DISTRICT PREVIEW: These 3A Teams Share Similar Identities

SAN ANGELO— The first half of the High School Football season is nearly over and teams in the Concho Valley will be looking to dominate district play to hit the playoffs running. A state contender is sitting right here in Tom Green County and the future is incredibly bright for this 3A district.

Many of the teams in 3A-2 District 1 share a similar identity. They have young signal callers, good running games, and solid defenses.Gunnar Dillard, Sean Jacoby, Royhn Price, and Cade Strube are all underclassmen quarterbacks that will continue to lead their respective teams. 

OVERALL

1. Wall Hawks: 3-1
2. TLCA San Angelo: 3-2
3. Brady Bulldogs: 1-4
4. Early Longhorns: 1-4
5. Grape Creek Eagles: 0-5
6. Ballinger Bearcats: 0-5

Starting off about seven miles southeast of San Angelo, the Wall Hawks have a state championship in the back of their minds. Last season, the Hawks made it four rounds deep before losing to Canadian, who would lose to the eventual state champs, the Gunter Tigers. Wall continues to do the same thing they’ve done for years, control the clock, run the ball, and play great defense.

This defense has only given up 9.25 points a game and the Hawk offense has put up 29.5 points a game. When the defense holds opponents to under 10 points, winning should happen pretty regularly. Not only is this a typical Wall team, but they are also a young team. Junior quarterback Gunnar Dillard has taken strides to improve upon being an option quarterback. They Hawks have had 10 players run the ball and senior wide receiver Ryan Allen is a big-time weapon outside.

The defense brings the Four Horsemen in Will Scherr, Logan Thomas, Brylan White, and Ethan Michalewiz. These four players lead the Hawks in tackles and sacks. The Hawks did change up their defense to accommodate their players better to get more speed on the field.

The TLCA San Angelo Eagles currently have the best record in the city of San Angelo and quarterback Layne Honea has been on fire over the past three weeks. The Eagles have put up 36 points a game and have given up just under that.

Over three games, Honea has completed 62% of his passes for 936 yards, 12 touchdowns to only one interception. Two running backs, Natavian Sykes and Jeremiah Bullingor have rushed for 372 yards and six scores on the ground and Honea has three receivers he favors in Luis Casillas, Isaiah Vaquera, and Jaidden Villanueva.

Bullingor is a bully on the TLCA defense with 31 tackles, eight for loss, three sacks, an interception, forced fumble, and fumble recovery. The Eagles have six sacks as a team, two interceptions, and three each of fumbles recovered and forced fumbles. This team could be a surprise out of this district.

The Brady Bulldogs started off the season with probably the most difficult schedule in the Concho Valley. The first three games were against the Comanche Indians, Mason Punchers, and Coleman Bluecats, all of whom were incredible football teams that went a good way into the playoffs last season. Brady is one of those teams where the future is really bright as they have plenty of young contributors. One more thing is, the Bulldogs need to get healthy. On the sidelines for their most recent game, a loss to the Christoval Cougars, their number ones at running back, linebacker, and wide receiver were injured as was their center and a big defensive tackle among others.

When first year head coach needed a quarterback, sophomore Sean Jacoby took on the challenge. The dual threat has 574 yards and has thrown one touchdown and ran in another. He has shown his youth, and he took on an absolute gauntlet to start the year. The Bulldogs feature two playmakers at running back who complement each other quite well. Zeke Jones and Daryl Adair are lightning and thunder who have 620 yards and four touchdowns combined. Ashton Ramsey, one of the injured Bulldogs from the Christoval game, is Jacoby’s favorite wide receiver option who has 10 catches for 116 yards, and one touchdown.

Defensively, the Bulldogs fly around the field, get all 11 helmets to the football, and are young. Johnny Menfield, Xavier Mendez, DeMarcus Reed, Ramsey, and Zech Ledezma are all underclassmen and are big time contributors. Jones and Adair are the defensive leadership who have 34 and 42 tackles respectively.

The Early Longhorns graduated their quarterback last season and in stepped sophomore Rohyn Price, who has had his moments but had also looked young against some good opponents like Comanche, Hamliton, and Tolar. Regardless of the quarterback situation, the Longhorns have given up 41.8 points per game and have only scored 16 per game. Seniors Kaleb Ozuna and Dalton Adams have put up decent numbers on defense as well. Ozuna leads the team in tackles with 36 and Adams leads in tackles for loss and sacks with nine and five respectively.

Back to the offense, it the young gun at quarterback has a decent running game with senior Griffin Cheslock who has rushed for 328 yards and two scores. Fellow senior Ki Houston at receiver has 330 yards and one touchdown. Whichever quarterback is in, they spread the ball around to three different guys mainly in Houston, junior Weston Barton, and freshman Andrew Reedy.

