THE FLYOVER | PT edges Hallsville in OT; White Oak, Gladewater are whipping folks; Troup wins again; Beckville, too
Someone asked me at church Sunday morning what all happened this past weekend in high school football.
How’d I answer that?
“More like what didn’t happen,” and I laughed.
We all know third-ranked Kilgore –
Oh wait. White Oak just scored again on Queen City. And the game ended Friday night! 😊
As I was saying, Kilgore went into Texarkana and held off No. 2 Pleasant Grove in a very physical contest. Chapel Hill gave Carthage all it wanted – for 2 ½ quarters, until the ‘Dawgs came back and allowed running backs K.J. Edwards and Benny Smith to take control of the game.
Arp all won comfortably, just like Overton and Henderson did on Thursday night. Tatum and West Rusk did what Tatum and West Rusk do when they play each other: a close, fun ballgame that either side might win, and in this case, it was West Rusk’s Raiders.
And Gilmer… wow, just a mystery there. The Buckeyes have played a knock-out non-district schedule, and the last two weeks have just been bad. But coach Alan Metzel and his staff, I believe, will get this figured out and get the Buckeyes back on track.
All of those games can be found in write-ups on ETBlitz.com. But there are a few things we haven’t discussed. What about Troup, and did the 10th-ranked team in 3A-Division II hold off Rusk on homecoming? Pine Tree won for the first time last week (over Dallas Carter), but this week was a different animal entirely – that would be Bobcat, as in the Hallsville kind.
Did the White Oak Roughnecks continue ripping through 3A, at home against Queen City Friday? Not too long ago, similar to Pine Tree, Beckville began the season 0-2; can coach Cody Ross’s Bearcats win their second straight, and start district play off right? And how would Gladewater bounce back against Spring Hill, after the one-point loss to West Rusk last Thursday?
Well, here’s how things went down in week four of the 2025 high school football season, and we may point back to this weekend as a pivotal point, a critical point, in the season, where things either went – or down.
Let’s go to…
Pine Tree 28, Hallsville 21, overtime (in Hallsville): Two plays sealed Hallsville’s fate at their home stadium Friday night against the Pine Tree Pirates:
- A touchdown pass from Colton Croft to Bosston Johnson that covered 25 yards to give PT a 28-21 lead, and then…
- A fumble by Hallsville on the second play of its possession, giving Pine Tree the ball back – and the win.
Coach Jason Bachman’s Pirates lost the first two games of their season, but they’ve won the last two, and they’re playing good football as District 9-4A, Division I play begins on Friday at Kilgore, a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Against Hallsville, in a game that went back and forth from kickoff, Croft scored on a 2-yard run to put the Pirates up 21-14 in the third quarter.
Hallsville’s Ethan Endsley picked off Croft to get his team the ball back and they would tie the game on a 2-yard run by Blain Hensley with three minutes left.
Neither team could score in the final three minutes, and the game went to overtime, setting up the sequence described earlier.
For the Pirates, Croft went 18-of-26 for 262 yards, a touchdown pass and the pick to Endsley, and also ran for the third-quarter score. And Rashaad Wofford had 110 yards and a touchdown that had tied the game at 14, on five catches.
Gladewater 56, Spring Hill 7 (in Gladewater): Spring Hill won last school year’s state championship in baseball.
The Gladewater Bears made sure they knew Friday night that there were no innings, no dugouts, and not even an sunflower seeds to worry about, only a Bears team with a chip on their shoulders after losing by a point to the West Rusk Raiders the previous week.
Coach Jermaine Lewis’s Bears kept the offense mainly on the ground against the Panthers (1-3) in the final non-district game for both teams. Gladewater ran, and ran, and ran and ran and ran, to the tune of 340 rushing yards as an offense.
Kayson Harris led everyone, with 127 yards on just six carries (he averaged 21.2 yards a carry) and two touchdowns. Tray Watts had 64 yards and scored twice on eight carries. Aubrey Floyd also scored twice, and had 41 yards on seven carries, and Ethan Alvarez had 36 yards on nine carries. Floyd had two catches for 60 yards; Grafton Morgan had three, for 40; Harris had one for 7; and Jacobe Crosby had one, too, a 6-yard touchdown from quarterback Achilles Hess, who’s running the Bears’ offense like a pro in his own first year as starter.
Mason Budro had 11 tackles, two for loss, and Amarion Minter only had two tackles, but two for loss. Anthony Snachez also had a tackle for loss.
Landen King had an interception, Budro a forced fumble, and Destin Sheridan and Sanchez each had a fumble recovery.
Gladewater (3-1) opens District 8-3A, Division I play at Jefferson next Friday at 7 p.m.
White Oak 69, Queen City 6 (at White Oak): What do you do when your offense is running better than maybe it ever has, like in the history of your program, and on top of that, your defense is playing lights-out?
