Nocona
The Nocona Indians community was rocked with another tough lump when a senior player went down with an injury in the Indians’ home district opener on Friday.
The Indians lost to Alvord 42-0, but what most people were worried about was the status of senior Jose Gomez who suffered a serious head injury.
Thankfully, he was able to leave the hospital and come home on Sunday.
The community was in such relief that not only were his teammates there to greet him, but Gomez received a heroes welcome on Clay Street led by fire trucks. Respectfully, the crowd was silent since loud noises can exasperate head injuries.
“Fortunately it doesn’t surprise me at this point how this town continues to show up for their kids, support them and make them feel loved,” Coach Blake Crutsinger said. “At this point I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Nocona community.”

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers stayed undefeated with their second straight one half mercy rule win, this time on the road against Weatherford Christian.
The Panthers won 52-6, playing only one half of football again as they blew out the Lions.
Saint Jo came into the game 4-0, but with only its previous game against Forestburg ending early due to mercy rule. Coach CJ Hantz thought the team did not show enough killer instinct in some games while others the lack of execution held the team back.
On Friday, Saint Jo was the better team and played like it. Devin Stewart completed three passes for 62 yards all to Lee Yeley. Stewart also led the team with 89 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns.
Blayton Calabrese was second with 65 yards rushing and also scored two touchdowns rushing.
On defense, the team forced five turnovers. Jayden Curry and Stewart both intercepted passes. Wade Lucas, Amzy Barclay and Mathew Sampson each recovered a fumble.

Gold-Burg
The Gold-Burg Bears won their second consecutive game of the season by beating Grace Classical Christian Academy in Granbury on Friday.
The Bears won 52-27 as the Gryphons did just enough to avoid getting mercy ruled in defeat.
Gold-Burg was coming off a dominant win its previous week against Harrold, which was the team’s first victory after a tough opening season stretch. GCCA also came in with only one win on the season, but the Bears showed quickly they were the better team.
Jayton Epperson led the team with 156 yards rushing and three touchdowns while also completing two passes for 37 yards. Paul Jones was second with 94 yards rushing and also scored three touchdowns. He completed one pass for 30 yards. Hayden Chambers scored the other touchdown for Gold-Burg, also coming on the ground.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns played a tough game short handed on Friday against Vernon Northside.
The Indians won 58-8, with the game ending midway through the fourth quarter due to mercy rule.
The Longhorns were still missing more than half of their starting lineup to injuries and were still trying to make things work while relying on inexperienced players.
Northside came into the game with a winning record 3-1, but Forestburg hoped the boost of a homecoming crowd could help the team play above its experience.
Early on execution issues for the Longhorns held the offense back with two quick turnovers.
Angel Cruz intercepted a pass on defense to get the ball back, but eventually the Indians scored on a long touchdown catch on a play they would have success with for the rest of the game.
Forestburg answered offensively as Christian Binanti broke away on a 28-yard run to tie the game up at 8-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Unfortunately, Northside pulled away in the second quarter with two more passing touchdowns and a recovered fumble returned for a touchdown. The Indians led 32-8 at halftime.
The Longhorn offense could not get going as the team wore down as the game went on and the lead continued to grow.
Eventually the Indians went up 58-8 with 5:53 left in the fourth quarter when the game was called.

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

A week after scoring the second most points in program history, the Bowie Jackrabbits lost their opening district game on the road at Peaster in a defensive struggle.
The Greyhounds hung on to win 10-9, doing all of their damage in the first quarter while the Jackrabbits came up just short of coming back in the final three quarters.
Bowie came into the game with something to prove. While the Jackrabbits and Peaster both came into district play with 3-1 records, the Greyhounds played what was perceived to be the better teams and were a preseason playoff pick within the district.
Bowie was picked to finish last and now that district was starting, it was time for the Jackrabbits to get exposed.
In the first quarter it looked like that was coming to fruition. Peaster hit on a some explosive pass plays down the field that set up a short touchdown run to start the game up 7-0. Later in the first quarter, the Greyhounds then hit on an impressive 35-yard field goal to take 10-0 lead heading into the second quarter.
Bowie’s defense made the adjustments in its secondary on defense and ratcheted up the pressure on the quarterback.
While it did not completely shut down Peaster’s run game, it did make Greyhounds running back Kaden Albert earn every bit of his 101 yards on the ground and not let anyone else hurt the Jackrabbits.
Peaster only gained 46 yards of offense in the final three quarters.
The Bowie offense were finding some success running the ball, but not quite enough success to get out of third and long situations it kept finding itself in when something went wrong.
Twice the Jackrabbits entered the red zone in the second quarter. On one trip, Bowie was able to settle for a short 23-yard field goal from Nick Salazar.
The other trip saw a holding penalty back the team up too far for another field goal chance and the Jackrabbits turned the ball over on downs.
Bowie went into halftime trailing 10-3.
The Jackrabbits defense continued to keep Bowie in the game. In what has emerged as a trend, the Jackrabbit defense pitched its third second half shut out of the season in five games. It would be in four of the games, but the team allowed Dublin to score once in the second half in the previous week’s blow out win.
The Jackrabbits racked up seven sacks, with Noah Metzler leading the team with three while Preacher Chambers and Zac Harris each added two.
The team also forced and recovered two fumbles in the game. Metzler forced one and Tyson Jordan the other one while Hayden Rodriguez recovered both. As a team, Bowie finished with 30 tackles for loss in the game.
On offense, the Jackrabbits continued to struggle in the second half, but got a boost on their biggest play of the game. Running back Justin Clark proved to be a workhorse all game as he finished with team high 151 yards rushing. He also scored the team’s only touchdown when he found a lane on a sweep to the left for a 25-yard touchdown run.
Unfortunately, a special teams gaff would come back to bite Bowie later.
A high snap on the extra point led to a missed kick opportunity and the Jackrabbits trailed 10-9. With it still being the third quarter and the defense playing well, Bowie had time to not dwell on the missed opportunity. Unfortunately, that would be the Jackrabbits last good chance.
Bowie’s offense turned the ball over twice in the game on a fumble and an interception. The Greyhounds played tight and physical coverage which seemed to limit the Jackrabbits wide receiver screen passing game as Bowie was held to 75 yards passing.
Trying to make Peaster pay with passes down the field unfortunately did not produce the big plays Bowie needed to exploit the strategy, which Coach Tyler Price thought was the difference in the game.
“A couple of times we just didn’t make plays in the air,” Price said. “We had a couple of dropped passes. We didn’t win one-on-one matchups outside and those are things we have to get better at. When the ball comes to you, you have to make plays.”
It made the final score that much more crushing as the Jackrabbits fell 10-9.

