SPORTS
Lady Horns beat Prairie Valley
The Forestburg Lady Horns started the second round of district with an easy win against Prairie Valley on Tuesday night.
The Lady Horns won 50-22 against a Lady Bulldog team whose depth was tested.
Forestburg came into the game following a non-district win against Savoy, which was a pick-me-up following a disappointing loss to Saint Jo, the only one the Lady Horns suffered during the first round of district play as the team went 4-1
Prairie Valley was on the other end, having gone 0-5 in the first round of district play as the six-player team was tested in conditioning and resolve every game, especially against teams that employed full-court presses against the Lady Bulldogs low numbers.
That was Forestburg’s plan and early on the press was a deterrent, but the Lady Horns were not scoring in transition from turnovers they created. Forestburg tried to carve up Prairie Valley’s 2-3 zone and found openings when the passes were sharp.
Still, the Lady Bulldogs offense executed some to start the game, with the score actually tied at 7-7 midway through the first quarter. When Prairie Valley broke the press, it seemed to capitalize on the few chances it had to start the game.
Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, that type of play was short-lived. Fatigue and frustration at falling behind 15-7 heading into the second quarter led to a scoring draught that lasted almost two whole quarters for Prairie Valley.
Despite playing better defense that held the Lady Horns to single-digits in the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs got more bad news right before halftime when point guard Makaylee Gomez went down with an ankle injury.
Forestburg led 23-7 at halftime, but Prairie Valley knew playing without the senior would make breaking the press defense tough.
It was to start the third quarter as the Lady Horns press smelled blood and converted turnovers to quick points and the Lady Bulldogs could barely get across half court.
Then when a Prairie Valley player fouled out after the first few minutes, Gomez gutted it out and came back in so her team would not be down a player.
Thankfully, Forestburg Coach Cori Hayes had a heart and called off the full-court press, even if his players were still eager to try and put pressure on the ball in the half-court in a game that was already physical.
The Lady Horns had their best scoring stretch of the game in the third quarter as six different players made at least one basket as the lead grew and grew.
Prairie Valley put an end to the scoring draught with two minutes to go in the third quarter when Natalee Young made a 3-pointer.
Forestburg led 41-10 heading into the fourth quarter.
With the lead so far ahead, the Lady Horns the intensity waned and cycled in their whole bench.
This allowed the Lady Bulldogs offense to have their best stretch of the game as they more than doubled their three quarter total by scoring 12 points.
Forestburg won 50-22.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend 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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