SPRINGTOWN — The Comanche Indians saw their season come to an end one game shy of the Region II-3A Division II finals, falling 53-14 to Gunter in a region semifinal matchup at Porcupine Stadium.
The Tigers (13-0) raced out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead and extended their advantage to 36-7 by halftime in advancing to face Holliday for the II-3A DII crown.
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IOWA PARK — The blueprint for any major upset typically includes three things: a fast start, a few breaks and gut check when momentum inevitably turns in the direction of the favored team.
The Hamlin Pied Pipers (12-1) checked all boxes in their stunning 21-18 win over top-ranked Wellington on Thursday in a Region II-2A Division II semifinal matchup at Hawk Stadium.
Coach Russell Lucas’ squad drove 55 yards for a touchdown on the game’s opening drive, led 13-0 at halftime thanks to a 99-yard fumble return and held off a Skyrocket rally over the final two quarters to extend its season with what may be biggest upset in Texas high school football this season.
BRADY — Gorman held a 20-12 lead in the first quarter, but Leakey scored 42 unanswered points during the second and third quarters to defeat the Panthers 68-36 in the Region IV-1A Division I title game Friday.
With the victory, the Eagles advance to the state semifinals for the first time since 1975, when they played eight-man football.
The Panthers were led in defeat by running back Junior Madera with 130 yards rushing and Bryce Petree with 59 yards rushing.
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.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 13)”
LAST WEEK: 31-6, .837
SEASON TOTAL: 415-91, .820
Normally our playoff forecast is released on Thursdays. But, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, we’re pushing it out a day early.
I don’t mind saying, it has been a good year for the column, picking at nearly 84 percent in Week 12 and holding at 82 percent on the year.
ROSCOE — Playing a rematch of September’s 27-26 nondistrict classic, Cross Plains and Christoval’s Region II-2A Division II bi-district playoff Friday was expected to be a competitive one. In the end, the sequel may have been better than the original.
In a game that went back and forth for all four quarters, it was the Christoval Cougars (8-3) who secured a 40-34 victory on Brayden Wilcox’s 13-yard touchdown run with 1:17 left in the game.
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.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 12)”
The Regular season is over, and the high school football playoffs are here. In this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast, Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood take a look back at the most important games of Week 11 and ahead to the postseason, focusing on the Big Country’s biggest threats.
Here are the standings for all six-man football districts involving Big Country schools after Week 11 (with last week’s scores and this week’s schedule):
Continue reading “Big Country Six-Man Football Standings (Final)”
Memphis 39, Munday 14 — The Cyclones (3-6, 2-3) rode a 33-point first quarter to a lopsided win over Munday, ending the Moguls’ season at 0-10.
Memphis, which took the district’s fourth-playoff seed, snapped a three-game losing streak that had seen the Cyclones shut out by Wheeler (33-0) and Wellington (60-0).
Munday, which outscored Memphis 14-6 in the second half, got 125 yards rushing, 80 yards passing and two total touchdowns from Cameron Thornton in the loss.
Sonora 47, Brady 12 — The Broncos (5-5, 3-2) locked up this district’s No. 3 playoff seed and dashed the Bulldogs’ postseason hopes with a dominating Week 11 performance.
Sonora, which closed the regular season on a three-game winning streak after losing five straight earlier in the year, outgained Brady 512-152, limiting coach Shay Easterwood’s squad (2-8, 1-4) to just 29 rushing yards on 25 carries.
Quarterback Wesley Dutton had a huge day for the Broncos, hitting five of five passes for 131 yards while rushing for a 130 yards and four touchdowns on just 12 carries. Brady, meanwhile, was paced by Marshall Schmitz with 55 yards and a score on five rushing attempts and Jack Marshall with two catches for 58 yards.
Brock 77, Paradise 21 — The Eagles (9-1, 6-0) closed out the regular season with perhaps their most dominating effort of the year, building a 49-6 halftime lead on their way to a 56-point blowout.
