SPORTS
Football Roundup
Nocona
The Nocona Indians kept their season undefeated as they started district play on Friday at Whitewright.
The Indians won a close game 25-18 against the Tigers, having to drive late into the game for the winning score after Whitewright tied the score in the fourth quarter.
Nocona came into the game following a bye-week and scraping by in its tightest game of the season against Valley View that kept the Indians undefeated. They were confident they could keep up the good play against a 2-3 Whitewright team, but knew it would be no walk in the park.
The Tigers struck first on a 22-yard pass in the first quarter. The Indian offense answered back running the ball as Michael Wetmore dove into the end zone on a 12-yard run to tie the game at 6-6.
The Nocona defense held twice in the second quarter, keeping Whitewright out of the end zone on a first and goal from the two yard line with some help from some penalties. The Tigers then intercepted a pass to stop the Indians next offensive drive, but did nothing to take advantage of it.
Driving right before halftime, Nocona quarterback Brady McCasland found Luke Fuller open behind the defense for a 32 yard touchdown pass with 19 seconds left, putting the Indians up 12-6 heading into the second half.
The Indians lead extended more than midway through the third quarter when Wetmore again found the end zone, this time running from 24-yards out to put Nocona up 18-6.
The Tigers would come storming back though, scoring quickly on a short run before the third quarter ended and then on a six-yard catch midway through the fourth quarter.
The Tigers had no luck all night on extra point tries, but the third one hit the goal post to keep the score tied at 18-18 with 6:13 left in the game.
Nocona needed to do something on offense or risk relying on its defense to get the ball back or surrendering the lead and getting it back with limited time to use.
The Indians executed a successful drive, with McCasland and his receivers converting two third and longs to keep the drive alive on their way towards the end zone. In the end, it was running back Johnny Stone who scored from two yards out to give Nocona the lead. Arturo Garcia’s successful extra point put the Indians up 25-18 with 1:49 left to play.
The defense put the game away on Whitewright’s first offensive play of the drive as a deep pass down the right sideline was picked off by Nocona’s Caden Gaston.
The Indians ran the clock out and sealed up the win 25-18.
Saint Jo
After a rough first loss the previous week at Knox City, the Saint Jo Panthers bounced back with a dominant win against Bynum at home on Friday night.
The Panthers won 53-8 with the game ending early in the third quarter due to the mercy rule.
There was little that did not go Saint Jo’s way against the Bulldogs as the Panthers scored on every offensive possession. Besides a long touchdown run from Bynum’s speedy running back, the defense shut down the Bulldogs for most of the night. Taking out the touchdown play, the Panthers only gave up 80 yards and recovered two fumbles.
On offense after turning the ball over six times against Knox City and failing to score, Saint Jo played clean and scored seven touchdowns.
Matthew Butler-Everson led the team with 128 yards passing and three touchdowns. Two went to Dylan Brockman and one went to Trevor O’Neal who led the team with three catches. Also scored once on the ground and finished with 61 yards rushing.
Devin Stewart led the team with 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Lee Yeley scored the other touchdown on the ground and finished with 26 yards.
Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns got one final tough non-district lesson playing tough Knox City at home on Friday night.
The Greyhounds dominated 65-0 with the game ending at halftime due to mercy rule.
Forestburg knew a win was unlikely as Knox City was coming off a game where it smacked Longhorn rival Saint Jo 52-0.
Still, with district play upcoming it was the team’s last and perhaps toughest test of the season before games start to count.
The highlights came in the first few plays of the opening drive for the Greyhounds. Coach Greg Roller liked what his team did on the opening plays in limiting the big Knox City team running the football.
It did not last long as the Greyhounds scored on fourth down and then never looked back.
Roller did like his team on offense limited the amount of negative plays that sent them backwards against such an opponent. Most drives stalled out facing fourth and medium types of distances.
Roller thinks his team is ready to compete in a district that he sees as more wide open then what most people thought at the beginning of the season.
Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears lost a tough matchup in their final non-district game on Friday playing tough Union Hill.
The undefeated Bulldogs won 70-18 against the Bears in what they are hoping is their toughest game of the season.
Unfortunately, it was the same story as recent losses for Gold-Burg as execution was cited as the main mistakes from Coach Brady Hibbitts.
Union Hill recovered four onside kicks which severely limited the Bears from trying to get back into the game with limited offensive possessions.
Still, it was not all bad. A win was probably too much to hope for, but there were good things to get from playing a team like that.
“I wanted to see small victories out of it and I did and I was happy with some of the things I saw,” Hibbitts said.
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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