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

Bellevue
The Bellevue Lady Eagles lost a tough match at home against Perrin-Whitt on Tuesday night.
The Lady Pirates won 3-1 against the Lady Eagles that had too many cases of letting runs pull them out of sets.
Bellevue was hoping it could turn around some of the recent losses to get the team back on track heading into district play.
With Perrin-Whitt being one of the rare 1A teams that also isn’t in the Lady Eagles’ district, it was a good chance it would be a competitive match.
The first set saw the Lady Pirates get some breathing room early on, up 12-8. Bellevue could not make up that margin for the rest of the set and Perrin-Whitt eventually closed strong, winning 25-18 to take the opening lead.
The second set proved to be the most competitive of the match. Neither team went up by more than two at any point exchanged leads over and over. It took extra-points and eventually the Lady Eagles came out on top 29-27 to tie the match at 1-1.
Unfortunately, that was best stretch Bellevue played. Perrin-Whitt grabbed a 12-8 lead early in the third set and never let go on its way to win 25-15. The fourth set saw the Lady Eagles fall behind big early on and never recover, losing 25-13 and the match 3-1.

Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits fell at Jacksboro in a match with several close sets that did not go their way.
The Lady Tigers won in straight sets 3-0, but the Lady Rabbits nearly won two of the sets.
Bowie came into the match still looking for its first district win after losing its first three matches.
Jacksboro had two wins in district heading into the match.
The Lady Rabbits battled in set one, but the Lady Tigers closed well at the end to win 25-21 to take the early lead.
The second set did not go Bowie’s way. Jacksboro got a bit of a lead from the beginning that grew and grew as it went along. The Lady Tigers won 25-15 to go up 2-0.
With their backs against the wall, the Lady Rabbits bowed up and battled from the beginning until the end in set three, hoping for a comeback win. It was point-for-point throughout the set.
Unfortunately, it was Jacksboro that was able to pull it out in the end by the narrowest of margins 26-24. The Lady Tigers won 3-0.

Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians came through in a five-set victory at Poolville on Tuesday in their final match heading into district play.
The Lady Indians pulled through in the back-and-forth 3-2 win against the Lady Monarchs.
Nocona was coming off an exciting win against Saint Jo that broke a bad streak and was hoping to keep it going despite still missing senior outside hitter Meg Meekins, out with an injury.
The first set was a tone setter that showed how evenly the two teams were matched up. The Lady Indians were barely able to squeak through to win 25-23 to take the early lead.
Poolville answered in set two, winning a competitive set 25-21 to tie the match up. Nocona then regained the lead in set three, also winning by the score of 25-21.
The Lady Indians could not close out the match in set four as the Lady Monarchs came through to win by the biggest margin of the match 25-17.
This set up a fifth and final set, which Nocona needed to rebound well from the bad play before.
It went down to the wire like it did in set one. In the end, it was the Lady Indians that were able to pull out the victory 16-14, 3-2.

Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs won a five-set match on the road at Seymour on Tuesday in their final non-district match of the season.
The Lady Bulldogs hung on to win a roller coaster of a game 15-8 that saw momentum swing wildly back and forth all night.
The first set of the match was the most competitive and saw Prairie Valley get an early lead, winning the match 25-23. Unfortunately, the Lady Bulldogs had trouble to capitalizing on its lead, which continued throughout the match.
The Lady Panthers answered by winning set two 25-19 to tie the match at 1-1.
Prairie Valley then easily won set three 25-17 to get the lead back 2-1 and hoping it could close the match in set four.
Unfortunately, set four proved to be a wash as Seymour easily took control and the Lady Bulldogs could not respond. The Lady Panthers won 25-10 to tie the match back up at 2-2 and heading into the fifth set.
Despite losing by such a big margin the previous set, Prairie Valley was able to reset and treat set five like it had in all of the other odd number sets. The Lady Bulldogs ended up winning with little drama 15-8 to pull off the tonally frustrating win 3-2.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from the Bellevue game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6869155&T=1