Wall 42, Peaster 0 — The Hawks (3-1) pounded out 221 rushing yards among nine different ball carriers in a dominating win over Peaster (1-3).
It was the first shutout of the year for the Hawks, who to date, have allowed only 37 points through four games
Bangs 42, Grape Creek 6 — Kenny Cole threw for 201 yards and three scores and Ethan Ethridge accounted for 243 yards rushing/receiving and two TDs to lift the Dragons.
Bangs (1-2) notched the first win of the Jason Cole era with the victory.
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.
Wall 27, Cisco 10 — The Hawks used a workmanlike effort on the ground, pounding out 312 yards rushing with nine different ball carriers to hand Cisco (0-2) its second straight loss.
Nathan Pepper rushed for a game-high 91 yards on 13 carries with one TD and Hagyn Barbee chipped in 49 yards rushing and two TDs on only two carries to lead Wall (2-0), which limited Cisco to 177 total yards.
Wall 35, Eastland 10 — Gunner Dillard threw for 119 yards and two scores and rushed 20 times for 95 yards and two more scores to lead Wall to a win over Eastland on Friday.
The Hawks (1-0), who led 21-10 at the break, finished with 319 yards in total offense. They will face Cisco (0-1) on the road in Week 2.
In his 16 years as Wall’s head coach, the Hawks have become known for the crisp execution of their patented option offense.
This year, in particular, WHS’ flexbone attack might be better described as an “options” offense because of the embarassment of riches the team boasts at its skill positions.
Starting in the backfield, where both junior quarterback Gunnar Dillard and senior fullback Nathan Pepper return, and moving outside to both the slotback and receiver positions, the Hawks will have more dynamic playmakers than they can get on the field at a given time. That’s a nice problem to have for a Hawks offensive unit that will be looking to improve upon the 29.8 points per game it averaged a year ago on its way to a 12-2 record.
Houston Guy has coached a lot of good football teams at Wall. His 16-year tenure as the school’s head coach has rendered a 156-46 record, including 10 double digit-win seasons and a state championship game appearance in 2013.
So when the veteran coach expresses more than the usual excitement about a team, fans and opposing coaches would be wise to take notice.
That’s the case this season, which will see WHS return 26 of 36 lettermen (including eight offensive and nine defensive starters) from last year’s 12-2 squad. And after watching many of these players help the Hawks outscore their opponents 417-122 a season ago, Guy is embracing the high expectations being placed on this group.
Day 2 of Big Country Preps’ 2023 Photo Tour is now in the books, with six more days of shooting yet to come from practice fields throughout the area.
Here are but a few of the images collected Tuesday:
Continue reading “Scenes from Big Country Preps Photo Tour Day 2”
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 II with the Wall Hawks. On Friday we will take a look at the Coahoma Bulldogs, followed by the Comanche Indians on Saturday.
Continue reading “COUNTDOWN TO TWO-A-DAYS: The Wall Hawks … 18 days to two-a-days”
Due to UIL regulations, photo sales from state championship events are not permitted.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wall-Boyd baseball state championship (64 images)”
ROUND ROCK — It wasn’t the storybook ending Wall was hoping for Saturday at Dell Diamond, but that wasn’t for lack of effort or fight.
After going the first 4.2 innings without a baserunner in their Class 3A state championship matchup with Boyd, the Hawks rallied from a 6-0 sixth-inning deficit to send the tying man to the plate in the top of the seventh. But Wall’s rally — and coach Jason Schniers’ 15-year coaching tenure — ended there as a fielder’s choice grounder and comebacker to the pitcher quelled their comeback hopes in a 6-4 loss to the Yellowjackets.
The defeat ended what was otherwise a dream season for the Hawks — and for Schniers, who announced in March he’d be stepping down to spend more time with family. But despite closing the campaign on a difficult note, the longtime WHS coach had nothing but positive things to say about his team and the year it had.
Due to UIL regulations, photo sales from state championship events are not permitted.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wall-Corpus Christi London baseball state semifinal (110 images)”
ROUND ROCK — It wasn’t the pitching matchup or the pitcher’s duel that many expected when the Wall and Corpus Christi London baseball teams met for their Class 3A state semifinal Friday at Dell Diamond.
Due to apparent injury on one side and uncharacteristic wildness on the other, the teams’ aces combined to last just 2.2 innings, and two squads walked 17 batters between them.
