ALBANY— The Miles Bulldogs travel out of the Concho Valley to the Big Country and take on the defending state champion Albany Lions in their district opener Friday.
Miles saved the best for… first? The Bulldogs pulled the Albany Lions to open district play and this matchup should be a good one. Miles is coming off a bye week and a thrilling win over the Ozona Lions, 70-68, in Week Five. They improved to 4-1 with their only loss coming in an unusual low scoring game against the Sterling City Eagles in Week Two, 36-32.
The Lions are currently on a 16-game winning streak and are the number one team in the small school 2A rankings. The Albany program has been an institution under head coach Denny Faith, who is the longest tenured coach in Texas High School Football. Faith has been with the Lions in some form for just over 40 years and last season, celebrated his first state championship win with the Lions.
One thing for certain is this matchup is going to have some star power. The Bulldogs feature one of the best quarterbacks in the Concho Valley in senior Hayven Book. Over his junior and senior year so far, Book has thrown for 3,723 yards, 56 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions while rushing for 842 yards and 19 touchdowns. Through five games, Book has gone 83-131 for 1,288 yards, 16 touchdowns to six interceptions and ran for 458 yards and six scores. He has been accurate too, completing 63.4% of his passes. People bring up players having the “IT” factor, something Book has a lot of.
An Albany player that has the IT factor is running back Adam Hill. Hill has rushed 108 times for 875 yards, an 8.1 yard per attempt average, and 11 touchdowns. He isn’t much of a receiver and has three receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown. Hill is a big back so tackling high isn’t an option and going low isn’t either because he will just hurdle defenders.
The Bulldogs pack a one-two punch at running back with Tevin Meade and Devin Medina. Both backs have 786 yards and 11 touchdowns combined. Add in Book’s rushing numbers and that over 1,200 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns.
The one thing Miles does do better, and the results are as follows, it’s throwing the football. While Mies is better in the passing game, Albany isn’t a slouch. Junior quarterback Chip Chambers is 49-85 for 861 yards, nine touchdowns, and six interceptions. Lion receviers Cason Fairchild and Branson Beal combine for 570 yards and seven scores. Senior Wyatt Windham is next in yardage with 86.
Miles’ Cooper Ellison has 580 yards and nine scores by himself followed by Dillon Medina with 227 yards and two touchdowns. Juniors Jaylen Torres and Meade combine for 375 yards and six touchdowns through the air.
The Lions take down ball carriers in a pack and have eight players with 20 or more tackles. Senior Jaxon Hoel leads the way with 49 tackles, four tackles for loss, one sack, and one fumble recovery. Hill is also a demon on defense and routinely makes plays in the backfield. He has 44 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, six and a half sacks, five quarterback pressures, and two passes defended. Albany has no problems getting to the quarterback as they have 16 sacks so far on the season.
The one place lacking production is fumbles and fumble recoveries as the Lions have one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. The Fairchild brothers, along with seniors Lanxton Viertel and Luke Marshall, each have one interception.
Lane Godfrey, Jaxon Petillo, and Colton Kelly get after it on defense for the Bulldogs. Godfrey has 55 tackles, Petillo has 45, and Kelly has 42. Torres leads the Bulldogs in sacks, gathering half the current total for the team with four. Ellison, Keegan Walz, and Devon Medina have one, one, and two sacks respectively.
Book, Ellison, Walz, and the Medina brothers have one interception each. The Bulldogs have five forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.
This looks like an uphill battle for the Bulldogs as taking on the number one team in the state isn’t an easy thing to do. Albany sits atop the mountain and has earned their place. One thing the Bulldogs could fix is their red zone offense as last season, they stalled out on several drives. Containing Hill seems like an impossible task and two great football teams, Hawley and Comanche, couldn’t stop him.
This will be a great game to see where Miles is at. While Miles has been scoring at will, the Lions have only given up 69 total points to opponents this year. The Bulldogs have put up 266 points, an average of 53.2 points, a game.
MATCHUP LEADERS (Miles over Albany)
Passing
- Hayven Book: 83-131/1288/18/6
- Chip Chambers: 49-85/861/9/6
Rushing
- Tevin Meade: 35/460/9
- Devin Medina: 29/326/2
- Hayven Book: 47/458/6
- Adam Hill: 108/875/11
- Jaxon Hoel: 24/122/1
- Tyler Chapman: 21/105/1
Receiving
- Cooper Ellison: 37/580/9
- Dillon Medina: 16/227/2
- Tevin Meade: 6/191/4
- Cason Fairchild: 17/416/4
- Branson Beal: 12/154/3
- Wyatt Windham: 2/86/0
Tackles/Tackles for Loss
- Lane Godfrey: 55/0
- Jaxon Petillo: 45/2
- Colton Kelly: 42/2
- Jaxson Hoel: 49/4
- Adam Hill: 44/12
- Tyler Chapman: 39/0
Sacks
- Jaylen Torres: 4
- Devin Medina: 2
- Keegan Walz, Cooper Ellison: 1
- Adam Hill: 6.5
- Zane Waggoner: 3.5
- Lanxton Viertel: 2
- Jaxson Hoel, Luke Marshall, Parker Shelton: 1
- Laithe Leech, Ethan Green: 0.5
Interceptions
- Hayven Book, Cooper Ellison, Dillon Medina, Devin Medina, Keegan Walz: 1
- Cason Fairchild, Calhan Fairchild, Luke Marshall, Lanxton Viertel: 1
The 4-1 Miles Bulldogs travel to Albany to take on the 5-0 Albany Lions this Friday, October 6, 2023, at 7:00 p.m.
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