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Football Roundup

Nocona
The Nocona Indians community was rocked with another tough lump when a senior player went down with an injury in the Indians’ home district opener on Friday.
The Indians lost to Alvord 42-0, but what most people were worried about was the status of senior Jose Gomez who suffered a serious head injury.
Thankfully, he was able to leave the hospital and come home on Sunday.
The community was in such relief that not only were his teammates there to greet him, but Gomez received a heroes welcome on Clay Street led by fire trucks. Respectfully, the crowd was silent since loud noises can exasperate head injuries.
“Fortunately it doesn’t surprise me at this point how this town continues to show up for their kids, support them and make them feel loved,” Coach Blake Crutsinger said. “At this point I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Nocona community.”
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers stayed undefeated with their second straight one half mercy rule win, this time on the road against Weatherford Christian.
The Panthers won 52-6, playing only one half of football again as they blew out the Lions.
Saint Jo came into the game 4-0, but with only its previous game against Forestburg ending early due to mercy rule. Coach CJ Hantz thought the team did not show enough killer instinct in some games while others the lack of execution held the team back.
On Friday, Saint Jo was the better team and played like it. Devin Stewart completed three passes for 62 yards all to Lee Yeley. Stewart also led the team with 89 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns.
Blayton Calabrese was second with 65 yards rushing and also scored two touchdowns rushing.
On defense, the team forced five turnovers. Jayden Curry and Stewart both intercepted passes. Wade Lucas, Amzy Barclay and Mathew Sampson each recovered a fumble.
Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears won their second consecutive game of the season by beating Grace Classical Christian Academy in Granbury on Friday.
The Bears won 52-27 as the Gryphons did just enough to avoid getting mercy ruled in defeat.
Gold-Burg was coming off a dominant win its previous week against Harrold, which was the team’s first victory after a tough opening season stretch. GCCA also came in with only one win on the season, but the Bears showed quickly they were the better team.
Jayton Epperson led the team with 156 yards rushing and three touchdowns while also completing two passes for 37 yards. Paul Jones was second with 94 yards rushing and also scored three touchdowns. He completed one pass for 30 yards. Hayden Chambers scored the other touchdown for Gold-Burg, also coming on the ground.
Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns played a tough game short handed on Friday against Vernon Northside.
The Indians won 58-8, with the game ending midway through the fourth quarter due to mercy rule.
The Longhorns were still missing more than half of their starting lineup to injuries and were still trying to make things work while relying on inexperienced players.
Northside came into the game with a winning record 3-1, but Forestburg hoped the boost of a homecoming crowd could help the team play above its experience.
Early on execution issues for the Longhorns held the offense back with two quick turnovers.
Angel Cruz intercepted a pass on defense to get the ball back, but eventually the Indians scored on a long touchdown catch on a play they would have success with for the rest of the game.
Forestburg answered offensively as Christian Binanti broke away on a 28-yard run to tie the game up at 8-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Unfortunately, Northside pulled away in the second quarter with two more passing touchdowns and a recovered fumble returned for a touchdown. The Indians led 32-8 at halftime.
The Longhorn offense could not get going as the team wore down as the game went on and the lead continued to grow.
Eventually the Indians went up 58-8 with 5:53 left in the fourth quarter when the game was called.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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Super Bowl LIX for dummies

That party you are invited to on Sunday is a Super Bowl party in case you were not aware. Don’t care about football but want to have some sort of rooting investment in the one game you are forced to watch a year?
Hopefully, this can give you some basic background information and context to help you make a decision and maybe impress your fellow party goers.
Super Bowl LIX (or 59 because the NFL loves roman numerals) is being played by the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
You may be asking yourself if you have been paying attention, “Am I having a case of déjà vu or haven’t these teams played each other?”
You would be right. These teams played back in 2023 so we are getting a kind of rematch that no one, not even those two franchises, asked for. The Chiefs won that game 38-35, but several years later both teams are looking a bit different and circumstances have changed.
Kansas City
The Chiefs are playing in their fifth Super Bowl in the last six years and has won three of them, including the last two. A win on Sunday would make the Chiefs the first franchise in the modern era to win three straight championships.
