Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers started their season on Saturday afternoon at Hico playing Medina.
Despite the afternoon sun making game conditions appropriately toasty, the Panthers dispatched the Bobcats 58-12, ending the game due to mercy rule early in the fourth quarter.
Saint Jo scored on its first possession and never looked back. The only offensive drives the Panthers did not score on were two fumbles, but the defense limited Medina to only two touchdowns in the third quarter and recovered one fumble themselves.
Running back Logan Brawner was all the offense Saint Jo needed, racking up 328 yards on the ground and six touchdowns. He also returned a kickoff 50 yards for a touchdown. All his touchdowns came on plays of 30 yards or longer.
Quarterback Cade Stevens completed three of his five passes for 69 yards, throwing a touchdown to Payton Harris.
Saint Jo next plays county foe Gold-Burg. Despite recent one-sided history, Stevens said he is not taking the Bears lightly, calling them the most improved team in six-man from the film he has seen.
The Panthers play at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 at Gold-Burg.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns dominated their season opening game at home against Mount Calm on Friday.
The Longhorns won by mercy rule 59-14 midway through the third quarter.
Despite some big plays early on from the Panthers, the adjustments made by Forestburg on defense put a stop to any more scoring from then on. The offense had its way with Mount Calm, scoring at will.
Coach Trey Cumby liked what he saw overall, but knows there are areas of improvement all over that are correctable.
The Longhorns next play Rising Star, a team that Cumby said has some playmakers the team will have to key on if they want to win. Forestburg plays at 7 p.m. on Sept. 3 at Bryson.

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears came up just short of winning at Perrin-Whitt on Friday night.
The Bears lost by one score in a back-and-forth battle 70-64 in a game that was more competitive than almost all of their games the previous year.
At one point Gold-Burg was behind by 20 points in the third quarter, but came all the way back to take the lead at one point. The Pirates would retake the lead and had a two score advantage late in the game.
The Bears did everything they could to score and scored with a little time left to cut the lead to six points. Their only hope was recovering the onside kick or forcing a turnover with little time left and no timeouts.
Unfortunately, Perrin-Whitt recovered the onside kick and was able to kneel the ball to secure the win.
Gold-Burg will face an even bigger challenge this week as it hosts county foe Saint Jo, a state-ranked team that will test the Bears in how physical they are.
Gold-Burg kicks-off at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 at home.

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