangers finally got untracked offensively, racking up 396 yards and six touchdowns in blowout win over the Eagles.
Greenwood (3-3, 1-0), which had come in averaging just 15.6 points per game, led 28-10 by halftime and scored the first touchdown out of the break to end any hopes of a comeback for Pecos (4-3, 0-1).
The Rangers, who ran for 280 yards, were led by Aaron Fikes, who rushed for 141 yards and three touchdowns, and Ty Flowers, who passed for 116 yards and one TD and added 51 yards rushing. Ezekiel Saldana paced the Eagles, rushing for 260 of the their 386 total yards, but he accounted for two of Pecos’ three turnovers, fumbling twice.
SWEETWATER — Leo Holsey accounted for five touchdowns and the Sweetwater football team outlasted Snyder 42-37 in the District 1-4A Division II opener Friday night at the Mustang Bowl.
Holsey ran for three scores and threw for two more as the Mustangs improved to 4-3 overall and 1-0 in district in coach Russell Lucas’ debut season.
Snyder, which got 235 yards rushing and three touchdowns from Jorge Martinez, dropped to 5-2 on the year and 0-1 in district.
LAST WEEK: 39-4, .906
SEASON TOTAL: 247-56, .815
Gramps Ren is back in the groove, hitting over 90 percent of his picks a week ago, to push this column’s season percentage to .815 as we head into district play across the area.
Whether or not I can keep the momentum remains to be seen, entering what might be the toughest week of area picks I’ve seen this year, with multiple games that I would rate as near-tossups.
This week’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week will see us heading to Tuscola where Jim Ned will begin its District 3-3A DI title defense against a red-hot, unbeaten team from Early.
Let’s have a look at this week’s picks …
Big Country Preps is publishing area volleyball statistical leaders each Tuesday at 7 p.m.
This database will be continually updated for our subscribers throughout the remainder of the season, using only those statistics submitted by area coaches.
We will continually update the database throughout the regular season.
A quick look at the box score from Sweetwater’s 70-54 win over Eastland and one just knew that the Capital Farm Credit/Big Country Preps Player of the Week was located somewhere in that massive pile of numbers.
SHS quarterback Leo Holsey emerged as the top man, hitting 17 of 19 throws for 434 yards and six touchdowns.
Add his 101 yards rushing on 15 carries with three more scores and the choice was made easy — even on a night with 1,277 yards in combined total offense between the two teams.
Sweetwater 70, Eastland 54 — Leo Holsey passed for 434 yards and six touchdowns and rushed for three more scores to lead the Mustangs to a wild win at the Mustang Bowl.
Sweetwater (3-3), which led 42-27 at halftime, won despite allowing 658 yards of total offense, including a combined 346 yards and four TDs passing between Eastland quarterbacks Keaton Hicks and Cooper Wright.
Harrison Foster (6-156, 2 TDs) and Ethan Brockman (5-106, 2 TDs) both had big nights receiving for the Mustangs, who also got 148 total yards (97 rushing, 51 receiving) from Malik Brown in the win.
LAST WEEK: 45-6, .882
SEASON TOTAL: 208-52, .800
After a disastrous night of picking football games on Sept. 19 that saw his season percentage dip below .800, Gramps Ren has rebounded. Thank you, thank you.
Last Friday saw this column hit with more than 88 percent accuracy on games throughout the Big Country, pulling its season percentage to an even .800 as we hit the season’s midpoint.
This week I’ll be heading west — way West — to the very edge of our coverage area to get a first-hand look at the Big Spring Steers in their matchup with Littlefield in our Big Country Preps Game of the Week.
Let’s dive in to this week’s picks, shall we?
Defensive specialists seldom get the attention they deserve in volleyball. Not unlike offensive linemen in football, who do the dirty work behind the scenes that enables the glamour positions to shine.
That isn’t the case at Big Country Preps, where we take pride in giving credit to those willing to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.
Snyder libero Abby Benitez, perhaps the best defender in the entire Big Country, fits that mold and has captured our Capital Farm Credit/Big Country Preps Player of the Week award for the week ending Sept. 25.
Sweetwater 42, Clyde 21 — The Mustangs piled up 526 yards of total offense, rushing for 289 and passing for 237, in a three-touchdown win over the Bulldogs.
Sweetwater (2-3) outscored the Bulldogs 27-7 over the first two quarters, before putting the game away with the only touchdown of the third period.
Quarterback Leo Holsey spearheaded the winning effort for the Mustangs, passing for four touchdowns while adding a fifth score on the ground. Ethan Aguilar was the Mustangs leading rusher with 110 yards and a touchdown on just six carries, while Harrison Foster was the leading receiver with six catches for 129 yards and a TD.
LAST WEEK: 36-16, .692
OVERALL: 163-46, .779
After four straight weeks of picking 80 percent or better, the USS Ren ran aground last Friday, bottoming out with a season-low .692 percentage and dropping my season tally to .779.
I generally like to be above 80 percent by midseason, so last Friday served as a wakeup call. Actually, it was more of a gut punch. But I’ll get over it.
This week’s Big Country Preps Game of the Week will see me traveling to Snyder, where the unbeaten Class 4A Tigers will play host to 3A DI state champion Jim Ned in what should be an absolutely electric atmosphere.
You all set? Let’s dive in to this week’s picks.