Cash Jones (9-152, 2 TDs), Toby Morrison (10-149, 3 TDs) and Hunter Bramblett (10-134, 2 TDs) all had 100-yard rushing games as Brock piled up 573 of its 643 total yards on the ground. Paradise, meanwhile, gained 288 yards, most of which came in the second half.
Coach Chad Worrell’s team had already locked up the district’s No. 1 seed going into Friday’s game, but the victory closed out a perfect run through league play. The Eagles’ reward is a bi-district matchup against Breckenridge at 7 p.m. Thursday at Abilene’s Shotwell Stadium.
At the start of the season, I wrote a column on how football is family, and last week’s 47-0 Hamlin win over Cross Plains provided yet another example of that.
The officiating crew for the game featured not one, but two father-son combinations wearing the black-and-white stripes.
Darrin Cox, the head of the Abilene chapter of the Texas Association of Sports Officials, was the referee and joined on the crew by his son Garrett, who served as the linesman along the Cross Plains sideline.
Jeff Posey was the umpire for the game and his son, Joe, worked the Hamlin sideline as the line judge.
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.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 11)”
Where has the season gone?
It seems like just yesterday teams were lacing up the cleats for the first time since last December, yet here we are at the end of the regular season.
With six area Class 1A districts of just three or four teams, there’s not much drama in the works this week. For most of the teams in our area, this week is about solidifying playoff positioning and ending the season on a high note.
Shamrock 42, Munday 6 — The Moguls (0-9, 0-4) had their playoff hopes officially dashed Friday with a lopsided to the Irish.
Shamrock (3-6, 1-3) got off to a fast start, building a 27-6 lead by halftime, and shut Munday out in the second half to keep its playoff hopes alive entering this week’s game against Quanah.
The Moguls will try to avoid a winless season Friday when they wrap up the 2018 campaign with a home game against Memphis.
Brock 43, Boyd 15 — Leading 22-15 at halftime, the Eagles (8-1, 5-0) outscored the Yellowjackets 21-0 in the second half to clinch the No. 1 playoff seed in 4-3A DI.
Boyd, now 6-3 overall, came into Friday’s game with a matching 4-0 district record, but after scoring to the tie the game at 15 with 2:43 left in the first half, the Yellowjackets allowed 28 unanswered points the rest of the way.
Brock outgained Boyd 533-327, rushing for 304 while passing for 229. Takota Taylor (5-6-0—124, 1 TD) and Tripp Jones (3-5-0—105) both topped 100 yards passing, while Toby Morrison led the running game with 139 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.
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.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 10)”
Comanche football coach Stephen Hermesmeyer has turned a struggling Indian program into a perennial playoff contender during his seven seasons at the school. And though he experienced significant graduation losses from last year’s 12-2 squad, his Indians can clinch their second straight district title with a win over Dublin on Friday.
Hermesmeyer recently took some time to chat with Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood about this year’s team, his wing-T offensive scheme and the status of his program for this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast.
Also in this episode, Evan and Daniel discuss the area’s top games from Week 9 and how those outcomes are shaping the Big Country district races.
Quanah 35, Munday 8 — The winless Moguls led Quanah into the second quarter on Friday, but the Indians scored 29 unanswered points over the final three periods to improve to 5-3 on the season and 2-1 in 5-2A DII play.
Quanah, which wraps up the regular season with games against Wheeler and Shamrock, was led in Friday’s win by quarterback Clayton Laughery, who completed 12 of 15 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown while rushing 12 times for 200 yards and three more scores.
Munday, now 0-8 overall and 0-3 in league play, will need wins in its final two games to earn a playoff berth. The Moguls host Shamrock this week before traveling to Memphis for their regular-season finale.
Blanco 49, Brady 0 — The Bulldogs fell to 1-7 overall and 0-3 in district play with a lopsided loss to the surging Blanco Panthers.
Blanco (6-2 overall), which outgained Brady 417-106, did the bulk of its damage on the ground, pounding out 332 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns in improving to 3-0 in 13-3A DI games.
