Archive : September 2006

September 25, 2006

Only 120 hours till kickoff! District Play begins 9/29 – 7:30pm!

Open weeks…, well what can you say? They are useful, and productive, and helpful for healing and preparation, and boy are they long! At least we got it behind us early this year. Not much to report other than most of our injuries are healing. Several guys who’ve been sidelined with nagging injuries or just seeing limited action, will be back for the District opener against JimNed. The Indians have looked pretty impressive so far this year, sort of. They’ve won against Merkel and Eastland, but were soundly beaten by Breckenridge, who just barely got by winless Bangs 2 weeks ago. Before the season began, I felt that JimNed was the sleeper in our District and would advance to the playoffs in the #3 spot, behind Wall #2, and the Longhorns #1. (I’m still not convinced that Coleman is that strong despite their 3-0 record entering District play.) There are a lot of possibilities in this long District schedule, so it should be interesting.

By the way, don’t let the Clyde-Bangs score fool you. Clyde’s starting QB and #1 tackler, Wes Liles, only played during the 1st quarter. And as for JimNed, Eastland without Kerry Huitt is not a real contest. Should make this Friday’s game a lot of fun. I expect the Longhorns to score early and often. See you at the game. Don’t forget to bring your FM radio head-set, we’ll be broadcasting “in-stadium” all season long for out of town games.

September 18, 2006

Longhorns 23 Clyde Bulldogs 6

3A Clyde Bulldogs no match for ’06 Longhorns

The Early Longhorns gave a standing-room-only Homecoming crowd just what they expected – a convincing victory over the previously unbeaten Clyde Bulldogs. Final score: Longhorns 23 Bulldogs 6

Congratulations to Amy Martin, 2006 Homecoming Queen!

Josh Conley averaged 5.5 yds/carry on his way to 192 yards rushing and Eric Skaggs hit on 11of 14 passes for 128 yds and 2 TDs. While the first half was a bit of a defensive battle, it became clear early on that the Longhorn Defense was much more physical than the Bulldog offense. On the night, the ‘Horns Defense allowed just 192 yds. total offense. The Bulldogs “ball control” game plan was somewhat effective in the first half with the Longhorns really only having 2 possessions, in what was one of the quickest halves of football this fan has ever witnessed. The second half saw the Longhorns step things up a notch, and that step was just a little too high for the Clyde Bulldogs. Clyde came into the game with a 2 game win streak and left with their tails between their legs. Their next opponent will be the Bangs Dragons, with Bangs still looking for the first win of ’06.

This week the Longhorns will be working hard to prepare for the Jim Ned Indians – the beginning of District Play. The Indians were idle this past week and will play Eastland this Friday. They beat Merkel by 8 points in the season opener, and fell to Breckenridge 34-13 in week one.

It is interesting how many of our District opponents are playing common foes on the non-district schedule. Maybe it means something, maybe not, but still makes good conversation. Bangs lost to Comanche whom the Longhorns man-handled in a scrimmage, who also beat Brady, who the Longhorns also dominated in scrimmage play; Bangs also lost to Breckenridge, who soundly defeated Jim Ned. Bangs travels to Clyde this week to face the Bulldogs who where beaten by the Longhorns; Ballinger lost to Clyde 31-6 in week 0, then beat Brady(but,then again who hasn’t?), the Bearcats also beat Coahoma, who is expected to make the playoffs this year, but now stands at 0-3. After beating Brady, Coleman has beaten two 1A teams, Winters pretty soundly and Rotan just barely. Wall, surprisingly, lost to state-ranked 1A Goldthwaite, and Goldthwaite also defeated San Saba. Both Wall and Grape Creek have defeated Colorado City, who, in 3 games have only scored 6 points and have allowed 110 points. The Longhorns at 2-1, lost to Crawford with that game vaulting the Pirates to #1 in the AP Poll only to be brought low by Troy last Friday 25-3, the Troy team had it’s Field house burned by vandals early last week and were playing with incredible emotion according to local sources. What does all this mean? I don’t know, I just think it’s interesting to think about.

My prediction is that the Horns will move to #8 on the AP Poll and that Crawford will drop out, and that we’ll win over Jim Ned next week by at least 21 points. Also, I’m picking Coleman over Bangs, San Saba over Ballinger, and Wall over Grape Creek. This 8-team district is going to be fun, a lot of games and a lot of possibilities.

Enjoy the open week.

Tracy

September 5, 2006

Early Longhorns 32 Cisco Loboes 20

Revenge is Sweet in Cisco - Longhorns 32 Loboes 20

Early fans didn’t have to wait long into the ’06 season for the first taste of victory, as the Horns took care of business on the new “sport-turf” field in Cisco last Friday. A very under-rated Cisco Lobo team certainly made an interesting game of it! Cisco scored early, and maintained the lead until midway through the 3rd quarter, before the superior conditioning of the Longhorns really began to dominate the game. All in all, it was a good opener for the ‘Horns, and an excellent primer for the guys from Crawford who are coming to town this Friday.

This blog entry is a little abbreviated due to the holiday and just plain busy schedules, but please feel free to get a little comment/conversation going as to what you think will happen this Friday, when # 3 Crawford comes to town to face the Longhorns.

A couple of things are certain, #1-it will be a great ballgame; #2-you better show up early to get a parking place.

Also, check out the Tuesday edition of the Abilene Reporter/News for a great story on QB Eric Skaggs and the Early program.

Freshman play at McDonald Field on Thursday and the JV squad travels to Crawford, 6:30 kickoff.

Don’t forget to bring your radios to the game Friday. Tune in to AM1380 for the broadcast from Joseph King and myself.

Oh, by the way – of the eight teams in our district this year, 4 won on Friday and 4 lost. I’d be interested to hear what some of you think about how our district will end up. Let me know what you think.

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