That alone tells you a lot. Do you want to cheer for the franchise of the moment, the run that could possibly end all debates about which dynasty was the best ever and have no problem with it being this Kansas City bunch, then by all means get your tomahawk chop arm ready.
The face of the run is quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has already laid claim as the best quarterback of this era. Any other accomplishments he has from here on out are for sport debaters to make the claim about how he stacks up against the best all time, a forever debate that is constantly changing.
Mahomes hails from Texas and played at Texas Tech, so if you have any allegiance to that school you might as well claim him. Despite playing the most alpha position in all of sports he comes off as a clean cut, polished celebrity athlete who funnily enough kind of sounds a little bit like Kermit the Frog. What’s not to like?
The other personality to know is his favorite receiver to throw it to, tight end Travis Kelce. If you are a certain demographic, you might already be aware of him since he had his own dating reality show back in 2016 called “Catching Kelce” but you probably know him as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. There will be cuts from the game of her watching in her suite. That’s what happens when you date one of the most famous people on the planet.
On defense there is just defensive lineman Chris Jones to know, but besides being good at football there is not much to know about him off the field.
Coach Andy Reid now has a case at being the best head coach in the league and one of the best ever after leading the Chiefs to three Super Bowls. Funny enough, he had a great run coaching Philadelphia in the 2000s, leading the Eagles to a decade of playoff success and one Super Bowl appearance, but because he never won the big one he got run out of town.
He’s too nice to have any hard feeling since he has the off field personality of Santa Clause and a dorky grandpa look that is missing the stereotypical intense football coach demeanor. He’s also really good at coming up with offensive systems, but that’s not important to you.
Kansas City went 15-2 in the regular season, but it has not been a dominant juggernaut despite that record. The Chiefs have been living on the edge all season. Eleven of their regular season wins were won by one score or less as Mahomes and the offense keep creating just enough magic to win.
That includes the team’s last game where it just held off rival Buffalo Bills to win by three points, again.
While some may chalk it up to some sort of clutch gene, this type of winning usually is not sustainable for more than a season and usually means a team is not as good as their record would indicate. The good news is the Super Bowl still counts as this season.
Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Eagles are back in the Super Bowl after imploding late last season, but despite having a lot of the same faces, they did it a bit differently this year.
The Eagles took it back to the 1970s, leaning on their fancy new running back signee Saquon Barkley. He rubbed it in everyone’s face, with the modern thinking being a running back in his late 20s is past his prime as he became the ninth player in league history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
He’s kept it up in the post season with 442 yards in three games as he’s powered a Philly team that has strangely struggled passing the ball as well as it has in the past despite still having Jalen Hurts at quarterback and his trio of star/solid receivers in A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert.
In fact, Brown was so bored he was caught reading a book on the bench during a playoff game where he had only two catches all day. He said it was a self-help book that keeps him focused, which increased the sales of “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy to the top of the No. 1 on Amazon’s best-sellers list.
Despite the struggles passing the ball in a league where it’s never been more important, it has not slowed down the Eagles much. Philly went 14-3 in the regular season, with two of the losses coming early in the season before the team caught its stride.
The Eagles made up their one late season loss against division rival Washington Commanders in the conference championship game as they stomped the Commanders 55-23.
Philly is led by Coach Nick Sirianni who is known for being a passionate human being for better and for worse. At the team’s last Super Bowl appearance two years ago the camera’s caught him crying with as much silent intensity as you can imagine during the national anthem.
He also jawed with his own Philadelphia fans right after his team won a close game early in the season because they did not like his play calling.
Who should you cheer for?
The Chiefs are slight favorites as of Monday morning, but it’s probably a toss up amongst most football fans who have been following all season.
Kansas City has a chance at history even though the national fans are kind of sick of them by now. Every close win does not reinforce the Chiefs greatness, it just calls into question how much longer can this team keep getting lucky. There are already dumb conspiracy theories being thought up since Kansas City seems to get a good call to go its way near the end of some of these close games. It did two years ago when it beat these Eagles by two points.
For the Eagles, the main thing to think about is if you want the fans of Philadelphia to be happy. This is the same fan base that grows up learning to boo before learning to cheer. As much as they want you to forget, this fan base booed Santa Clause during a game in the 1970s.