The Panthers, who built a 42-0 lead by halftime, were led by Cade Felps with 159 yards and three touchdowns rushing, while Tristan Fortner (2-47) and Baylor Smith (4-48) also ran for scores.
Jacksboro 42, Dublin 29 — Landon Davenport rushed for 130 yards and Ethan Fudge added three rushing touchdowns to help Jacksboro hand Dublin its first loss of the year.
JHS, which didn’t pass for a single yard, finished with 468 yards rushing.
Brock 58, Ponder 7 — The Eagles (7-1, 4-0) took care of business on the road against the last-place Lions, scoring the first 30 points in a dominating effort from start to finish.
Brock outgained Ponder (2-7, 0-5) by a 399-107 margin, getting a strong game from quarterback Tripp Jones, who completed four of six passes for 100 yards and two scores while rushing three times for 61 yards and another touchdown.
Takota Taylor, who had been playing QB for the Eagles the past few weeks, had one of those touchdown receptions to go with a TD run, while tight end Baylor Cupp caught Jones’ other scoring pass, and Toby Morrison, Tommy Merrill and Zakk Young all had touchdown runs.
Photos may be purchased for $7 each by pushing the small shopping cart emblem below the lower right corner of the gallery.
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.
Continue reading “Big Country Preps’ Pick ‘Em Panel (Week 9)”
Having spent his high school years playing for a pair of coaching legends at Brownwood, Sammy Burnett’s professional dream was always to return to his alma mater as the head football coach.
Burnett, who realized that dream when he was announced as the Lions coach in February, took some time to chat with Big Country Preps’ Evan Ren and Daniel Youngblood about “the Brownwood way,” how he was influenced by coaches Gordon Wood and Randy Allen and what he wants to build at his alma mater in this week’s Capital Farm Credit Wednesday Night Podcast.
Also on this episode, Evan and Daniel discuss the top developments from Week 8 and where it leaves the Big Country’s football teams with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
DUBLIN — For programs without much of a history, a sudden wave of success can be an extraordinary experience for players, fans and coaches.
But there is one potential problem that can come with winning: learning how to handle it.
At Class 3A Dublin, there are few people who can explain to the 7-0 Lions how to deal with being the talk of the town, or for that matter, the talk of the entire Big Country.
The last time Dublin posted a 7-0 record (1964), The Beatles were on top of the charts, Lyndon B. Johnson was the president of the United States and most of the parents of DHS’ current players hadn’t even been born yet.
Last week was the final week of nondistrict play for most six-man teams, but some squads already got started on games that count.
On top of that, there were 18 games in Class 1A that ended in shutouts last week with Knox City and Westbrook being the two Big Country teams that contributed to the total.
Johnson City 48, Brady 23 — The Bulldogs fell behind the Eagles early and never recovered in dropping to 1-6 on the season and 0-2 in 13-3A DII play.
Brady, which allowed 360 yards and five touchdowns rushing, trailed 21-7 at halftime and saw that deficit reach 41-7 early in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs scored two touchdowns in the final seven minutes, but the outcome of the game was decided by then.
The loss to Johnson City, Brady’s fifth in a row, puts some serious pressure on coach Shay Easterwood’s Bulldogs in the final three weeks. They’ll need to win two of their last three against Blanco, Comfort and and Sonora to earn one of the four playoff spots out of this district.
Wellington 60, Munday 0 — The Rockets (7-0, 2-0) used a 38-point second quarter to break open what was a 6-0 game one period in.
Wellington, ranked No. 2 in Class 2A behind Mason, passed for 167 yards and rushed for 302, getting the bulk of its production from senior quarterback Jo Jo McKnight, who passed for 158 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 166 yards and two more scores.
Coach Patrick Corcoran’s Moguls, now 0-7 overall and 0-2 in 5-2A DII play, will try to work their way back into the playoff discussion over the next three weeks, when they wrap up the regular season with Quanah (Friday), Shamrock (Nov. 2) and Memphis (Nov. 9).