But the Hawks did the better job of pitching out of trouble and capitalizing on their scoring chances offensively, white-knuckling their way to 5-1 win and a state championship date with Boyd, which rallied past Maypearl 8-7 in Friday’s early semifinal.
Heading into Friday’s Class 3A state semifinal matchup with Corpus Christi London, Wall baseball coach Jason Schniers is taking a similar approach to the one he took into last week’s Region I-3A championship series against Brock.
As was the case when the Hawks took on the two-time defending region champion Eagles last week in Abilene, Schniers views his team as the underdog against defending Class 3A state champion London.
But as was also the case before Wall systematically picked apart Brock in a surprisingly dominant series sweep, the longtime WHS coach has the utmost confidence in his young team’s ability to compete with whoever is put up against it.
WALL — Outgoing Wall baseball coach Jason Schniers has reached a difficult crossroads. Only in this instance, his choice of direction has been predetermined.
Wanting to spend more time with his family, Schniers announced in March that he would step away from coaching following the season. But his team hasn’t allowed him to slip away quietly. Heading into this week, Wall (34-6) has qualified for its third state tournament (all achieved during Schniers’ tenure) and will face defending 3A state champion Corpus Christi London in a state semifinal at noon Friday at Round Rock’s Dell Diamond.
The winner will advance to face either Boyd (38-5) or Maypearl (30-9) for the 3A state title at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and as one may suspect, Schniers is now at a bittersweet moment. While his Hawks have reached the state’s biggest stage, the fact that his career will span no more than two additional games is a reality he knew would be difficult to face.
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: Wall-Brock baseball regional championship playoff (228 images)”
On Thursday night, the Wall baseball team rode a fast start and an excellent pitching performance to a 6-2 win over Brock in Game 1 of a best-of-three Region I-3A championship series.
One day later, the Hawks used those same things — in even greater measure — to earn their third state tournament berth since 2017.
WHS followed its three-run first in Thursday’s opener with six first-inning runs Friday, and sophomore ace Luke Kemp backed Kellan Oliver’s complete-game gem with a five-hit shutout as the Hawks cruised to an 11-0 win and an impressive sweep at Abilene Christian University’s Crutcher Scott Field.
Pitching arguably the biggest game of his life to date, Wall freshman Kellan Oliver needed one batter to calm his nerves Thursday in Game 1 of the Region I-3A championship series against Brock.
But after opening his weather-delayed start with a four-pitch walk, the talented left-hander proceeded to stymie a tremendous Eagle lineup in a 6-2 victory for the Hawks.
Oliver, who saw his scheduled 7 p.m. first pitch pushed past 9:30 due to thunderstorms in the Abilene area, limited Brock to six hits and just the one walk over seven outstanding innings to help Wall strike first blood at Abilene Christian University’s Crutcher Scott Field and pull the Hawks within one win of the Class 3A state tournament.
When it comes to baseball in Region I-3A, the path to the state tournament in recent seasons has gone through one of two programs — the Brock Eagles or the Wall Hawks.
Since BHS was moved into the region in the 2017-18 alignment, those are the only two teams out of I-3A to earn trips to Round Rock, with the Eagles making state appearances in 2018, 2021 and 2022 and the Hawks doing so in 2017 and 2019.
With the two set for a best-of-three region championship series Thursday through Saturday at Abilene Christian University’s Crutcher Scott Field, that trend is already guaranteed to continue in 2023. So, too, is a hyper-competitive rivalry that has now seen the teams meet in five of the past six postseasons — there were no playoffs in 2020 due to COVID — with two series victories on each team’s ledger coming into this year’s games.
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.
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: Wall-Brady baseball bi-district playoff (95 images)”
It took the Wall bats a couple of innings to get going Friday in Game 2 of its Region I-3A bi-district series against Brady, but once the Hawks finally got airborne, they soared.
Down 1-0 after two innings, WHS exploded for eight runs in the third and six in the fourth and fifth to pull away for a 20-4 win and a series sweep of the Bulldogs.
The lopsided affair, which followed a tight 5-4 win over the Bulldogs in Game 1, improved coach Jason Schniers team to 27-5-1 on the year and earned the Hawks an area-round matchup next week with the winner between Bowie and Peaster.
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: Jim Ned-Wall baseball home-and-series (57 images)”
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: 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.”
Wall baseball coach Jason Schniers joins the show!
