Gold-Burg vs Forestburg
The Gold-Burg Bears beat fellow Montague County team Forestburg on Friday as both teams opened up district play.
The Bears won 56-8, with the game ending late in the third quarter due to mercy rule.
Gold-Burg came in as the favorites with a 4-4 record compared to the Longhorns 2-6 record. Still, Forestburg was coming into the game after a win while the Bears had lost a competitive game the week before.
Gold-Burg started the game off strong. The Bears had Paul Jones score on a 34-yard run. Forestburg drove down the field, but eventually on fourth down, Gold-Burg saw Hayden Chambers come through with an interception deep in the Bears territory.
Gold-Burg took advantage as Jayton Epperson then got loose for a 50-yard touchdown run.
The Longhorn offense did not have as much luck moving the ball the next drive and turned the ball over on downs. The Bears took over and scored on their first play when Keelyn Case weaved his way for a 37-yard touchdown run.
Gold-Burg was up 20-0 heading into the second quarter.
The new quarter did not change the trend of the game. Forestburg turned the ball over on downs on its next drive and the Bears quickly scored on a 33-yard run from Epperson.
Then on back-to-back possessions, errant tosses on run plays from the Longhorns were picked up by no other than Epperson who took them the distance for scores, one a 35-yard return and the other covering 65 yards.
Forestburg bounced back before halftime. Jesus Sanchez got the ball and ran for a 13-yard touchdown to cut the lead down to 42-8 with less than a minute to play.
Gold-Burg was trying to do everything it could to end the game at halftime and now needed to score twice in short order.
Multiple long touchdown runs got called back due to penalties which got the Bears sidelined heated and led to angry shouts between coaches, players and officials, which was really the only black mark on a great night for Gold-Burg.
The Bears did not end up scoring and the halftime score was 42-8.
While Gold-Burg was trying to regain its composure so it could end the game on a more positive note, Forestburg had to forge ahead without its leading rusher Christian Binanti who hurt his shoulder enough to be done for the night.
The Bears started off the second half recovering the onside kick. They quickly drove down the field and scored on a six-yard run from Case to go up 50-8.
Despite missing its leading rusher, the Longhorns carried on and drove down to Gold-Burg’s red zone. Unfortunately for Forestburg, another turnover ended the scoring chance. The Bears’ Jones recovered the fumble at their own six-yard line.
Gold-Burg took some time to drive the length of the field before eventually ending the game when Levi Hellinger found Case open for a 10-yard touchdown pass.
The Bears won 56-8 with 3:44 to go in the third quarter.

Saint Jo
The Saint Panthers came off the bye-week and won a high-scoring district game at home against Leverett’s Chapel on Friday night.
The Panthers won 89-38, with the game ending at halftime due to mercy rule, but had already gone long enough since 127 points had been scored in only 20 minutes of game action.
Saint Jo came into the game confident with an undefeated record compared to the Lions who were 4-3.
The Panthers scored on almost half of their offensive plays in the game, scoring 11 touchdowns on only 23 plays. It was easily their best performance of the season as both its passing and running games were equally as potent.
Devin Stewart completed 10 of his 12 passes for 232 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns.
He was the team’s second leading rushing as Wyatt Lucas rushed for 85 yards and two touchdowns. Blayton Calabrese also rushed for a touchdown.
Lee Yeley led the team with six catches for 149 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for one touchdown as well. Wade Lucas caught two passes for 60 yards and one touchdown.

Nocona
The Nocona Indians lost another tough game on the road, this time against Tom Bean on Friday night.
The Tomcats won 49-0 against the Indians.
Nocona was hoping it could add to the free fall Tom Bean was on.
The Tomcats had won their first four non-district games but came into Friday’s game on a four game losing streak and had yet to win a district game.
Unfortunately, Tom Bean seemed to get back on track against the Indians.
Nocona’s defense did not have as many mistakes lining up or tackling last week, but that’s because the Tomcats just ran right at the Indians and dared them to stop them.
The Indians struggled to bring down Tom Bean’s big mobile quarterback, who ended the game with 152 yards rushing and was responsible for five of his team’s seven touchdowns.
Nocona’s offense struggled to move the ball. McCrae Crossen led the team with 39 yards rushing.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Gold-Burg versus Forestburg game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870068&T=1