THE FLYOVER | PT, WR, Gladewater all win big / Presented by KILGORE MERCANTILE & MUSIC

EDITOR’S NOTE: More coming later, including Arp, Troup and Beckville, all winners Friday night.

Working on It was a busy night as always, Friday night in the ETBlitz.com coverage area.
Pine Tree got its swagger back at Mabank’s expense. Arp and Troup did what they normally do: pummeled a couple of outmatched opponents. Coach Rafe Mata and the West Rusk Raiders raided Winona, and Winona didn’t like it.
Gladewater continued to roll over a young Sabine team. And Beckville kept Big Sandy winless.
Yep, “just another night” here in ETB country.
Before we do The Flyover, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention probably the game that seemed to be everybody’s game of the week, the Highway 259 Shootout between Kilgore and Henderson. That went Kilgore’s way, 27-12, and you can read Joe Hale’s recap right here: LIKE CATS & DOGS | Kilgore wins in Henderson, 27-12.
If you want to read the game as it happened, and my thoughts as it unfolded, here’s that piece of work, but it’s super-duper long: LET’S DO IT AGAIN! | Kilgore 27, Henderson 12, a final at Lions Stadium, our recap by MITCH LUCAS. It is probably kind of funny, though. And we did get to hear music. Oh, just give it a read.
And somehow, Liberty-Eylau won the District 8-3A, Division I game at Tatum, 28-13. Here’s Clayton Fletcher’s story: THERE’S A LEOPARD IN THE EAGLE’S NEST | Liberty-Eylau spoils Tatum’s return home, leaves with 28-13 win.
Let’s do The Flyover.

Pine Tree 64, Mabank 8: Mabank doesn’t really like coming to East Texas.
And why WOULD the Panthers like it? I mean, they have Whataburger where THEY live. They didn’t get to come to Kilgore to get Blue Bell from Kilgore Mercantile & Music, or learn an instrument from Fred Gebhardt; they didn’t have time. And every time they come this way, Kilgore, Henderson and Pine Tree are waiting to pounce.
This time, it was Pine Tree in waiting, and pounce the Pirates did to the tune of a 64-8 Mabank loss — in District 9-4A, Division I, no less.
Mabank didn’t have a game last week, so the Panthers are 0-1 in district. Pine Tree did, a loss to Kilgore, but the win over Mabank softened that blow a little. PT is now 1-1 in district play, with an open date to rest next Friday.
The Pirates (3-3 overall) will visit Henderson (4-2) on Friday, Oct. 17.
We here at ETBlitz didn’t look up what “curtains” means in the old saying “It’s curtains for you” in all the mobster movies back in the day, when movies were all black and white. But we do know this: it was curtains for the Panthers before the Precision even took the field for their halftime performance. Pine Tree was up 44-8 at the break.
A fumble recovery by Aiden Smith led to the first PT touchdown, a 23-yard run by Roger Attaway, who would score three times Friday night.
Still in the first quarter, the Pirates would score twice more. Quarterback Colton Croft hit Ashton Valentine, who took it 40 yards to the house for a touchdown, and then Ja’Karius Timmons would score on a 6-yard run.
Just like that, it was 20-0 Pirates.
It wouldn’t stay that way long, and Mabank didn’t do it. Pirates kicker Julian Ibarra made it 23-0 on a 30-yard field goal, and Attaway would score on an 11-yard run. That was a bit of an adventure; an off-snap on another field goal attempt was picked up off the Pirate Stadium turf by Bosston Johnson, who got into the end zone, but PT and Mabank were both flagged. The down was replayed, and Attaway scored.
Rashaad Wofford picked off a pass by Mabank’s Jaxon Copeland and that led to the Pirates’ next score, a pass from Croft to Dalan Montgomery, a yard, but still a TD (37-0).
Copeland scored what would be the only tally of the night for the Panthers (2-2) on a 7-yard run, and then managed the two-point conversion on a throw to Bryson Morris.
But the Pirates would get into the end zone again before halftime. David Lively recovered a Panthers fumble and then it was another run by Timmons, this one from 4-yards out (44-8).
In the second half, Attaway got his third touchdown of the night, this one from 3 yards out. Wofford had a second interception and turned this one into an 80-yard pick-six, a touchdown. And Calvin Casey got into the act, as well, a 48-yard run to cap the scoring.
West Rusk 48, Winona 0: In this one, it was the home team taking the ‘L,’ so to speak, as Mata’s scrappy Raiders won their fifth straight game, and moved to 2-0 in District 11-3A, Division II.
The big story here might have been the Raiders’ defense, who got a shutout. Chris Sanchez and Tucker Hefco each had an interception. Winona finished with the grand total of 46 yards of total offense.
Kameron Brown, after a huge week last week, was back at it again. He had three receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown, and of course, that means quarterback Judson Dotson also had a pretty good night, as well. Dotson finished 7-of-10 for 170 yards and three touchdowns — the one to Brown, one to Gunnar Harp (for 80 yards) and one to Hunter McCandless.
Dotson also ran for 30 yards for West Rusk (5-1 overall).
Daylan Williams also scored and finished with 73 yards rushing.
West Rusk will host New Diana next Friday, Oct. 10.
Gladewater 47, Sabine 0: Gladewater was the toast of the area last week after winning in Jefferson by just a point (28-27), and the Bears, led by first-year coach Jermaine Lewis, kept things rolling on Friday night at home, at Jack Murphy Stadium, with a 47-0 win over Sabine.
That moves Gladewater to 2-0 in district play, and drops the Cardinals to 0-2.
Friday, Gladewater (5-1) will visit Liberty-Eylau, and Sabine (0-6) will host Atlanta.
The Bears took an early lead Friday night with a 6-yard run by Carsin Cooper. Cooper scored again on a 12-yard run in the second quarter (13-0 Gladewater) after quarterback Achilles Hess, who looks NOTHING like a first-year starter, got free for a 35-yard run.
Gladewater went to halftime with a 19-0 advantage after Hess connected with Kason Harris for a 20-yard score, right before the two-minute time out.
The Bears scored twice in the third quarter: a 45-yard run by Jeremiah Flanagan (the hero against Jefferson for scoring the game-winning touchdown in the final minutes), and a defensive touchdown by Grafton Morgan, who scored on a fumble recovery from 30 yards out.
The Bears had two fourth-quarter touchdowns, as well: a 3-yard run by Hess and a 25-yard touchdown pass from Hess to Jakobe Crosby.