SNYDER – On Friday, the Snyder Tigers will find out if they are contenders or pretenders when they square off against the seemingly unstoppable Xavier Wishert and the Jim Ned Indians.
The Tigers have blown out teams, allowing only 5.5 points a game this season to opponents, while hanging 42.75 points per game on them. They have played the Slaton Tigers (1-3), Levelland Lobos (1-3), Lamesa Tornados (2-2), and the Lake View Chiefs (0-4) for a combined 4-12 record.
You play the teams on your schedule and this Friday, the Tigers are going to get a look at a legitimate playoff team, defending 3A state champion Jim Ned Indians.
Jim Ned is coming off a 28-14 win over the #5 ranked 2A Cisco Loboes.
The Loboes are 3-1, the Ballinger Bearcats are 2-1, while the Eastland Mavericks and the Sweetwater Mustangs are both 1-3, for a combined record of 7-8, which isn’t the best record either. The difference is Jim Ned is on an 18-game winning streak going back to last season where their only loss was the season opener against the Ballinger Bearcats.
Wishert has 71 carries on the season for 737 yards, a 10.4 yard per attempt and a phenomenal 184.3 yards per game for 9 touchdowns. Most of the damage done from the Indians is on the ground where they have 17 touchdowns, but Wishert is the main source of production.
He has been for the past three years. Going back to his sophomore season, Wishert had 659 rushing yards and 6 rushing touchdowns. A successful season for a professional player.
His junior season last year was truly an amazing season. Wishert had 320 carries for 2330 yards and 33 touchdowns. Thirteen 100-yard games and averaged 166.4 yards per game. Jim Ned had 44 scores on the ground and Wishert accounted for 33 of those.
It’s quite a possibility that he has over 5000 total rushing yards for his high school career.
Right now, the Snyder Tigers are standing in the way.
This is an out of classification game as Snyder is a 4A team and Jim Ned is a 3A. These teams won’t meet in the playoffs, but it will be a good matchup for Snyder to see if they can play with a team that wants to make it back to AT&T Stadium.
The Tigers aren’t slouches in the running game either as most of their offensive production has come on the ground.
Senior running back Jorge Martinez has 408 yards in 4 games and quarterback Hunter Stewart has rushed for 265 yards. Nothing crazy like Wishert’s numbers but solid none the less.
Stewart also has nearly 500 yard passing this season. His favorite target, senior wide receiver Tim Henderson has 18 catches for 241 yards and 1 touchdown.
Another good thing is Stewart doesn’t throw it to the other team. He has put it in the air 50 times and only has 1 interception.
The bad? Stewart has fumbled the ball 3 times, losing 2 and Snyder collectively has been clumsy with the football this season. They’ve fumbled 13 times losing 5 of those. Holding onto the ball must be the focus this week because Jim Ned will turn those fumbles into points.
Snyder middle linebacker Bryce Ford is the leading tackler for the Tigers with 12 solo tackles, 27 assisted tackles, and 6 tackles for loss, can he be the immoveable object to Wishert’s unstoppable force? The 2ndleading tackler for Snyder is Isael Rios, a strong safety with 21 total tackles and 3rd is outside linebacker Jorge Olivares with 18 total tackles. This defense is going to have to have all 11 defenders fly to the ball to stop the Jim Ned running game.
Much easier said than done.
Is Snyder going to shut down everyone telling them they haven’t played anybody this season and stop the Indians or will Xavier Wishert and Company continue tearing up the turf on the way to 19 consecutive wins?
COVER 1 will have coverage, highlights, and analysis of the Jim Ned vs. Snyder game on Friday, starting at 7:30 p.m. on SanAngeloLIVE.com.
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