You smile a lot. And we’re guessing coach Michael Ludlow is grinning from ear to ear right about now.
The Roughnecks are 4-0, just like they were a year ago, having scored 220 points (that’s 55 points every freakin’ game!) and only allowed 52 (that’s 13 a game!).
White Oak is just playing chess while everyone else has played checkers so far, and the ‘Necks have dominated all their opponents. Now, they go to the district schedule – they’re also in 8-3A, with Sabine, Gladewater, Tatum, Atlanta, Jefferson and Liberty-Eylau – but that doesn’t look nearly as daunting as it did last year. We’ll find out.
Against Queen City, White Oak scored 21 points in each of the first two quarters, then scored 27 in the second half for good measure. The ‘Necks led 42-6 at halftime.
Jaxsen Ludlow, who has already won one Whataburger / ETBlitz boys Player of the Week award this season, is aiming for another. Ludlow, the senior, went 7-of-13 for 185 yards and three touchdown passes, and also ran for two scores and 82 yards on nine carries.
His TD passes went to Tysen & Tyson – as in Tysen McClain, who’s had over 240 yards receiving and six touchdowns in two games, and Tyson McKinney. McKinney had two catches for 54 yards and a TD, and McClain had two for 44 and two scores.
Kenny Poul led the pinball-machine offense in rushing touchdowns (three) while running for 63 yards on eight carries. Levi Sipes scored a touchdown and had 52 yards on seven carries, and Logan Ladwig had an 8-yard carry.
Defensively, Cameron Venable had eight tackles to lead White Oak, who had 13 tackles for loss (Sipes had four, Venable, three, Braddock Richardson two, and Angel Mejia, Jose Garcia, Poul, and Ladwig one each).
Venable, Garcia and Michael Morgan each had a quarterback hurry, and Garcia had a sack. Ladwig, Venable, and Mejia each had an interception, and Poul had a fumble recovery.
The Roughnecks open district play next Friday at home against Atlanta, a 7 o’clock kickoff.
Troup 20, Rusk 3 (at Troup): This game was delayed for a bit due to a young man from Rusk, Aiden Adams.
Several local news outlets reported Saturday that Adams, who was hurt in the second half, and diagnosed with a concussion, although there were some scary moments. Of course, here at ETBlitz.com, our prayers are with Aiden and his family.
In the game, Troup – who broke into the top 10 in the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Class 3A, Division II state poll last week – took care of business ahead of a District 11-3A, DII showdown with rival Arp this coming Friday.
Troup quarterback Josh Childress, a junior in his first year as a starter, had a good all-around night. He didn’t throw a touchdown in going 10-of-18 for 69 yards, but he did run for one, and 55 yards on eight carries.
Teammate Brett Wells went for 71 yards and a score on 15 carries.
Cameron Hollie had five catches for 35 yards; Dee Hollie, three for 17; and James Pierce, two for 17.
Wells led the defense in tackles (11) and Billy Borja had six, including four for loss. Noble Kendrick and A.J. Dewberry each had two tackles for loss, and Troup as a defensive unit had 11.
Dewberry and Caden Starkey each had a sack, and the Hollies – not the band, but the Tigers – each had an interception. Borja caused a fumble and Jackson Walker recovered one.
As mentioned, Troup (4-0), ranked 10th in 3A-DII, will host Arp (4-0) next Friday in the district opener for both teams, one that’s sure to not disappoint.
Beckville 30, Harleton 6 (at Beckville): It was important for Beckville to win this week – the Bearcats shrugged off a slow start to the season for their first win a week ago (over Harmony), and continued to impress on Thursday at home in the District 10-2A, Division I.
Harleton’s offense could not gain ground against the Bearcats, who held Harleton to under 120 total yards.
Beckville (2-2 overall, 1-0 in district play) scored first, a 9-yard run by Jorden Prince (7-0 Bearcats), the extra point by Jordan Mojica, and the only score of the first half for either team.
Mojica gave the Bearcats three more points on a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter, then got the ball right back on the kickoff, fumble recovered by Gabe Johnson at the Harleton 36-yard-line. Braxton Bullock, Beckville’s quarterback, then rewarded Johnson on the next play, a touchdown pass.
Bullock went 10-of-11 for 140 yards and a pair of touchdowns: one to Johnson and one to Grayson Hicks (37 yards), the game’s final score.
Johnson had five catches for 109 yards and two TDs: the one from Bullock, and another from Mojica that wasn’t planned on a field goal gone bad. Harleton’s only score of the game was a 4-yard run by Michael Williams 3 ½ minutes into the third quarter.
Their district opener behind them, the Bearcats visit Elysian Fields on Friday at 7. The Yellowjackets might be a challenge: they’re 4-0, and have scored at least 41 points in three of their four games this season.
