Sonora Hosting Division III 7-on-7 State Qualifying Tournament this Weekend

SONORA, TX-- A total of seven teams will take part in the Sonora 7-on-7 Division III State Qualifying Tournament. On the line are two spots to the State 7-on-7 Tournament in College Station later this month.

Sonora will have two teams in the tournament, a red and a white team, and only the red team will be eligible to qualify for state if they win.

Brady, Eldorado, Wink and Van Horn are the four other teams looking to book a spot in the June 28 tournament. Alpine will also take part, but have already qualified for the State Tournament and are not eligible to advance past pool play.

Sonora Red, Brady, Eldorado and Alpine make up Pool A. Sonora White, Wink, Van Horn make up Pool B.

Games start at 8 a.m. at Bronco Stadium in Sonora and will follow the 7-on-7 rule of 20 minute halves.

The schedule for pool play is as follows:

• 8 a.m.: Sonora White vs Wink, South End
• 9 a.m.: Sonora Red vs Eldorado, North End; Alpine vs Brady, South End
• 10 a.m.: Sonora White vs Van Horn, South End
• 11 a.m.: Sonora Red vs Brady, North End; Eldorado vs Alpine, South End
• Noon: Van Horn vs Wink, South End
• 1 p.m.: Sonora Red vs Alpine, North End; Brady vs Eldorado, South End

Following pool play, the pool winners and runner-ups will face off at 2:45 in the Semifinals. Pool winners will face the runner-up of the opposite pool in these games.

The winners of the Semifinals will earn a berth in the State Tournament and face off in the championship game at 3:45. Losers of the Semifinals will play in the consolation game at the same time.

This is the first time the Texas 7-on-7 has opened up the State Qualifying Tournaments, better known as SQTs, to a Division III level, which encourages schools from Classes 3A and below to play against each other.

Sonora used to always go to Division II Qualifiers like Fredericksburg and Brownwood and qualify in the higher divisions.

The idea of the Division III Qualifiers have slowly gathered steam in its first year with smaller schools like Ballinger, Christoval, Grape Creek and TLCA playing with the idea of getting involved.

Christoval has not entered a local 7-on-7 league or a qualifier, while the other three have taken up 7-on-7 by joining the Ballinger/Sonora league this past summer.

The Sonora SQT will be just the 6th Division III Qualifier to take place this year.