A BRIDGE TOO FAR | Kilgore, Bridge City meet today at 2 p.m. in New Caney in round three
NEW CANEY – Well, well, well.
That’s an awfully-deep subject.
But jokes aside, it’s game day.
Kilgore and Bridge City square off for the first time in one of two Class 4A Region III semifinal games, involving our coverage area teams on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
The third-ranked Bulldogs and Bridge City Cardinals, both 11-1, meet at Randall Reed Stadium with kickoff set for 2 p.m.
Pine Tree (8-4) faces Fort Bend Crawford (11-1) in Groesbeck at Groesbeck Stadium, beginning at 7 p.m.
There are a grand total of seven games involving teams in the ETBlitz.com coverage area, and here’s a link informing you guys about ticket information, broadcast information, tickets, and more: LET’S FREAKIN’ GO! | It’s the playoffs! What you need to know / Presented by (who else?!) WHATABURGER!.
As far as Kilgore-Bridge City, well, that’s my job, and here we go. Remember that the Ragin’ Red Broadcasting team of Don Hedrick, Doug Smith and Jason Smith have been calling the Kilgore Bulldogs games since the Reagan Administration (not Jason, he was just a kid, but still) and if you’d like to hear their call of the game, do so on the radio on KDOK 105.3-FM, and streaming online by going to our home page, and clicking the Kilgore helmet. It’s that simple.
Kilgore is coming off a 42-0 shutout of Stafford a week ago, while Bridge City was busy ousting Navasota 35-27 from its football season. Each is a district champion and each eliminated a team from the other’s district two weeks ago. That would be Little Cypress-Mauriceville for the Bulldogs (61-14) and Chapel Hill (24-21) for the Cardinals.
Last season’s 8-3 record for Bridge City was its first winning season since 2016 and ended in a disappointing 35-28 playoff loss to Pine Tree.
The Cardinals opened this season with seven wins, including four 10-4A victories in a row, before suffering a 24-16 loss to LC-M on Oct. 24. BC enters today’s third-round playoff encounter averaging 32.8 points per game and allowing its opposition 16.9 PPG. In comparison, Kilgore’s numbers are 41.3 and 10.4, respectively.
A big question starting the season for the Cardinals, was who would step in to quarterback this year’s spread offense as Bridge City looked to put back-to-back playoff seasons together. Junior Hudson Hoffman (6-0, 150) did exactly that, more than capably, completing 169-of-260 passes for 2,328 yards and 28 touchdowns through 12 games. That’s an average of 194 yards per game. Not bad.
Hoffman, who has also rushed for six touchdowns, is joined in the backfield by running back Ashton Sumrall (5-10, 200), who rushed for 1,367 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2024 and added to those numbers with a team-leading 1,031 on 192 carries and nine touchdowns thus far this season. Others who’ve contributed significantly to the 1,728 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns have been sophomore running back Joshua Luna (25-200), senior Braxton Lynam (5-7, 160) with 151 yards and senior wide receiver Abraham Munguia (5-7, 170) with 137 yards and four scores.
Hoffman’s primary receiver has been Munguia, who was instrumental in last season’s success with 40 receptions for 630 yards and seven touchdowns. He has 81 catches for 1,167 yards and 14 touchdowns through a dozen games in 2025. Munguia is followed by tight end Luke Nelson (28-457, 4), Sumrall (17-146) and running back / wide receiver Evan Jackson (15-145, 1).
Kilgore’s defense accounted for its most productive night of the season scoring with a couple of touchdowns last week against Stafford, getting a David McGowan interception return and an Isaiah Watters fumble recovery return for touchdowns and limited the Spartans to just 53 yards rushing and 21 yards passing.
Besides his interception return for a touchdown, McGowan led the way with 10 tackles as well as a tackle for loss and a sack. Bi’Syn Williams followed with eight tackles, a forced fumble and three hurries, and Lakeyleon Graves chipped in with seven stops.
Watters, Graves, Ja’Kalyn Sheffield and McGowan continue to lead the Ragin’ Red defense. Watters in tackles with 113, including a dozen tackles for loss to go with four sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and 11 hurries. Graves has 106 total tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, four interceptions one of those he returned for a touchdown and a fumble recovery.
Sheffield, a safety, had four tackles against Stafford, bringing his season total to 103, three of those tackles for loss for -9 yards, two interceptions and a forced fumble. McGowan now has 102 tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, to go with an interception return for a touchdown and a fumble recovery.
Others with good nights defensively for the Bulldogs were linebackers Travis Holmes, Kaeson Clayton and Zarak Hall, as well as defensive linemen Cris Smith and Cameron Christian.
Defensive leaders for the Cardinals are junior linebacker Bryce Breeden (6-2, 205) with 89 tackles, 19 tackles for loss and three caused fumbles, defensive end Asher Richardson (6-5, 205) with 79 tackles, linebacker Keagan Trahan (6-1, 200) with 78 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and defensive end Koby Dean with 15 tackles for loss. Dean, a senior, is also the sack leader with 11 and has 14 quarterback hurries.
Senior safety Ethan Hernandez (5-11, 180) leads in takeaways for the Cardinals with three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Kilgore quarterback Kayson Brooks was 9-of-16 passing for 131 yards last week against Stafford, moving his season figures to 160-of-242 for 2,468 yards with 24 touchdowns. Brooks has also run for 205 yards and seven touchdowns.
His leading receivers have been Graves with 41 receptions for 611 yards and seven touchdowns, Dre’ Sanders (27-283, 2), Tyler Johnigan (26-413, 5) and T.K. White (20-352, 4).
Junior running back Rayshaun Williams continues to lead the rushing attack for the Bulldogs with 1,512 yards and 15 touchdowns. He is followed by sophomore running back Maddox Wright with 352 yards and five touchdowns.
The winner of the Kilgore-Bridge City game advances to the fourth round of the playoffs next week against the winner of the Pine Tree and Fort Bend Crawford contest at a site and time to be determined.
