Nocona
The Nocona Indians lost their first game of the season on Friday night in Trenton.
The Tigers won a close game 23-21 against the Indians in a game that was not Nocona’s best.
The Indians came into the game confident with a 6-0 record with room for improvement. Trenton came into the game with a 3-3 record and a one-sided loss to Alvord to start district play off the previous week.
The Tigers scored first on a five-yard run. Nocona answered back quick as Johnny Stone scored on a 37-yard run to tie the score at 7-7.
The rest of the half saw both offenses struggle after defensive adjustments. The Indians lost quick-footed safety and running back Michael Wetmore in the first quarter coming off his best game and the lightning to Stone’s thunder in the rushing attack.
Arturo Garcia stepped up and in the final minute before halftime got loose for a 32-yard touchdown run. Nocona was up 14-7 heading into halftime.
Midway through the third quarter, the Tigers had a good sequence of forcing a safety on defense and then quickly scoring once they had the ball to take a 15-14 lead.
The two teams defenses kept the score close for the rest of quarter and into the fourth. Driving with about three minutes left to play in the game, Nocona turned the ball over on an interception that was returned for a touchdown. Trenton then converted the two-point conversion to go up two scores with the lead 23-14.
The Indians responded by scoring fast as quarterback Brady McCasland found Garcia for a 20-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead down to 23-21 with 1:12 left to play.

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers start district this Friday against proverbial district favorite and state-power Union Hill.
The two programs have faced off the past two years despite three-hour commute to challenge the other, with the Bulldogs winning in 2020 and Saint Jo winning last year in 2021.
That was going to be the end of the series as both coaches agreed the three hour drive was just too far until realignment put them in each other’s district now.
Union Hill returns most of its key contributors from last year’s team which the Panthers embarrassed 60-22, though that game was much closer for three quarters then the final scored would indicate. The Bulldogs are 7-0, but have only been challenged once so far against a Fort Worth THESA home school team it beat 48-44.
The Panthers have bounced back this year and are 6-1 in their pre-district schedule. The team was humbled three weeks back in their loss to Knox City, knowing it cannot rely on its some superior talent when playing top teams and knowing it will take a full team effort.
Not too much is going to be surprising for the Saint Jo staff heading into the game. Coach Mark Stevens knows defensively they will have to stop a bruising running attack, but stay disciplined for when the Bulldogs do throw they will be looking for the big play.

Gold-Burg vs Forestburg
Gold-Burg will host Forestburg this Friday as both teams come off a bye-week and knowing it will be an important step going forward into the final two weeks of the season.
Both teams come into the game with a 2-5 record as neither team’s pre-district schedule had many easy games. Both can say they have played the toughest teams they will face this season already.
Gold-Burg’s two wins came against Chillicothe and former district opponent Fannindel in weeks three and four, but since then have lost tough games against highly thought of opponents Saint Jo, Motley County and Union Hill.
The Longhorns wins came against the North Texas Spartans to open the season and against Cornerstone Christian Academy in week five. The team is coming off its probably toughest opponent Knox City before heading into the break.
Gold-Burg has had the recent series advantage, winning the last three games. The Bears have struggled more this season after some key players graduated, with most of the blame Coach Brady Hibbitts says comes from the lack of execution.
Gold-Burg will come in confident from its recent domination of the series as only seniors were around for the last time Forestburg won in 2019.
The Longhorns don’t have any of those on their roster, but the program has been trending up after several seasons low numbers and middling results.
Coach Greg Roller is not only has a double-digit roster depth for the first time, but enough commitment from his players that he reported few issues dealing with last week’s fall break that would cause many players to skip practice in the past.
Roller says there will be few surprises from the other team as both are familiar with the other’s talent. He suspects whichever team can control the ball the longest will have the advantage in ultimately winning the game.
The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 at Gold-Burg.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.