This week the Ballinger Bearcats will host the Reagan County Owls. Many prognosticators are in love with the Owls after their Week 1 52-14 victory over Stanton. One thing they aren’t considering is that Stanton is not a very good football team. Brady is a much-improved team from a year ago. Their team of primarily sophomores and freshman from a year ago has grown up and with a senior leader at quarterback, they gave the Bearcats as much as they could handle on the road. Ballinger was able to defy the odds and come away with a hard fought win. The adversity the Bearcats faced in Week 1 should pay dividends going forward. The Owls, however, have a new quarterback and only one of their top three running backs returning. Of the four players that did damage against Ballinger last season, only one remains. One graduated and probably the most damage came from a player that is now playing for San Angelo Central.
Reagan County won a 38-20 contest a season ago. Late mistakes by Ballinger helped to spread the score as it was 26-20 late in the third quarter. This could be a contest that goes either way, but the tough contest last week has prepared Ballinger for another dogfight. Reagan County has young players at key positions that haven’t had to respond in crunch time yet. This should be a one score game and I’ll call it for Ballinger.
Ballinger 27-20
Brady Bulldogs(0-1)
Look for Brady to get their first win since they defeated Jim Ned in October of 2016. Brady is going to be a tough out for many teams this year. A ball control offense with around 20 returning players from last years varsity that did not enjoy going 0-10 though some growing pains last season. Expect this team to have a chip on their shoulder all year long.
Brady 30-Haskell 13
Colorado City Wolves(1-0)
C-City is playing Crane this week, after a big 11-win season a year ago and a big Week 1 victory of 2A powerhouse Albany, it does not look like the Wolves will be slowing down anytime soon. C-City should have this one all but over by halftime.
C-City 42- Crane 14
Cisco Lobos(1-0)
Cisco flat out dominated 4A Sweetwater last week. The Lobos were up 42-0 at half and won 56-7. Rumor is that Sweetwater was playing a lot of sophomores and freshman. It shouldn’t make that big of a difference. Cisco is a good football team this year and as much as it pains me to say Wall will be 0-2 after this one, with the Eagles in a rebuilding year. I think the Lobos will be out to make a point in this one.
Cisco 35- Wall 14
Anson Tigers(0-1)
Anson jumped up to 3A football this season and opened the year being thrashed by 2A Hamlin 42-12. Do not expect anything even close to that good this week against Jim Ned. The Indians flat out destroyed the Coleman Bluecats 69-0 in Week 1 and while I don’t expect quite the domination by Jim Ned, this one should not be close.
Jim Ned 42- Anson 7
Bangs Dragons(0-1)
Bangs last win was September of 2016 14-13 against Winters. After losing 60-20 to Early, that streak will not end against Hawley this week. Hawley is coming off of a 49-21 win over Roscoe. They will score again, but look for a stronger defensive effort.
Hawley 42- Bangs 7
Grape Creek Eagles(0-1)
As much as I want to go with the Eagles with a win over Christoval this week I can’t find myself to do it. Grape Creek got shut out 30-0 against a 2A Baird team that only won two games last season. Christoval probably won’t blow the doors off, but I think they have enough.
Christoval 28 – Grape Creek 14
Merkel Badgers(0-1)
Merkel is not very happy right now. Stamford is a very good football team, but the Badgers did not expect to lose to them the way they did. Last year with star Jonah White at receiver the Badgers lost 39-20. With him at quarterback this year they lost 52-13. Merkel has to get White some help or it will be a long season for the Badger faithful. Clyde is still not back after a rebuilding year last year, as they lost 26-8 to a very good 2A team in De Leon. I expect this to be a shootout with two teams that probably feel like they should be 1-0 right now.
Merkel 35-Clyde 27
Coleman Bluecats(0-1)
There isn’t much left to say about the Bluecats. I expect Early to put up a similar score as they did last week, but Coleman shouldn’t get shut out two weeks in a row. However, last season the Bluecats didn’t score until Week 4 at Brady, so you never know.
Early 51 – Coleman 14
TLCA Eagles(0-1)
TLCA was up 18-0 at one point against Eldorado last week. Somehow they lost the game 54-18. Irion County lost to McCamey 58-0 so lets go with TLCA as I know head coach Brent Rider has not let his guys forget about giving up that lead.
TLCA 14 – Irion County 7
Area games of note:
Miles Bulldogs(1-0)
Miles is going to put this game to bed by half. Roby is a 6-man school that refuses to move down. Miles is going to have one of their best seasons in a long while. They should top their win total from last season before October and if they can get past Munday on the road September 29thit is not out of the realm of possibility that the Bulldogs could be undefeated heading into the playoffs. Yes, I think they could be that good.
Miles 49- Roby 7
Winters Blizzards(1-0)
Winters opened the season manhandling Goldthwaithe 34-14. For a ball control primarily run centric offense that isn’t designed to score a lot of points that isn’t a bad opening week. The last time Winters defeated Eldorado was in 2014 when the Blizzards went 10-2 and two rounds deep in the playoffs, before losing to state runner-up Albany. Winters could have a similar run this year, but district contests against Hawley and Stamford will go a long way to determining the Blizzards path in the playoffs.
Winters 28- Eldorado 21
