Ballinger won their Homecoming matchup in exciting fashion with a 55-39 victory over the Anson Tigers. Some might be discouraged in the amount of points that Ballinger gave up, but the Anson offense is quite potent. They have, to this point, outscored Ballinger on the season 161-149. Although they are 1-4 the Tigers have been far from an easy out for most opponents. They scored 30 on Jim Ned and 28 on state ranked Stamford.
Ballinger was able to put the game away on a brilliant performance by Edgar Nunez who had 128 yards passing and 323 rushing yards with a total of 5 touchdowns. Most of the damage that Nunez did was on unscripted runs. Anson seemed intent on filling all the running lanes on defense. Whenever Edgar saw the hole filled he would change direction and simply outrun the defense. Cooper Bean didn’t have much running room on the night, but he still averaged 4 yards a carry and chipped in 2 touchdowns.
Ballinger had their hands full defensively, but they managed to put the game away on an interception by Garrett Zertuche, who scored his second non-offensive touchdown of the season, as well as an interception by Deaundre Manley who ended one Anson drive and continued one Ballinger drive with a 43 yard reception on 3rd down and more than 20.
Cooper Bean was his normal defensive stalwart, leading the team with 18 tackles with Jayden Rivera-McDuffee close behind with 14 and Ashton Belk with 13. Fernando Falcon was the only Bearcat able to get a sack in the game.
Ballinger will next travel to Bangs to take on the Dragons, who finally got their first win in over two seasons. As great of a story as that is Ballinger aims to end that win streak at one as they look to continue their own.
