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Football Roundup
Saint Jo vs Gold-Burg
The Saint Jo Panthers got some measure of revenge from last year by beating fellow Montague County team Gold-Burg on Friday.
The Panthers won the low-scoring game 26-22 against a Bears team that made them earn everything.
Saint Jo was coming into the game following a one-sided but disappointing win against Fort Worth THESA in week one.
Gold-Burg was trying to find answers after being on the receiving end of a one-sided beat down against Perrin-Whitt in week one.
The Bears broke their more than a decade long losing streak against the Panthers last year on Saint Jo’s homecoming. The Panthers were hoping not just to win, but to dominate.
Unfortunately for Saint Jo, it did not start the game off on a good note. The very first play saw the Panthers fumble the ball away to Gold-Burg, recovered by Caleb Epperson.
The Bears moved the ball, but eventually Saint Jo got the ball back when Damon Byrd intercepted a pass on the Panther’s own 15-yard line.
Saint Jo’s offense moved the ball down, but Gold-Burg looked like it might get a stop. Facing fourth and goal from the 10-yard line, the Panther’s Devin Stewart looked to pass, but eventually scrambled in for a touchdown run. Saint Jo went up 6-0.
At the start of the second quarter, the Panther defense forced another turnover, again from Byrd who intercepted another pass.
This time the Bear’s defense, with the help of some penalties against Saint Jo, forced the Panthers backwards. Eventually Gold-Burg forced a turnover on downs and got the ball back on Saint Jo’s own 18-yard line.
The Bears took advantage as Levi Hellinger found big Eli Freeland for a five-yard touchdown pass. The good extra point put Gold-Burg up 8-6.
The Panthers swiftly answered back.
Within 30 seconds they had moved all the way down the field before Wyatt Lucas scored on a short run to give Saint Jo back the lead, this time up 12-8.
Gold-Burg tried to answer, but the offense looked like it was going to stall. On fourth down the Bears tried to throw it deep, but was intercepted again, this time by Saint Jo’s Wade Lucas.
With 42 seconds left and the Panthers deep in their own territory, Gold-Burg was trying to keep it a one-score game heading into halftime. Then the Bears did the one thing they did not want to happen.
Saint Jo saw Stewart connect with Wade Lucas on a 49-yard touchdown pass with 13 seconds left. The Panthers went into halftime up 18-8.
Gold-Burg still believed it could come back. Unfortunately for the Bears, their first drive of the second half saw them turn the ball over. Saint Jo’s Mathew Sampson got the sack, forced a fumble and recovered the fumble for the Panthers around midfield.
Another score for the Panthers would have been a devastating mental blow for Gold-Burg. Fortunately for the Bears, their defense came through big.
Gold-Burg forced a fumble which was scooped up by Jayton Epperson who returned it 59 yards for a touchdown. The extra point cut the lead down to 18-16 and gave the Bears new life.
Neither team scored in either of its next two drives.
Saint Jo tried to answer, moving the ball down the field. Then Gold-Burg’s defense forced another turnover as Keelyn Case intercepted a pass in the end zone.
The Bears were driving down into the Panthers territory when Saint Jo’s defense forced another turnover as Jayden Curry recovered a fumble at his team’s 19 yard line.
Shortly after at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Panthers gave the ball back when an errant toss on a run play missed its mark and Gold-Burg’s Zander Crawford recovered it at Saint Jo’s 22 yard line.
The Panther defense held up and forced a turnover on downs after allowing the Bears to move the ball only seven yards to their 15-yard line.
Saint Jo finally got some breathing room again in the second half when its offense moved down the field and scored, with Stewart scrambling for a 10-yard touchdown. Crucially, the team using its third kicker of the night, finally made an extra point to put the team up two scores instead of just one.
The Panthers were up 26-16 with three minutes left to play.
Gold-Burg tried to quickly move the ball, but it was slow going. Eventually, the Bears cut the lead back to one score when Jayton Epperson scored on a five-yard run.
With the score 26-22 with 41 seconds left and too few timeout remaining for Gold-Burg, it all came down to the onside kick. Saint Jo recovered it with little drama kneeled the ball to run out the clock to win.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians improved a little bit, but the result still wasn’t good in their loss at Electra on Friday night.
The Tigers won 28-0 as the Indians are still struggling to make things work offensively while on defense they are trying to do too much.
Nocona was coming into the game following a tough lopsided loss to Lindsay in week one. Electra had won a low-scoring game against Santo in week one.
The first quarter saw the Indian defense hold despite the offense turning the ball over on their first possession. The Nocona defense eventually forced a turnover on downs at their own 14 yard line late in the quarter to keep the game tied at 0-0 heading into the second quarter.
Eventually, the Tiger offense started to get rolling and hit on some big plays. Electra scored twice in the second quarter and looked to be trying to score once more before halftime. The Indians Jose Gomez intercepted a pass to give Nocona the ball back to keep the score 14-0 at halftime.
The second half saw the Tigers score two more times on long touchdown plays. Nocona’s offense could not answer and fumbled the ball away in the third quarter.
Electra won 28-0.
Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns lost a tough game at Wichita Christian on Friday night.
The Stars won by mercy-rule 58-8 in the third quarter in a game where the Longhorns actually hung with them a bit in the first half.
Forestburg was coming off a one-sided with against Savoy in week one. Wichita Christian was as well against San Jacinto Christian Academy.
The first quarter saw neither team able to score until the final minute. Then the Stars struck first on a long touchdown run. Seconds later on defense, Wichita Christian then intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
The Stars then did it again on the next drive to start the second quarter to go up 22-0 after a little more than a minute of game action.
The Longhorns settled down and drove the ball down the field before quarterback Sanchez connected with Kyler Willett on a 30-yard touchdown pass.
It cut the lead to 22-8. Forestburg had another chance before halftime to score and possibly cut the lead further down, but could not come through.
Coach Greg Roller thought his team had played well despite the score in the first half and felt they had a good chance to come back.
Unfortunately, the Longhorns did not play well in the third quarter.
The Stars scored four offensive touchdowns and returned a fumble for a touchdown to pull away and win 58-8.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Gold-Burg vs Saint Jo game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6868626&T=1
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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