It cheered when Michael Irvin was carted off the field with a spine injury that nearly paralyzed him. Time can heal all wounds, but this fan base is no different from the past iterations.
This fan base ran now Chiefs Coach Andy Reid out of town and was calling for Coach Sirianni’s head because the team was not winning sexy enough.
Even with the team back in the Super Bowl and having lost three games all season, I bet if you lived in Philly you would have only ever heard Eagle fans bitching all year. (PS As a Dallas Cowboys fan I really dislike the Philadelphia Eagles so take my biased commentary with a grain of salt).
What to know
The game is scheduled to kick-off at 5:30 p.m. and will air this year on Fox. You can legally stream the game on Tubi and NFL+. This year we get to hear seven time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady be one of the announcers, along with Kevin Burkhardt as they wrap up their first season together.
The game is being hosted at the Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans this year. The halftime show is for rap and hip hop fans this year as Kendrick Lamar hosts it along with fellow rapper SZA. You know if you enjoy this genre or not by now.
Tell the Bowie News who you think will win the Super Bowl and why when we post the question on our Facebook page.
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Girls Basketball Roundup

Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians had a great senior night with some school history against Petrolia before beating state-ranked 1A team Eula in a non-district game.
The Lady Indians blew out Petrolia 97-26 before giving Eula only its second loss of the season in a competitive low-scoring affair 34-29.
Nocona knew its last district home game against Petrolia was not going to be close since the Lady Indians had rolled through almost every team in district once before already.
Knowing tougher games are on the horizon, Coach Kyle Spitzer makes sure his team does not hold back despite the lead ballooning at times. Spitzer wants his team to get something out of each game, so his teams rarely ever come out flat or have too many down periods in these blowouts.
One thing to keep this game interesting was Meg Meekins chance at the program’s single-game scoring record of 46 points set by Averee Kleinhans. Meekins had scored 43 earlier in the month and it was more of if the situation came up would Spitzer and Meekins want to go for it.
On senior night they did. In the final minute, Meekins put in two free throws to put her at 48 points in the victory as Nocona won 97-26.
Besides Meekins historic night, Ayden Patton scored 12 points and Reagan Phipps had 10 points in the blowout win.
Nocona had a bye in its district schedule, but filled it by playing a tough game.
Eula lost its first game of the season to Gorman in overtime by five points. Since then the Lady Pirates had won every game and was ranked in the top five in the state in the 1A classification.
The Lady Indians played at their gym on Friday and controlled things from the start. Nocona led 14-4 after the first quarter and held at 20-14 at halftime.
The Lady Indians stayed in the lead despite both teams not exactly lighting up the scoreboard.
Nocona led 27-19 heading into the fourth quarter. Eula made a run, scoring 10 points in the period, but the Lady Indians were able to score a few baskets to win by a little margin 34-29.
Forestburg
The Forestburg Lady Horns went 1-1 last week as they stayed in third place in the district standings.
The Lady Horns lost a close game at Bellevue 41-37 before winning at home against Midway 41-33.
Forestburg came into the week sitting in third place and hoping it could move up in the district standings.
The first time the Lady Horns had played the Lady Eagles, the full-court press had proven too physical for Forestburg to handle as it lost in a one-sided game.
On Jan. 28, the Lady Horns were ready to meet that physicality head on.
Forestburg hung with Bellevue all game even if the Lady Horns were playing from behind all game. The Lady Eagles led 12-8 after the first quarter, 20-15 at halftime and 35-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
In the end, Forestburg just could not make enough shots during the slower-paced final period to make up the deficit.
Bellevue won 41-37.
Brenna Briles led the Lady Horns with 19 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three steals. Jocelynn Rich was second with eight points while Taylor Griggs had six rebounds and three blocks.
Despite the loss, it showed how much ground Forestburg had made up between it and the second place team in the district.
To hold on to that place, the Lady Horns would have to beat a Midway they had beaten by nine points earlier in the month.
It was a similar game to that one, but in the end Forestburg pulled out the win 41-33, winning by eight points this time around.
Briles had a team high 12 points and 10 assists. Rich also had a double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing a team high 12 rebounds.
Missing scores
The Bowie News did not receive scores from the Prairie Valley coach about last week’s game at Midway.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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