DISTRICT PREVIEW: Defending State Champs in a 3-Team Battle for District Crown

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. The Miles Bulldogs, Albany Lions, and Roscoe Plowboys all figure to be in the race to be district champions.

This district preview will look at 2A-2 Region II District 6, which is the district that the Miles Bulldogs and the Albany Lions call home.

OVERALL

1. Albany Lions: 5-0
2. Hamlin Pied Pipers: 4-1
3. Miles Bulldogs: 4-1
4. Roscoe Plowboys: 3-1
5. Cross Plains Buffaloes: 2-3
6. TLCA Abilene Eagles: 1-4

The defending state champion Albany Lions are perfect on the season and have downed some extremely good football teams. Over the last three weeks, Albany has beaten Seymour, which was a playoff team last season, Hawley, the other 2A defending state champ, and the Comanche Indians. Not only did Albany beat those teams but beat them by multiple touchdowns.

The Lions will have a bye week this week but start district when they come back against none other than the Miles Bulldogs. They are averaging 35.2 points a game this season and have only given up 13.8. One of the Lions biggest contributors is running back Adam Hill, who has 875 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns this season on offense and 44 tackles, 6.5 sacks, and two passes defended on defense.

It is fair to say Albany is the team to beat not only in this district, but the state of Texas.

The Hamlin Pied Pipers are a one loss team, which is the same record they had last season going into district. Hamlin’s opponents are a combined 5-18 so far this year with Stamford, the only loss on Hamlin’s record, being 4-0. The Pied Pipers have scored 102 points and given up 95. They’ve gone with the guy gun at quarterback, Ian Gruben, who is a sophomore and senior running back Clayton Rister is the go-to back.

The Miles Bulldogs are 4-1 and have battled some good teams like Sterling City and Ozona. The Miles offense has seemingly put-up points whenever they want as they’ve scored over 60 three times this season. With an offense like that, they’ve been scoring an average of 53.2 points per game, the defense only needs to get a few stops to win. The Bulldogs had a couple of close games with different results with a loss to Sterling City, 36-32, and a win against Ozona, 70-68.

Senior quarterback Hayven Book is having himself a year, throwing for 1,288 yards, 18 touchdowns to six interceptions and rushing for 458 yards and six scores. Two Bulldog backs, Tevin Meade and Devin Medina have 786 yards and 11 touchdowns combined. On defense, Jaylen Torres and Lane Godfrey lead the way in tackles.

Roscoe is taking an “iron-sharpens-iron” approach to this season, playing Clarendon, Sterling City, and New Home over the last few weeks. All three of those teams made it a few rounds deep into the playoffs last season. Not only that, but this Plowboy defense could be legit, allowing only 13 points per game on average. The only game they’ve dropped was this past Friday against New Home, a team that more than likely would’ve been at state last season if it wasn’t for Albany.

The offense is playing smart and controlled football, rushing for 820 yards and eight touchdowns and throwing for 651 yards and six scores. The defense gets after the quarterback as they have seven sacks, four interceptions, four forced fumbles, and five fumble recoveries.

Cross Plains is currently 2-3 but have played a good schedule. They beat Winters to open the season but then dropped three straight games against De Leon, Hico, and Junction, who are all 4-1, then shut out Smyer (1-4) last week. The Buffs will come off a bye then play Roscoe. Cross Plains is giving up about 28.5 points a game and scoring just under three touchdowns a game.

TLCA Abilene is still a fairly new program who has taken their lumps. The Eagles were 0-10 last season and have already improved upon that record after beating Munday in Week Two, 14-9. TLCA Abilene runs the ball about twice as much as they throw it but have about 200 more receiving yards than rushing yards. Sophomore quarterback Jonathan Rico has thrown five touchdowns to six interceptions and has a couple of to-go guys in Ja’Markis Lowrey and Jonathan Kirk. Things might be tough but with a young quarterback, TLCA Abilene is working towards a positive goal.

District Leaders

Passing Yards

1. Hayven Book- Miles Bulldogs- 1,228
2. Chip Chambers- Albany Lions- 861
3. Jace Arnwine- Roscoe Plowboys- 651
4. Johnathan Rico- TLCA Abilene Eagles- 381
5. Ian Gruben- Hamlin Pied Pipers- 151

Rushing Yards

1. Adam Hill- Albany Lions- 875
2. Ivan McCann- Roscoe Plowboys- 512
3. Tevin Meade- Miles Bulldogs- 460
4. Hayven Book- Miles Bulldogs- 458
5. Devin Medina- Miles Bulldogs- 326

Receiving Yards

1. Cooper Ellison- Miles Bulldogs- 580
2. Cason Fairchild- Albany Lions- 416
3. Parker Gleaton- Roscoe Plowboys- 264
4. Seth Wilcox- Roscoe Plowboys- 260
5. Ja’Markis Lowery- TLCA Abilene Eagles- 239

Total Yards

1. Hayven Book- Miles Bulldogs- 1,746
2. Adam Hill- Albany Lions- 914
3. Chip Chambers- Albany Lions- 864
4. Jace Arnwine- Roscoe Plowboys- 656
5. Tevin Meade- Miles Bulldogs- 651

Scoring

1. Tevin Meade- Miles Bulldogs- 84 points
2. Adam Hill- Albany Lions- 72 points
3. Cooper Ellison- Miles Bulldogs- 62 points
4. Seth Wilcox- Roscoe Plowboys- 61 points
5. Hayven Book- Miles Bulldogs- 48 points

Tackles

1. Lane Godfrey- Miles Bulldogs- 55
2. Jaxson Hoel- Albany Lions- 49
3. Jaxon Petillo- Miles Bulldogs- 45
4. Adam Hill- Albany Lions- 44
5. Colton Kelly- Miles Bulldogs- 42

Sacks

1. Adam Hill- Albany Lions- 6.5
2. Jaylen Torres- Miles Bulldogs- 4
3. Zane J. Waggoner- Albany Lions- 3.5
4. Parker Gleaton- Roscoe Plowboys- 3
5. Aiden Brown- Roscoe Plowboys- 2
6. Devin Medina- Miles Bulldogs- 2
7. Lanxton Viertel- Albany Lions- 2

Interceptions

1. Seth Wilcox- Roscoe Plowboys- 2
2. Alex Parker- Cross Plains- 1
3. Aiden Cerna, Jacob Kiser- Roscoe Plowboys- 1
4. Devin Medina, Hayven Book, Keagan Walz, Cooper Ellison, Dillon Medina- Miles Bulldogs-1
5. Lanxton Viertel, Calhan Fairchild, Cason Fairchild, Luke Marshall- Albany Lions- 1
6. Ja’Markis Lowery- TLCA Abilene Eagles-1

Next Game

• Miles Bulldogs @ Albany Lions- 10/6
• Roscoe Plowboys @ Cross Plains Buffaloes- 10/6
• TLCA Abilene Eagles @ Hamlin Pied Pipers- 10/6