KILGORE WELCOMES ‘CATS TONIGHT | Bulldogs host Palestine in big district game
It’s week eight, and pretty much everything is undecided in the biggest district that ETBlitz.com covers.
After an open week, teams from District 8-4A, Division I – formerly known as the ol’ “District of Doom” –get back to the business of the fourth week of district play tonight. For Kilgore (2-1, 2-3), that’s Palestine (1-2, 3-3) here at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium, a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Those who can’t make the game can watch it streamed online (Kilgore Bulldog Network on YouTube.com) or hear the Ragin’ Red Broadcasting team on the radio on KDOK 105.3-FM, or streaming at www.kdokradio.com.
Elsewhere in the district, there’s a huge game in Longview at Pine Tree’s Pirate Stadium. No. 2 Lindale (6-0, 3-0) visits No. 10 Pine Tree (4-2, 3-0), also without a district loss.
Henderson (3-3, 2-1) travels to Jacksonville (2-4, 0-3), and Bullard (1-5, 0-3) hosts Chapel Hill (1-5, 1-2).
“We went back to working on fundamentals for us, learning and doing what we need to be doing,” Kilgore coach and athletic director Clint Fuller said. “Our focus is on what’s in front of us right now (Palestine). It’s also on ourselves our offense, our defense and our special teams.”
When asked about the young players buying in, he replied, “We’re growing up. We’ve played well in spurts and I think we played well in the second half of the Jacksonville game. Trying to build off of that for four quarters a complete game.”
“The open week hit at a good time for us,” said first-year Palestine head coach Ty Robinson, who was an assistant on the Wildcats coaching staff from 2010-13 when Lance Angel was in his first of two tenures at Palestine High School.
“We were able to heal up and focus on grades. It’s exciting to be playing Kilgore because they have such great tradition.”
The Wildcats are already ahead of last season when they finished 1-9 overall. In district, their win was against Bullard, 35-21, while their losses have been against Pine Tree (42-10) and Henderson (54-35). Their other two wins came against Brownsboro and Seagoville.
Top offensive performers have been senior quarterback Noah Hutchinson, running backs Ashton Cooks, a senior, and junior Damian Ojeda, along with receivers London Brown and Deundre Turner, both juniors.
Through five games the Bulldogs’ defense is anchored by inside linebacker Blade Chitwood, who had a team leading 18 tackles, including a sack, against Jacksonville in a 42-24 victory over the Indians on Oct. 2.
That gives the inside backer 31 tackles as well as a tackle for loss, a sack and an interception. Following him in tackles are outside linebackers Rayshaun Williams (23 tackles and a forced fumble) and De’Andre Thurmond (22 tackles with an interception), aswell as inside linebacker Jaxson Dickey (18) and safety Brenton Mumphrey (17, with a pass breakup).
Defensive end Zarak Hall and defensive tackle Cris Smith joined Chitwood with sacks against Jacksonville quarterback Trent Clater.
The Dogs’ defense is allowing an average of 224.6 yards per contest (149.2 rushing, 75.4 passing).
Kilgore is averaging 207.8 rushing yards and 178.6 passing yards per contest.
Williams and Maddox Wright are once again a formidable rushing combination. Williams rushed for 142 yards and three touchdowns against Jacksonville, moving to 432 for the season and adding to his total as the all-time leading rusher at KHS.
Wright is the leading rusher through five games, though, with 451 yards. Both have six rushing touchdowns.
Quarterback Braddox Johnson (70-of-107) has thrown for 893 yards and 11 touchdowns.
His leading receivers are Tyler Johnigan (20 catches, 380 yards and 6 touchdowns) and Thurmond (13-209, 4). Williams and Wright follow Johnigan and Thurmond with nine catches each for 69 and 56 yards, respectively.
Johnigan had five receptions for 98 yards and a touchdown against Jacksonville.
The Ragin’ Red expect to see the return of wide receiver / safety T.K. White from an early season injury tonight.
This is a series Kilgore has dominated, winning 30 of 41 meetings, and 10 of the last 11 games with the exception a 20-7 loss at Wildcat Stadium in Palestine in 2019.
Palestine’s last win prior to 2019 came in a 2002 bi-district game played in Kilgore in which former OU and Minnesota Vikings’ great Adrian Peterson played for the ’Cats in a 13-6 victory.
Interestingly enough, that was also the very first playoff game that our own Mitch Lucas covered in Texas.