SPORTS
Football Roundup
Nocona
The Nocona Indians made it a 3-0 start for the first time in five years as they blew out Electra on the road.
The Indians won 58-7 in a game they dominated, though it took longer than expected to get going.
Nocona’s first three drives ended in turnovers in the red zone that frustrated everyone. The Indians scored on their next two drives in the second quarter as quarterback Brady McCasland found Charlie Fuller for two touchdown catches from 11 and 18 yards. Nocona was up 14-0 at halftime, but knew it should have been winning by more.
The Indians got a boost to start the third quarter. Running back Johnny Stone got loose for an 89-yard touchdown run less than 30 seconds into the second half.
Unfortunately, the Tigers got their one big offensive play of the game to answer as one of their running backs broke off a 39-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 20-7.
Nocona would answer back in a big way after that. Arturo Garcia scored shortly after on a 28-yard run. The defense got Electra back as Caden Gaston picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
Then right before the third quarter ended, McCasland scored on a 26-yard run to make it 43-7 heading into the fourth quarter.
Despite the game being firmly in hand, the Indians did not let their foot off the gas pedal. Nocona scored early in the quarter as Bodie Davis took a jet sweep 36 yards for a touchdown run. Later in the quarter Michael Wetmore punctuated a long drive with a 12-yard touchdown run to put the final touches on the game.
Nocona won 58-7.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers stayed undefeated by winning at Crowell on Friday night.
The Panthers won 52-30 against the Wildcats to make it 3-0 to start the season.
Unfortunately, Saint Jo had another slow start to the game as Crowell got out to a 6-0 lead thanks to a long run.
The Panthers fumbled the ball away on their first possession and later turned it over on downs. After turning it over on downs again, Saint Jo would finally score in the second quarter following a fumble recovery from the defense.
Trevor O’Neal would score on a short run to give Saint Jo the lead 8-6.
Crowell would answer with a scoring drive ended on an 18-yard run to go back up 14-8. The Panthers answered on their next drive as Matthew Butler-Everson threw a 36-yard touchdown to Devin Stewart to make the score 16-14.
After the defense got another stop, Butler-Everson again found Stewart for a touchdown, this one just from three-yards out to extend the lead to 22-14.
The Wildcats came back to tie the game 22-22 as Austine Hernandez scored his third touchdown of the half on a 34-yard run.
It looked like it was going to head into halftime with the score tied as Crowell kicked off with less than 30 seconds left. Instead Saint Jo’s Lee Yeley scooped up the onside kick and returned it for a touchdown to give the Panthers a 28-22 lead heading into halftime.
Saint Jo failed to score on its first drive in the third quarter, but its defense did recover another fumble deep in its own territory. Yeley then came through with another big play as he broke off a 70-yard touchdown run to extend the Panthers lead to 36-22.
Crowell was able to make it a one-score game early in the fourth quarter as Hernandez scored on a 16-yard run on fourth down to make it 36-30.
After both teams exchanged four and out offensive sequences, the Panthers scored with Butler-Everson found Steward again, this time from 22 yards out to make it a two score game again 44-30.
The Wildcats then went backwards on their next offensive possession and forced to go for it despite with the time winding down, turned the ball over on their own eight yard line.
Saint Jo put the extra nail in Crowell’s coffin as O’Neal scored on the next play from eight yards out to make the final score 52-30.
Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears were able to have a happy homecoming picking up their first win of the season against Chillicothe on Friday.
The Bears won 55-8, mercy-ruling the Eagles by halftime in a game where not much went wrong.
Touchdowns came fast and quick on both sides of the ball for Gold-Burg as the team was able to get a boost to the start of the season following a pair of tough losses.
Execution and injury issues have plagued the Bears in their first two games, but those were mostly absent on Friday.
Quarterback Isaac Renteria was able to use his legs to great advantage despite his small stature, scoring several touchdowns and also intercepting a pass on defense.
Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns lost another close game on Friday, this time to Dallas Academy out of Richardson.
The Bulldogs won 46-37 in a game where the small things came back to bite the Longhorns.
Dallas Academy led only 8-7 after the first quarter, but scored 22 points in the second to take a 30-13 lead at halftime. Forestburg cut it to one score after the third quarter 30-25, but both teams scored twice in the final period not allowing the Longhorns to come back.
Forestburg fumbled the ball away twice on the Bulldogs goal line and with the score being so close, that was the game according to Coach Greg Roller.
It was another close game that slipped away due to not executing in the red zone.
While the team has come a long way from last year hoping to just compete with its small roster, this year competing in these games is not enough for them.
“Some of them when the game was over were just sitting on the bench for literally 10 minutes,” Roller said. “We had to go get them to get changed and stuff because they were really upset. We are wanting to get wins now and are coming.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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