The Grape Creek Eagles feature what a lot of teams in this district feature which is a young team. Head Coach Tanner Thiel said during his offseason interview that the sophomore class is extremely talented. A lot of teams in this district feature a young team and Grape Creek is only two years removed from a playoff berth. The Eagles offense and defense to have to get better at getting the ball into the endzone and preventing opposing teams from doing so. The offense is scoring about 12.4 points a game and the defense is giving up 42 per game.

Like the Brady Bulldogs, the Ballinger Bearcats have started off the season with an incredibly difficult schedule. They started off the season against Sonora and where they got the only points they’ve gotten so far this season. Then, they played the Coleman Bluecats, Stamford Bulldogs, Clyde Bulldogs, and Mason Punchers. Opposing teams have not taken it easy on the Bearcats, scoring 238 points to Ballinger’s 12. To be fair, each one of the five teams the Bearcats have played are going to be playoff teams and probably will be playing into December.

Ballinger has run two quarterbacks, junior Cade Strube and sophomore Kyson Weathers, who have combined for 614 yards, one touchdown, and four interceptions. Senior running back Zach Canada has rushed for 215 yards, which isn’t an easy thing to do against the teams he has faced. To both quarterback’s credit, they to spread the ball around quite a bit when they throw it. Four different players have well over 100 yards.

For the Bearcat defense, underclassmen lead the way as sophomore Manny Gonzalez and junior Jaylen Hernandez lead the team in tackles, sophomore Aden Sanchez has one sack, Canada has the other. Gonzalez also has one interception and one forced fumble.

District Leaders

Passing Yards

1. Layne Honea- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 936
2. Sean Jacoby- Brady Bulldogs- 472
3. Gunnar Dillard- Wall Hawks- 363
4. Cade Strube- Ballinger Bearcats- 330
5. Kyson Weathers- Ballinger Bearcats- 284

Rushing Yards

1. Daryl Adair- Brady Bulldogs- 374
2. Griffin Cheslock- Early Longhorns- 328
3. Zeke Jones- Brady Bulldogs- 246
4. Nathan Pepper- Wall Hawks- 235
5. Zach Canada- Ballinger Bearcats- 215

Receiving Yards

1. Ki Houston- Early Longhorns- 241
2. Jaidden Villanueva- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 193
3. Zeke Jones- Brady Bulldogs- 176
4. Luis Casillas- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 169
5. Ryan Allen- Wall Hawks- 167

Total Yards

1. Layne Honea- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 953
2. Sean Jacoby- Brady Bulldogs- 576
3. Gunnar Dillard- Wall Hawks- 561
4. Zeke Jones- Brady Bulldogs- 480
5. Daryl Adair- Brady Bulldogs- 369

Scoring

1. Natavian Sykes- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 36 points
2. Ryan Allen- Wall Hawks- 30 points
3. Gunnar Dillard- Wall Hawks- 30 points
4. Hagyn Barbee- Wall Hawks- 26 points
5. Zeke Jones- Brady Bulldogs- 20 points

Tackles

1. Will Scherr- Wall Hawks- 44
2. Manny Gonzalez- Ballinger Bearcats- 42
3. Daryl Adair- Brady Bulldogs- 42
4. Jaylen Hernandez- Ballinger Bearcats- 41
5. Ethan Michalewiz- Wall Hawks- 37

Sacks

1. Dalton Adams- Early Longhorns- 4
2. Jeramiah Bullingor- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 3
3. Natavian Sykes- TLCA San Angleo Eagles- 2
4. Kaleb Ozuna- Early Longhorns- 2
5. Aniceto Monsivais- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 1
6. Rico Vasquez, Brooks Clippinger- Early Longhorns- 1
7. Aden Sanchez, Zach Canada- Ballinger Bearcats-1
8. Logan Thomas, Brylan White, Ethan Michzlewiz- Wall Hawks-1
9. Johnny Menefield, DeMarcus Reed- Brady Bulldogs- 1

Interceptions

1. Ryan Allen- Wall Hawks- 2
2. Brady Stone, Briggs Jones, Logan Thomas, Garren Wiggins- Wall Hawks- 1
3. Isaiah Zaden-Chappa, Jeremiah Bullingor- TLCA San Angelo Eagles- 1
4. Ki Houston, Griffin Cheslock- Early Longhorns- 1
5. Ashton Ramsey, Ethan Medrano- Brady Bulldogs- 1
6. Sergio Rangel, Manny Gonzalez, Bryce Lopez, Kyle Bullard- Ballinger Bearcats- 1

Next Game

• Wall Hawks @ Mason Punchers- 9/29

• Ballinger Bearcats @ Early Longhorns- 10/6
• TLCA San Angelo Eagles @ Brady Bulldogs- 10/6
• Wall Hawks @ Grape Creek Eagles- 10/6