OVERTON-MART PREVIEW | Can the Mustangs take down one of the favorites in Class 2A?
Last year, in coach Scotty Laymance’s first year as head coach, you might say Overton was an early arrival.
The Mustangs – who have a great football history, but most of it, let’s face it, has been a while – were back in 2023 in a big way, winning 10 games before losing to Mart in the second round of the University Interscholastic League’s 2A, Division II playoffs.
This year, though, Overton is right on time.
And it just might BE their time.
Coach Laymance’s Overton Mustangs (9-2) face Mart (9-2) once again tonight in the UIL 2A-DII playoffs – they meet once again in the second, or area, round, a 7 p.m. kickoff at Kemp High School.
Here’s the thing, and this is important if you’re going to Kemp: tickets are sold online and at the gate, but even at the gate, there’s no cash accepted. Here’s the link for tickets, and it’s long, but it works: ETBlitz.com tested it. It’s https://kempisd.hometownticketing.com/embed/event/81?es=0a5qcpo4htijism097ksh3gdqk&single=0&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0As2bw0fAo0_rF1ft2jyvV6DbrrsBTDRTy34LYcjTrZqtdeHFcih80bEY_aem_kSI-CmjlREU8dItl4Mnzdw.
Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for students, and Kemp’s Yellow Jacket Stadium does have a clear bag policy. Texas High School Coaches Association passes, District 11-2A, DII passes, and senior citizens passes are all accepted.
The address for the stadium, if you need it, is 220 State Highway 274, Kemp, TX, 75143.
ETBlitz.com hasn’t been able to find a live streaming broadcast of this game. If we do, between now and kickoff, it’ll be shared here.
The winner of Overton-Mart will play either Goldthwaite (7-4) or Grapeland (8-3) next week in round three.
Most anyone, given a choice, wouldn’t want to step into the panther’s den that is Mart High School football.
That’s because when it comes to football history for Mart, it’s short, but boy, is it impressive.
The Panthers won two state championships at the 1A level back in what we call the “Golden Age,” in 1957, then again in 1969.
But since making the state title game in 1986, a loss to Shiner, Mart has had an incredible run – and yes, it’s reminiscent of Carthage, although over a lot longer period of time.
The Panthers won a state title back in 2006; skipped a year, returned to the state championship game in 2008 and lost to Canadian; won it all again in 2010, beating Goldthwaite; lost in the state championship game in 2012; won THREE STRAIGHT state titles from 2017-2019; and have made it back to the state title game three times in the last four years, losing each time (to Windthorst in 2020, by a point; and then to Albany in both 2022 and 2023.
In short, the Panters expect to be in the state title game, or thereabouts, every single season.
Many of those years, Mart was rolling heading into the playoffs. This year, the Panthers won their district (a 6-1 district record against Bremond, Chilton, Wortham, Hubbard, Meridian, Frost and Goldthwaite). But they actually have a couple of losses, and one of them – to Goldthwaite – gives Overton fans a reason for hope. Goldthwaite absolute wore Mart out, a 46-0 defeat for the Panthers.
And that was just two weeks ago.
Mart dropped that game in the regular season finale on Nov. 8. Last week, now, the Panthers bounced back with a 68-20 win over Cumby.
Let’s talk about personnel for coach Kevin Hoffman’s Panthers.
Two quarterbacks have played, and both gotten significant playing time: Dangelo Rhodes and De’Montrel Medlock, both seniors. Rhodes is 74-of-106 for 1,084 yards, 15 touchdowns and four interceptions this season, and also has ran for 335 yards and four scores on 58 carries, about 6 yards a carry.
Medlock has ran for 761 yards and 19 TOUCHDOWNS on 112 carries, and has gotten right at 7 yards a carry. And he’s ran for more than 100 yards in four games this year. He has completed 49-of-83 passes for 663 yards and nine touchdowns, and also has thrown three picks.
You’d probably guess the Panthers are pretty decent at running the ball.
You’d be right.
They’ve ran, as an offense, for 2,300 yards even, and for 41 touchdowns. Medlock is their leading rusher, but watch out for Ahmaad Scott, who has 644 yards and 11 TDs on 101 carries.
The Panthers have three receivers with at least 22 catches each: Medlock (surprise, surprise), freshman Damian Davis, and Scott. Medlock has 25 catches for 465 yards and five touchdowns. Davis has 24, for 214 yards and three TDs, and Scott, 22 for 259 yards and four TDs. Also, watch for junior Ethan Hocking, with four touchdowns and 230 yards on 16 catches, and another senior, Landyn Hinton, with five touchdowns and 287 yards on 14 catches.
Here’s a part of Mart’s game that isn’t the best: punting.
This season, the Panthers have used three punters: Rhodes, Medlock and Hocking. And they’re averaging only 27 yards per punt, well below average. They’ve landed exactly none of them inside their opponents’ 20-yard-line.
