SPORTS
Falls Town Flyers lose rematch with Amarillo 8-3
In a rematch against an Amarillo Bombers team that beat them in their opening game a few weeks back, the Football Club Wichita Falls Falls Town Flyers could not get revenge on Saturday despite a home crowd backing them.
In a physical game where the Flyers were trailing the whole time, the Bombers pulled away in the final 12 minutes to win 8-3.
The first period belonged to Amarillo. The Bombers scored two goals within two minutes of each other in the first 10 minutes to go up 2-0. Wichita Falls was able to get some shots on goal, but these shots were either off the mark or went right to Amarillo’s goalie.
The Bombers seemed to dominate possession and create more passing opportunities closer to the goal than just unloading a shot when they got in range. The two goals came from unexpected angles and off of great passes.
The Flyers’ defense and goalie Carolos Gonzalez fended off many more chances Amarillo had, with especially great plays from defenders Ralph Annam and captain Robert Swann.
The second period saw Wichita Falls put a bit more pressure on the Bombers, who liked to give their goalie a chance to dribble far up before trying to drop in a deep pass in Flyers territory.
For a time it worked and with that renewed energy, Wichita Falls capitalized with a scramble in front of the goal that ended with the ball in the back of Amarillo’s net. Chris Mendez scored on the play to cut the lead to 2-1. Scored within the first five minutes of the second period, it looked like momentum might swing Wichita Falls way.
The rest of the period played out in a defensive struggle. The Flyers could not keep up that defensive pressure for long and the Bombers went back to their slow methodical pace of controlling possession.
Great defensive plays from both teams kept the ball out of goal for the rest of the period, until Amarillo snuck in a goal in the final minute before halftime to get the lead back up to two goals. Wichita Falls trailed 3-1.
Things did not seem to get much better to start the third period after a 20 minutes halftime. The Bombers scored within the opening few minutes to increase their lead to 4-1.
Still the Flyers played hard. In only its second home game of the season, and with many families with young kids at the game thanks to a free two-hour kids camp hosted earlier that day, Wichita Falls played for them.
Great defensive plays kept the score close for the Flyers. Hard shots on goal went wide. Both teams conditioning was tested as the game dragged on. Some life for Wichita Falls came from former Wichita Falls High School player Pedro Reza in the final minute of the period.
Dribbling up from the left side with a defender between him and the goal playing off of him, Reza took a shot. It deflected off the defender and the sudden change in direction was enough to trip up the goalie as the ball found the back of the net. The Flyers trailed 4-2 heading into the fourth and final period.
The physical play and frustration from both teams started to peak early in the period. After a take down a Bombers’ player was sent to the penalty box for two minutes to give Wichita Falls a one player advantage.
The Flyers did not capitalize in those two minutes, but a few minutes later former WFHS player Alex Ramirez passed to former Rider High School player Christian Okeke, who put the ball in the back of the net just before being converged on by both a defender and the goalkeeper. The score cut the lead to 4-3 with plenty of time still to play.
With Amarillo a player down after getting penalized again for two minutes shortly afterwards and the crowd behind them, the Flyers were riding on momentum.
Wichita Falls could not take advantage of its extra man during the two minutes as they still trailed by one goal. Still aggressively pressing with less than 10 minutes to go in the game, the Bombers countered and created a two on one scenario they scored on to go up 5-3.
This seemed to open the floodgates as Amarillo scored three more times in the final six minutes, doubling its score to make the final score 8-3 misleading.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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