WAKE UP! ON ETBLITZ / THE FLYOVER, part two: Carthage rolls Center; Beckville wins a big one; Gladewater, too; Henderson blasts Mabank

EDITOR’S NOTE: Well, if you plan to go to either location of Cozy Coffee Station, you’ll need to wait until Monday, because both the Kilgore store (at 110 Midtown Plaza) and the Gilmer location (755 Highway 271 North) are closed on Sundays. That will just make it taste better when you finally get your order! Look at their menu for both stores (and the one in Allen, if you happen to be headed that way) on Home | Cozy Coffee Station.

Today in Wake Up!, we’re doing something similar to what we did last week: brief game stories from some of our high school football games this weekend.

Before we do that, here are a few links you might want to check out…

• Kilgore 28, Chapel Hill 7 (Our story: BEWARE OF THE…WELL, YOU KNOW | Kilgore stops Chapel Hill by three TDs, 28-7 / Presented by WHATABURGER).
• Lovelady 44, Overton 29 (Yeah, our story and photos): WILD BATTLE IN OVERTON | Lovelady escapes after big second half).
• Atlanta 35, Sabine 0 (Jeremy Newlin’s write-up about the Rabbits’ win in Liberty City: SABINE FINDS GOING TOUGH IN 8-3A | Atlanta leaves Liberty City with shutout win).
• The Flyover, a round-up of several games in the area, including West Rusk, Beckville and Troup: (THE FLYOVER part one | West Rusk holds off New Diana; Gladewater dunks L-E; Troup smashes Winona / Presented by KILGORE MERCANTILE & MUSIC).
• Longtime Gilmer writer Phillip Williams takes a closer look at the Buckeyes’ win over Pittsburg to open District 7-4A, Division II play.
• And there’s this: a list of all of this past weekend’s high school football scores: SIMPLY SCORES, from across Texas | Presented by DOWNTOWN D’LITES.

Going into Friday night, the Beckville High School Bearcats were looking up at Elysian Fields and Waskom in the District 10-2A, Division I standings.

After Friday night, they’re only looking up at one of them.

The Bearcats hosted Waskom and got a huge district win Friday, 45-34, pulling into a tie with the Wildcats for second place (3-1) behind Elysian Fields, who won its game. Beckville lost to EF a few weeks back, but now Beckville controls its own destiny. Even if EF wins out, if the Bearcats also win out, they can’t finish worse than second in the district.

Quarterback Braxton Bullock, who had four touchdown passes at winless Big Sandy a week ago, had two more against Waskom, going 16-of-27 for 260 yards and the TD strikes to Rudy Watts and to Gabe Johnson. Watts caught five passes for 112 yards and the touchdown, and also ran for 40 yards and a TD on 11 carries.

Johnson finished with 83 yards and a score on six catches.

Beckville (4-3 overall, and once again, tied with Waskom with a 3-1 district record) has an open date next week, then is scheduled for a Thursday night trip to Hawkins on Oct. 23.

Carthage 60, Center 14: The Carthage Bulldogs played last week (in Bay City, against San Benito) when everyone else in District 8-4A, Division II took the night off.

It didn’t look like it Friday night in Center.

Coach Scott Surratt’s Bulldogs were just as sharp as ever, and Jett Surratt, the coach’s son and starting quarterback, was not only on target — he was pinpoint-sharp, a 23-of-28 performance for 331 yards and an eye-opening six touchdowns, as the ‘Dawgs ran Center’s Roughriders out of their own stadium, 60-14.

Three of those touchdowns went to Jaden Jeffress.

Included in that score: not one but two safeties, one early in the game when Center quarterback Easton Wulf couldn’t escape the end zone, and one later when the football went over the Center punter’s head.

The Bulldogs, ranked No. 1 in the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football 4A-DII state poll (since last August, really), are 6-0, have outscored their opponents 267-61, and host Athens this coming Friday. Athens is 5-1 and 1-0 in district after beating Brownsboro on Friday, 52-8.

The safety involving Wulf was actually the first score of the game; Carthage had driven down inside Beckville’s 10-yard-line but failed on a fourth-down conversion.

After getting the ball back following the safety, the Carthage offense quickly made it 9-0 on a 47-yard touchdown pass from Surratt to Bryston Price, who also had a big night (110 yards on five catches, and the score).

