Nocona
The Nocona Indians undefeated season came to an end in their final district game at Alvord on Friday.
The Bulldogs won 28-20 to upset the Indians even with Nocona holding onto its district title and playoff spot.
The Indians wanted to be playing good football heading into the playoffs, but more importantly for Coach Blake Crutsinger, he wanted to come out of the game with few injuries.
He did not get his wish on either front.
The Nocona offense turned the ball over four times, with three interceptions and one lost fumble. That allowed a tough Alvord team the extra advantages to build a 20-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
While the Indian offense rallied to score two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs scored once more in the final period to pull ahead and win.
Quarterback Brady McCasland led the team with 116 yards passing and two touchdowns while also rushing for 146 yards and one touchdown. Johnny Stone also broke 100 yards rushing, finishing with 102 yards. Charlie Fuller led the team with four catches for 50 yards and one touchdown while Caden Gaston reeled in the other one.

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers ended their regular season by playing one of their better games in a dominating performance against Savoy.
The Panthers won 52-0 against the Cardinals, ending the game at halftime due to mercy-rule.
Saint Jo won in a way where Coach Mark Stevens had little to complain about. The offense played clean and made plays. The defense shut down Savoy in every way.
The win gives the Panthers the second seed in their district heading into the playoffs. Unfortunately, the second seed sees Saint Jo matched up with an undefeated, state-ranked Gordon team that knocked the Panthers out of the playoffs in the bi-district round last year.
After re-watching last year’s film on that game, Stevens feels like his team has a shot. The team moved the ball on offense and stoped the Longhorns on defense at times.

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears lost a tough game to end their season at Strawn on Friday night.
The Greyhounds won 70-24 against the Bears, pulling away in the second half to win the game by mercy-rule.
Gold-Burg came into the game confident it could get the win. The Bears had just barely lost to eventual district champion Newcastle the week before 78-74.
Despite Srawn’s multiple state titles in the past 15 years, Gold-Burg had beaten the Greyhounds last year in the same situation to keep them home from the postseason.
With Strawn’s opening district loss to district champion Bobcats 74-24, it looked like on paper the Bears were the better team and on another level.
Unfortunately, they did not play like it on Friday night. While the first half was competitive, but frustrating, once mistakes started compounding in the second half and the lead grew to multiple scores, Gold-Burg could not get back into the game.
Coach Christian Healer was at a loss for words with how the team played, describing his team as playing, “Like they didn’t want to be there.”

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns ended their season playing for pride against the eventual district champion Newcastle on Friday.
The Bobcats won 48-0, winning by mercy-rule at halftime, though the Longhorns showed some fight after a tough season.
Forestburg knew victory was probably a tough ask for this team at this point in the season. The team was down to only eight players due to several injuries in its previous game and playing the district favorite on the road was hard even with a fully healthy squad.
While the final score didn’t show it to outsiders, Coach Greg Roller was able to take some positives away from the game. Some inexperienced players had to step up and play more than they had all season and Roller thought they showed him some things.
The offense tried to be aggressive throwing the ball down the field and found some good results while also turning the ball over three times. On defense, the Longhorns actually got some stops against an experienced and fast Newcastle team.
Unfortunately, these moral victories do not show up on the score sheet as Forestburg ends its season with a 1-8 record.
Expectations were higher with this team being most of the same personal that struggled the past two seasons, when they were inexperienced and small underclassmen.
Roller felt good about this group overall despite having trouble with a few players missing more practices than he would like. He could rely on them to do the right thing and practice the right way without having to get on them like he has with past teams.
Unfortunately, the wins were not more this season.
After only graduating one player the past two seasons, he has several from this team he will miss, including two that were four year starters he could rely on.
Still, Roller feels optimistic. He will have another group of experienced seniors to rely on. The junior high team had a good season and several athletes he coaches in track he hopes to talk them into trying football next year.

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