SPORTS
Nocona football loses to De Leon in the playoffs
The Nocona Indians’ season ended Friday night in the bi-district round of the playoffs for the second straight year.
De Leon won a high-scoring game 70-41 against the Indians at Weatherford.
Nocona was coming into the game after suffering its first loss of the season in the regular season finale against Alvord. While it did not affect the Indians seeding or their district title, more importantly they lost several starters for Friday’s game.
Still, Nocona was a first seed playing a fourth seed in De Leon with a 6-4 record and a 3-3 record in district that was coming off three straight losses.
While most bi-district match-ups between a first and fourth seed are one-sided towards the first seed, the Indians knew that would not be the case.
Last year’s one-sided playoff loss to Bangs along with every other team in the district losing its bi-district games showed the teams from district five were a lot tougher from front to back than district six.
The Bearcats showed that to start the game. Featuring a balanced running attack with a big bruising running back or a quick quarterback who also liked to throw the ball down the field to his speedy receivers all while running an up-tempo offense, it was a tough group to stop all night.
After De Leon opened the game with a quick touchdown march, Nocona answered on its second play when Brady McCasland rescued a low snap and found Charlie Fuller wide open near the sideline where he ran the rest of the way for a 67-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 7-7.
It would be as close as the game would stay.
After the Bearcats took the lead, the Indians drew up a trick play where Jose Gomez threw a pass down the field. Unfortunately, the open receiver behind the defense dropped the pass.
Later after Nocona threw an interception De Leon connected on a long touchdown pass to lead 21-7 heading into the second quarter.
The Indians cut the score back to one touchdown as McCasland scored on an 11-yard run on fourth down to make it 21-14.
The Bearcats scored fast after a long pass completion set up a short run. Nocona faced a fourth down and turned the ball over again on an interception that more or less served as a punt. De Leon scored again to make it 35-14 with less than a minute before halftime.
Nocona still moved the ball within scoring range thanks to some personal foul calls on defense. Unfortunately, what would have been McCasland’s second touchdown pass to Fuller was called back due to holding and the Indians went into halftime frustrated and behind by three touchdowns.
The Indians answered the call to start the second half as they drove down the field and scored on a Johnny Stone nine-yard run to make it 35-21.
Unfortunately, the Bearcats answered fast. Another long pass set up another short touchdown run to make it 42-21.
To make matters worse, Nocona fumbled the ball away during the kick-off return and De Leon went down to score and go up 49-21.
The Indians special teams got the touchdown back as Caden Gaston took the kick-off back for a 78-yard touchdown.
Still, Nocona could not keep the Bearcats off the board as they scored on a 30-yard run up the middle.
The Indians did not give up though as the offense answered with a successful drive that ended with McCasland scoring on a short run. Nocona trailed 56-34 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Indian offense faltered for the rest of the game as they tried desperately to score fast, but the players were wearing down with many also playing on defense.
De Leon also limited the chances by slowing down the tempo and scoring on two more time-consuming touchdown drives.
Nocona’s final score came on special teams again as the Bearcats decided to kick deep after avoiding Gaston since his last return. He took advantage and scored in almost the exact same way on an 85-yard kick-off return.
The Indians tried to score one more in the final minutes on a deep pass following a fleaflicker that was intercepted to ice the game.
De Leon won 70-41.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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