CLYDE — In their uphill climb to snag a playoff spot in the District 6-3A race, the Clyde Lady Bulldogs could ill-afford a loss in Friday’s matchup with Wall at CHS.
Clyde responded with a 4-0 win over the Lady Hawks behind a one-hit shutout from sophomore right-hander Kaycee Bingham — leaving the door open for CHS (16-8-1, 3-5) to reach postseason play.
The win avenged a 9-8 loss to Wall on the road on Tuesday that saw the Lady Bulldogs commit five errors. Friday’s rematch saw only one Clyde miscue behind Bingham, who coasted through most of the afternoon and retired the last 14 batters she faced in succession.
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.
Continue reading “PHOTO GALLERY: Wall-Holliday girls basketball area round playoff (58 images)”
ANSON — Wall coach Jerry McSherry knew his squad would have a tough time in Thursday’s Region I-3A area round game against third-ranked Holliday.
While the Lady Hawks struggled offensively, they dominated on the defensive end of the floor in the first half, building a six-point lead at the break.
A much different story unfolded in the second half, however, as the Lady Eagles pulled away for a 46-33 win, ending the Lady Hawks’ season at 28-6.
Everson Armstrong’s junior season was both trying and ironic.
The Wall basketball player ran into a wall early in his first scrimmage. The result was that Armstrong snapped part of his arm, missing the first couple months.
That injury combined with a broken thumb once he returned kept the Wall guard from becoming a dominant force during the 2021-22 season.
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: Wall-Merkel basketball doubleheader (62 images)”
The Merkel Lady Badgers entered Tuesday’s regular season finale knowing the stakes were clear: beat Wall and get a seeding game with the Lady Hawks or enter the postseason as the No. 3 seed out of District 6-3A.
Wall, meanwhile, knew that a win locked them into the No. 2 seed and would allow a week of rest before starting the postseason.
In the end, it was the Lady Hawks who used a strong defensive effort, including holding the Lady Badgers scoreless for more than 12 straight minutes in the first half, to take a 37-19 win at Badger Gym.
Photos by David Erickson, PressPassSports.com
LUBBOCK — Entering Friday’s Region I-3A Division II title game on a 10-game winning streak, the Wall Hawks were optimistic about their chances against panhandle powerhouse Canadian.
Three hours and three turnovers later, Wall was eliminated by the Wildcats 45-10, ending the Hawks’ season at 11-2.
Camren Cavalier threw for 224 yards, rushed for 100 and accounted for six touchdowns to lead Canadian (12-2), which will face Gunter (13-0) in the state semifinals.
LAST WEEK: 11-1, .916
SEASON TOTAL: 529-120, .815
As December football arrives so will nine — count’em, nine — Big Country Preps teams retain a playoff pulse and are still hopeful of winning a state championship.
Wylie, Brock, Wall, Cisco, Hawley, Albany, Westbrook, Benjamin and Loraine will all take the field this week.
Not too shabby.
Also doing pretty well: this column, which hit with 91-percent accuracy last week despite a difficult slate of games to pick.
That said, let’s dive into this week’s games.
Here’s this week’s forecast:
Having fought his way through a mid-season injury, Albany quarterback Cole Chapman is back in form.
Our Big Country Preps Player of the Week was the dual threat we’ve grown accustomed to seeing on Saturday, leading the Lions (11-2) to a 35-18 whipping of formerly unbeaten Wink in the Region II-2A Division II semifinals.
SWEETWATER — While some may have complained about the cold, rainy weather for Friday’s Region I-3A DII semifinal at the Mustang Bowl, the Wall Hawks had the tools to overcome it.
Using a combination of 331 team rushing yards and a crushing defense, the Hawks (11-1) blew open a 10-0 game with three third-quarter touchdowns and eliminated Idalou 30-0.
WALL — If one examines the statistics of the area’s top high school defenses at this time of year, it is quite common to find at least one or two “stud” tacklers — usually a nasty linebacker with 100 or more stops.
But at Wall, the home of one of the best defenses in Big Country this season, a statistical anomaly is currently taking place. Nobody on WHS’ 2022 roster has more than 66 tackles through 11 played games (plus one forfeit) — a genuine oddity considering how dominant the Hawks have been on that side of the ball.
Instead, Wall is tackling by committee out of its 4-2-5 scheme and doing it quite well, with nine players charting between 43 and 66 stops.