SPORTS

Football Roundup

Published

6 years ago

10/03/2018

Nocona
The Nocona Indians opened district play on Friday with likely their biggest challenge all year as they traveled to state powerhouse Gunter.
The Tigers have won and have been runner’s up for the state title the past two seasons, with this year expected to be no different. It showed as they beat the Indians 49-0.
Despite the one-sided score, under the circumstances Coach Brad Keck was proud with how his team held up.
“Truthfully, I thought we gave a good effort,” Keck said. “Our kids played hard. I’m telling you, Gunter is just that good. They are just so fast. Their team speed is just unbelievable. We knew that heading into the game, but you really don’t feel it until you see it live.”
The fastest person on the field for the Tigers was Dylan Jantz, who scored six touchdowns and totaled 247 yards on only 12 touches.
Despite all of that, Keck said he saw his team fighting to the bitter end despite being outmatched, something he was glad to see since the final result could have been more than it was ugly. It was one of those games where going through the game film is not even worth it.
With the toughest challenge out of the way, Nocona feels like they have a good chance this week against Henrietta to pick up their first district win. The Indians play at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 5 at Henrietta.

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears had another potential win slip through their fingers Friday night as they lost at Northside. It was a relatively low scoring game for six-man as the Indians won 28-19 in a game that featured no scoring in the first half by either team.
The Bears had their chances. Two interceptions thrown inside Northside’s red zone and one dropped touchdown pass kept Gold-Burg out of the end zone, but their defense responded to each set back by stepping up to keep the game tied.
As both teams traded scores in the second half, the Bears found themselves trailing 22-19 late in the fourth quarter.
On a fourth and five with more than two minutes to go and all of their timeouts left, Gold-Burg had to hold the Indians to get the ball back for a chance to take the lead.
“We’ve got the guy boggled up in the backfield and somehow he snuck out of there,” Coach Gordon Williams said. “We had two guys with their hands on him and somehow he wiggled out and got five and half yards.”
Northside would go on to score on that drive to make it a two score game 28-19 and that is where the game ended. They play their first division II school this week against Woodson for their homecoming game and Williams feels good about his team’s chances. Homecoming activities are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
An Air Evac helicopter will deliver the game ball at about 7:25 p.m. to help kickoff the game.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns are still searching for their first win after hosting Newcastle at home Friday night.
The bigger division I team was able to stop the Longhorns from doing what they wanted to do early on while they struggled to get many stops from their defense as the Bobcats won 70-13.
“Offensively we played decent,” Coach Kyler Roach said. “They did a good job at stopping the run out of our I-formation. They also did a good job at defending our spread offense.” The challenging opponents do not stop coming as the Longhorns play Savoy at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 5 on the road.

SPORTS

District awards for 1A released

Published

7 hours ago

05/18/2024

bowienews

Bellevue’s Bryce Ramsey was named his district’s newcomer of the year.

With the baseball and softball seasons over for the area 1A schools, district awards have been released.
Listed below are those earned honors on the field and in the classroom for Saint Jo and Bellevue.

Softball
Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Utility player: Taylor Patrick; Catcher: Jordyn O’Neal

Baseball
Superlatives
Offensive MVP: Devin Stewart, Saint Jo
Newcomer of the Year: Bryce Ramsey, Bellevue

Pitcher: Trent Gaston, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Jayden Curry, Saint Jo

Second team
Pitcher: Charlie Barclay, Saint Jo
Infielder: Brycen Bancroft, Bellevue; Sam Martin, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Rylan Forrester, Saint Jo
Catcher: Charlie Evans, Saint Jo
Utility: Logan Hoover, Saint Jo
DH: Amzy Barclay, Saint Jo

Honorable mention
Cody Gaston, Saint Jo; Xander Joyner, Saint Jo

To see academic awards from Saint Jo players, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

Forestburg coach retiring

Published

7 hours ago

05/18/2024

bowienews

Forestburg boys basketball coach Eldon Van Hooser helped lead the program to its first playoff win in nine years in his last year coaching.

Eldon Van Hooser is leaving Forestburg better than he found it.
The head boy’s basketball coach is retiring after more than 30 years, spending the last five at Forestburg.
Van Hooser did not come to this decision because of a lack of fire or feeling tired after decades in the profession. He had to for family reasons.
“My wife has MS (multiple sclerosis) and it’s a disease where you have trouble standing and walking and she needs help,” Van Hooser said. “I am able to so I am going to step away from teaching and coaching to be there for her.”
Van Hooser was hired in 2019. Along with being the boy’s basketball coach, he also was the football team’s defensive coordinator.
There were some lean years for Forestburg on the boy’s athletic side, with numbers being low and the available athletes being mostly underclassmen.
For two years, the Longhorns’ boy’s basketball team won few games and one of those seasons saw the team field five players on the high school team.
“One of those years we had COVID-19 and the other we had five kids,” Van Hooser said. “It was very rough. After that we worked with the kids and we had a good freshman group coming up. Next year they are going to be seniors.”
That group has helped to turn the program around. Last year the young Longhorns team contested for a playoff spot and just barely missed it finishing fifth in the district.
This season, that same group took a leap and finished second in district with a record of 7-5.
Despite losing its last two regular season games in dramatic fashion heading into the playoffs, the team stepped up in the bi-district game.
Playing against an athletic Newcastle team, Forestburg led for most of the game.
Unfortunately, the previous game against Bellevue saw the Longhorn team blow the lead late in the fourth quarter against a hard pressing style team and they were suffering the same fate against the Bobcats down the stretch.
Fortunately, Forestburg held on just enough to win 53-46. It was the first boy’s basketball playoff win in nine years for Forestburg.
“It was huge for our program,” Van Hooser said. “This new year we will have new goals. The new coach will have some goals of his own, but I set some for the team and think that we have come a long way.”

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

Bowie Sports Banquet

Published

3 days ago

05/15/2024

bowienews

The Bowie sports banquets was on Monday night. Olivia Gill and Tucker Jones were named Jackrabbit and Lady Rabbit of the year. Pick up the mid-week paper for all of the sports team awards and pictures.