Nocona
The Nocona Indians were able to brush off their early season struggles to come away with their first win of the season on Friday’s homecoming game against S&S Consolidated.
The Indians won 42-32 against the Rams, able to stretch out in the second half thanks to some turnovers on defense and a big day running the football for Nocona.
The Indians early season has been bereft with injuries to key players that has strained an already young roster. This has caused several players to come up from the JV team already.
Not having enough time to try and teach all of the intricacies of the varsity offense in one week leading up to a game, Coach Blake Crutsinger and his staff have had to scale back the offense while also building on what the younger kids talents are.
That so far is a run based attack which showed up big on Friday.
The score was tied 14-14 at halftime. Nocona had scored on two short runs, one in each quarter. S&S had scored on a long fumble recovery return and broke a long touchdown run.
The Indians had some big offensive plays in the third quarter. Christian Cortes got loose on a 60-yard touchdown run. Later Jax Fuller also scored on a long 43-yard touchdown run.
A field goal and another fumble returned for a touchdown kept the Rams in the game. Nocona led 28-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
McCrae Crossen scored early in the final period on a 24-yard run. S&S answered back on its next drive when it hit on a big touchdown pass. The good two-point conversion cut the Indians lead to three points 35-32.
The Indians answered with Carson Peters scoring on a 37-yard run to put Nocona up by two scores again 42-32.
The Indian defense held and Nocona won the game.

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers escaped another close, low-scoring game on Friday with a win against Victory Christian Academy.
The Panthers scored in the final minute when Devin Stewart found Lee Yeley on a screen pass to give Saint Jo the 33-30 win against the Patriots.
The Panthers came into the game following a close win against Gold-Burg in which the team did not think it played well.
Victory Christian won both of its first two games with little trouble so Saint Jo knew it had another fight on its hands.
The Panthers led 19-16 after the first quarter. After that, both team’s defenses seemed to hold the other offense in check. The Patriots scored a touchdown in the second quarter to take the lead 22-19 at halftime.
Saint Jo scored once in the third quarter to take the lead back 25-22 heading into the final period.
Victory Christian scored to go up 30-25 and had the ball later in the game. The Panther defense got the stop and Saint Jo got the ball back with less than two minutes to play.
It only took the Panthers two plays for them to score when Stewart found Yeley for the big play.
Saint Jo went up 33-30 with 30 seconds left and was able to hold on for the win.

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears lost a tough game at Newcastle on Friday night.
The Bobcats won 72-36, with the Bears avoiding being beaten by mercy rule despite the one-sided score.
Gold-Burg knew it had a tough game, expecting the toughest team it had played all season despite starting the season 0-2.
The two teams battled last year in an epic game the Bears narrowly lost before Newcastle went on to win the district title.
With the Bobcats moved up to division I and ranked in the top 10 in the state, Gold-Burg knew it was going to be difficult to compete.
The Bears got more bad news when it lost three starters to injuries or personal issues either before or during the game.
Still, Gold-Burg competed well and trailed only by one touchdown late into the game. Unfortunately, fatigue and mistakes caught up to the Bears and Newcastle pulled away to make the final score what it was.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns lost a tough game against Fort Worth Texas Home Educator Sports Association on Friday night.
The Riders won 59-14, with the game ending in the third quarter by mercy rule.
The Longhorns came into the game following a one-sided loss against Wichita Christian.
Forestburg started the game well. Keagan Willett ran for a 46-yard touchdown on the first play of the game to give the Longhorns a big boost.
Unfortunately, THESA took control after that and scored the next 30 points of the game.
Forestburg answered in the middle of the second quarter when Jesus Sanchez found Aiden White for a 36-yard touchdown pass. It cut the lead to 30-14.
The Riders answered with two touchdowns to go up 46-14 at halftime.
Forestburg tried to fight back and played better defense, but THESA eventually scored twice more in the third quarter to end the game early.
The Riders won 59-14.

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