Kicking for MHS will be either senior Cadynn Villarreal or freshman Tyson Killbride, or both. Villarreal is 8-of-10 in extra points, and Killbride, 3-of-6. Neither has attempted a field goal all year, according to our notes. But Mart does have 33 two-point conversions, 24 of them on the ground, led by – who would you guess? – Medlock, who has 11.
On defense, a freshman – Octavious Gillaspy – actually leads the Panthers in tackles, with 90. But Villarreal is impressive, with 74 stops and 19 for loss. Sophomore Andrew Wiley has 65 stops, 10 for loss, and Hinton, 57 tackles, 11 for loss.
Wiley leads the team in sacks (four), and as a unit, the defense has 20 of them, and 24 quarterback hurries. Mart has 13 fumble recoveries this year, and 13 interceptions. The firm of Medlock and Medlock – De’Montrel and Zach – each have three interceptions.
And here’s an interesting statistic: Mart has blocked four field goals this year, an unusually-high number.
Coach Hoffman is in his 10th year, and is an incredible 121-13 in that time period – the Panthers haven’t lost more than one game since the 2019 season. They went 14-1 in both 2020 and 2021, and 15-1 each of the last two years. And those were the seasons they DIDN’T win the state title.
Enough about the opposition. Let’s talk about those Overton Mustangs.
Coach Scotty Laymance is in his second year, and has a 19-4 record leading the Mustangs.
Assisting coach Laymance are offensive coordinator Josh Furlow, defensive coordinator Roderick McKnight, Chris Cook, C.J. Grimmett, Lance Holleman, Zach Griffin, and Marty Mayfield.
How about that Mustangs’ offense? They’re averaging 44 points a game through 11 games!
Led by an offensive line that includes Garrett Boney, Elijah Dorsey, Vance Fletcher, Chris Foster and Eathen Oates, Overton has rolled up 4,763 total yards this year, and averages 433 a game!
There’s two-time Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player of the Week, quarterback Bryce Still. “All” Bryce has done this year is complete 67 percent of his throws (198-of-294) for 2,980 yards, 38 touchdowns and six interceptions. That’s Still’s second straight year of throwing for 38 touchdowns.
On the ground, Still is part of an Overton ground game that has notched 1,789 yards and 30 touchdowns (up from 26 a year ago) – Still’s the leading rusher, with 600 yards and 14 touchdowns on 78 carries, 7 1/2 yards a carry. Justin Weir has 709 yards and eight TDs on 84 carries, and Gabriel Miller, 359 yards and six touchdowns on 38 carries – he’s averaging almost 10 yards a carry!
And what receiver Jayden Edwards is doing is just simply ridiculous. Edwards, in his senior season, has 69 catches for 1,371 yards and 22 touchdowns, matching and surpassing in some cases his 2023 numbers (75 catches for 1,346 yards and 19 touchdowns).
Bryson Bobbitt: Still’s other hand, with 40 catches for 638 yards and seven TDs.
Other targets for Still are Rylan Holleman, Jacob Osburn and Weir, each with 22 catches – Holleman has 313 yards and three touchdowns and Weir, normally out of the backfield, has 22, for 132 and two scores. Osburn has 304 yards and three scores. And Mason Rowe has only six catches this year, but he’s made the most of it: two of them were for touchdowns, and 65 yards’ worth.
Jackson Furlow, a freshman who booted the kick that dropped Mount Enterprise in overtime a few weeks’ back, has hit 20 of his 26 extra point attempts, and is 1-of-2 in field goals, a long of 36 (that night against Mount Enterprise). Still is 19-of-28 in extra points.
Defensively, Weir, just a sophomore, leads in tackles with 111, averages 10 a game, and has five for loss this year. Miller has 65 stops, and 16 for loss (leads the team). The Mustangs have 11 sacks this year (Miller has four, and Kash Holleman and Gunnar Whitfield each have two),and 23 quarterback hurries.
Rowe and Osburn each have three interceptions of Overton’s 10 picks as a team, and the Mustangs have 18 fumble recoveries, three of them by junior Hunter Klima.
A little history…
Overton High School’s football program was organized in 1931, with such early coaches as Clyde Lee, Louis Paradeaux and Chester “Chatter” Allen. Bo Talkington had big success at Overton in the 1980s, going 12-1 in ’83, and 10-1 in ’84, taking a year off, and then back, going 11-1 in ’88 and 10-2-1 in ’89. Mike Clyde led the team through the ‘90s, and had several good seasons, including a 10-2-1 season in ’89, three seasons of at least nine wins, and a fantastic 13-2 mark in 1995.
Recent seasons weren’t kind as the program had eight coaches between 2001-2022, and then Laymance took the team from a 2-9 finish in ’22 to 10-2 last year.
