FOOTBALL FLYOVER! | Our roundup, with Henderson, White Oak, Arp, Troup, & Overton

Henderson and Athens met Friday night in a football game that transformed into a track meet.

Henderson, the road team in the contest, came up short in a 56-49 final, the first game for Ricky Meeks as the Lions’ head coach, following in the footsteps of his late father, Dickie, in that role.

In other games from teams in the ETBlitz.com coverage area, Carthage came back to get past Kilgore, 21-10 (Carthage 21, Kilgore 10), West Rusk led 3A power Malakoff at halftime, but lost, 33-14 (Malakoff comes back on West Rusk); Spring Hill had a good first half and held off Sabine, 38-13 (Spring Hill 38, Sabine 13); Gilmer pulled away from Pine Tree in the second half and won, 41-25 (that story is coming); White Oak hit the road to Eustace (and Eustace wishes now that they had not), and left with a 58-7 victory Troup smashed home-team Shelbyville, 56-14; Arp did the same to Harleton, 49-0; Overton shut out Alba-Golden on the road, 45-0; and Leverett’s Chapel has yet to play: they play tonight at Greenville Christian, at 7 p.m.

And here’s what happened Thursday night, with games involving Tatum, Gladewater and Beckville: LEWIS WINS FIRST GAME AT GLADEWATER | Weather plays havoc in Beckville; Winnsboro gets a measure of revenge on Tatum on football’s opening night.

Athens 56, Henderson 49: Tied at 49 in the game’s final seconds, Athens quarterback David Richardson — who had given the Lions fits the entire game — broke free for a 15-yard run, what would be the game-winner.

Athens (1-0), ranked 20th in the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football preseason state 4A, Division II poll, plays at Kaufman next Friday. Henderson (0-1) makes the trek to Texarkana to take on another state-ranked team, Liberty-Eylau, in a rematch of a tight 44-41 L-E win a year ago.

Things started with a bang Friday night: the Lions got the ball first and tailback Jesstin “Meaty”Starling scored on a 2-yard run.

After the Lions recovered a fumble by Athens on the kickoff, Starling would get in again on a short drive, another 2-yard score, for a 14-0 lead after two good extra points by Ivan Navarro.

Richardson and the Hornets bounced back quickly, cutting Henderson’s lead in half with the first of three TDs by the quarterback. A missed extra point  left Athens trailing then, 14-6, and caused them to chase points all night in a back-and-forth game that resembled that track meet we mentioned.

Henderson fell behind and then tied the game late at 49-all on a fumble recovery for a score by linebacker Jordan Ervin. 

That set up the game’s final drive and Richardson’s 15-yard game-winner.

White Oak 58, Eustace 7: Roughnecks quarterback Jaxsen Ludlow will be the star of Eustace fans’ nightmares for the next week: Ludlow accounted for 377 total yards and six touchdowns in a runover of Eustace on Friday night.

Ludlow, the son of White Oak coach Michael Ludlow, went 11-of-15 for 277 yards (27 yards a completion!) and three touchdowns, and no picks.

One of those six: a touchdown catch from younger brother Tucker, the backup quarterback.

For good measure, he ran for 100 yards on eight carries and two more TDs. 

Kenny Paul ran for 32 yards and a score. Cameron Vail ran for 13 yards.

Logan Ladwig had a huge night: five catches, 122 yards and a score. Tysen McClain and Cal Jester each caught a TD pass, and Brandon Wood only had two catches, but for 57 yards.

Levi Sipes had 10 tackles, three for loss, and two fumble recoveries. Tyson McKinney had eight tackles. Bryce Morgan had seven, four for loss.

Angle Mejia had a sack. 

The ‘Necks will host Paul Pewitt next Friday, a 7 o’clock kickoff.

Troup 56, Shelbyville 14: At Shelbyville, you might say Troup’s Josh Childress had a great debut as the team’s new quarterback.

You’d be right.

Childress thew FOUR touchdown passes and 250 yards, and ran for 45 yards and another score as coach Sam Wells’ Tigers won their opener and looked darn impressive doing it.

Speaking of Wells, Brett Wells, the Tigers’ returner at running back, had 115 rush yards and two touchdown runs, and also had two catches for 24 yards and a TD.

Oh, and Wells also had an interception return for a 70-yard touchdown — four TDs in all — and had 12 tackles.

The Hollies didn’t sing “Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)” — they caught touchdown passes from Childress, one each.

Noble Kendrick picked up where he left off in ‘24, returning a fumble for a score, and Caden Starkey had two sacks and 11 tackles, four for loss.

Arp 49, Harleton 0: Arp quarterback Ty Langley only attempted two passes Friday at Harleton, completing one of them for 6 yards.

That’s because Langley and the Tigers were too busy running the ball all over Harleton.

Arp as a team ran for 219 yards and four touchdowns Friday night, three of them by Zane Borque, and scored three times in defense in a rout.

Borque caught the pass Langley threw for 6 yards, and ran for 58 yards and the three scores on just six carries. Casen Burgins led the Tigers in rush yards (72 on seven carries). Josh Smith and Hudson Opineda each had 45 yards.

Defensively, Arp caused two fumbles (Burgins and Grayson Spoon one each), and Langley grabbed two interceptions, and returned both for scores.

Chrisden Ellis returned a fumble for a touchdown. 

Case Arrington led the defense with nine tackles, and Ellis and Wyatt Calley each had seven.

Arp (1-0) will host Garrison next Friday, Sept. 5 at 7:30.

Overton 45, Alba-Golden 0: Throughout the summer, we at ETBlitz heard this constant question: “What’s (Overton coach Scotty) Laymance gonna do to replace (quarterback) Bryce Still?”

Well, the journey to the answer of that question has started. And it’s looking good after one game.

Rylan Holleman threw for 184 yards and four touchdowns (on a 13-of-19 performance), and ran 10 times for 126 yards and another score.

The touchdown passes were to Jacob Osburn, who caught five balls for 124 yards and two TDs; to Ivan Ransom (five for 52 yards and a TD), Justin Weir (two catches, 2 yards and a score), and Kason Hawkins (one for 8 yards, a TD pass).

Gabe Miller had a big night: 164 yards rushing and a touchdown. Jackson Furlow had 52 rush yards. Weir had 45, and Hunter Klima, 19.

Defensively, Hawkins and Klima each had six tackles. Brody Brown had an interception, a caused fumble and a fumble recovery; and Weir had two caused fumbles.

Overton (1-0) hosts Carlisle next Friday, a 7 p.m. kickoff.