The defense forced Center (2-4, 0-1) to punt, and the ‘Dawgs added more points: what would be the first of three TDs to Jeffress, this one from 11 yards out.

Carthage had grabbed a 16-0 lead before Center managed its first of just two scores. Jeremy Blueford scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, but the key play was actually the kickoff, a 70-yard kick return by Ke’Marion Hill to get the ‘Riders into scoring position.

Carthage clamped down defensively, and outscored Center 23-0 the remainder of the first half, a 39-7 halftime lead.

Joining Price and Jeffress on the receiving end of Surratt’s TD passes were Anthony Crowell and Jace Harris. J.D. Harris (four for 50 yards) and Carson Crawford each had key receptions over the course of the game, and Crawford, a verbal commit to Colorado, had a sack, as well.

The running game didn’t suffer, either, even though Texas A&M commit K.J. Edwards has been out with an injury. Benny Smith continued to play well, with 130 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

Gladewater 46, Liberty-Eylau 20 (in Texarkana): Coach Jermaine Lewis’s Bears were on the field for an hour before they knew anybody was out there with ’em.

That’s how dominant Gladewater was Friday night at Liberty-Eylau, where an 8-0 Gladewater lead swelled to 22-0 by halftime, and the Bears cruised to another win in District 8-3A, Division I, where they’re now 3-0.

It was the Bears’ fourth straight win, and they are now 6-1 on the year — the ‘1’ was a one-point home loss to West Rusk in the non-district schedule.

Atlanta beat Sabine, 35-0, and is also 3-0 in district play. The big showdown between Gladewater and Atlanta is (perhaps fittingly) on Friday night, October 31 — Halloween.

But first, Gladewater will host Tatum this coming week. Tatum, another school in the ETBlitz.com coverage area, had an open date this weekend.

At Liberty-Eylau, Carsin Cooper gave the Bears a first-quarter lead on a 30-yard scoring run. Gladewater added a two-point conversion rather than the traditional kick, and went up 8-0.

Both Jeremiah Flannigan (34 yards) and quarterback Achilles Hess (10) would score before the break, and the Leopards, who got out of Tatum with a win somehow, couldn’t get out of this. They trailed 22-0 at halftime.

The teams exchanged third-quarter scores, with Gladewater’s Grafton Morgan putting the Bears in front, 25-0, on a 30-yard field goal. Arian Taylor of L-E broke free and gave the Leopards their first points of the game on a 78-yard run moments later.

The closest L-E got came on a touchdown pass that Ty Hawkins caught from Huntley Fisher, a big play (60 yards) that got the Leopards within 11 (25-14).

Hess connected with Kason Harris for a 25-yard scoring throw (32-14) late in the third.

The Bears had control of the game, and kept it, even though L-E did score again, a 2-yard run by Taylor early in the fourth quarter, but Flannigan and Hess each scored fourth-quarter rush TDs, as well, and the defense finished off the game. Flannigan’s second score was a 2-yarder, and Hess’s, a 4-yarder.

Henderson 61, Mabank 20 (in Mabank): Mabank’s Panthers must have felt like they were struck by lightning Friday night in their own stadium.

But that wasn’t lightning. It was Jesstin Starling.

The kid they call “Meaty,” who has his sights set on becoming Henderson’s all-time leading rusher (and that goal is within his reach), had another big night: four touchdowns to go with 189 yards on the ground, as the Lions went wild in Mabank.

Henderson scored 27 points in each of the first two quarters, and led 54-0 (!) at halftime.

Senior quarterback Vince Howard went 3-of-4 for 95 yards and a score, and freshman Blake Meeks, the son of head coach Ricky Meeks and grandson of legendary Dickie Meeks, went 2-of-3 for 49 yards, a TD and an interception.

Spelling Starling were Jay Fry, who rushed for 31 yards and a touchdown, and Jayden Bishop, who only had 2 yards, but it was a touchdown run.

Lemarion Coleman was up to his usual skill set: he finished with 88 yards and a touchdown on just two catches. Macen Jones had three for 37 yards, and Amauri Murphy had a 49-yard touchdown catch.

The Lions are 5-2 overall now, and 2-1 in District 9-4A, Division I. They’ll host Pine Tree this coming Friday night.