WHO’S WHERE & WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING, THURSDAY EDITION | Henderson-Gainesville tonight at Commerce; LC at home
A little late in posting, but it’s the Thursday edition of Who’s Where and What the Heck is Happening for the ETBlitz.com area of high school football.
And we’ve got two games tonight in our area, one of them a neutral-site game. Those aren’t rare – but they are rare in week four of the season.
That one has coach Clay Baker’s Henderson Lions playing the Gainesville Leopards at Texas A&M Commerce, a 7 p.m. kickoff Thursday night, tonight.
The other game tonight has East Texas HomeSchool Sports at Leverett’s Chapel, a University Interscholastic League six-man game at Laird Hill. And it also kicks off at 7 p.m.
The rest of our schedule, all on Friday night, sets up like this: Gladewater plays at Spring Hill; Overton hosts Maud; two ETBlitz programs face each other in Liberty City, as Sabine hosts Arp; White Oak plays at Queen City; a couple of other ETBlitz-area schools meet, as West Rusk plays at Tatum; Troup plays at Rusk; Gilmer visits Lindale; and Kilgore hosts Pleasant Grove.
On Saturday evening, Kilgore College, ranked fifth in the nation, has a heavyweight battle with No. 6 Navarro at Corsicanca.
We’ll have our regular Friday edition of Who’s Where and What the Heck is Happening tomorrow morning, and a preview of KC-Navarro online tomorrow, as well.
Henderson vs. Gainesville: The Baker Boys – that’d be the Lions – are 2-1 and feeling good about themselves after wins over Athens and Jacksonville, and they should, because Henderson is four points away from being 3-0 at this point. They got into a track meet at homecoming a few weeks’ back with a very talented Liberty-Eylau team that thinks defense is a brief distraction for the crowd – Henderson could very easily have won that game. I covered it.
At any rate, they head to Commerce Memorial Stadium tonight to take on an 0-3 Gainesville team that’s been a bit up and down – or actually, down and up. They opened the season with a 38-7 loss at home to Paradise, lost at Vernon, 46-30; and then lost another home game, this one to Ponder, 35-25, last week. So either the Leopards’ opposition has gotten worse, or they’ve gotten better.
How ‘bout this is the second team named the Leopards Henderson has played this year (L-E is also the Leopards)?
Anyway, Henderson is led, of course, by the Barry Sanders-like Jesstin Starling, the running back listed at 5-foot-5, 152 pounds. He’s just a junior, so he’ll be back next year, and that’s a nightmare for opponents, because Jesstin is already giving folks fits. Seriously. Watching people try to tackle Starling is like watching Rocky Balboa trying to catch the chicken. He can stop on a dime, and he’s fast.
Starling already has nine touchdowns and he’s a Sam’s Club sack of biscuits (three pounds) under 400 yards for the season on 56 carries.
Quarterback Vince Howard is a rushing threat, too, with 136 yards and two scores, but Howard sees the field well – he’s not just looking for his first receiver – and has hit for 549 yards and three touchdowns, on 40-of-57 completions (Brailon Walker is 3-of-3 for 48 yards and a touchdown, as well).
On the other end of those balls: Lemarion Coleman, with 16 catches, 272 yards and three touchdowns, but also Amauri Murphy, who has 13 catches for 190 yards; Macen Jones, who has seven grabs for 75 yards; Jordan Ervin, who has four catches for 45 yards and a touchdown; and then Starling, Corey Harper, and Coy Freeman, all each with a catch.
And get used to it, people: none, not a single one, of these kids are seniors. None of them. Baker is going to get all of them back next year.
On special teams, Walker has only punted twice all season, for 85 yards, an average of 42.5, and one of them was downed inside the 20-yard-line.
Look out for Anthony Newman, who has five kick returns for and average of just under 29 yards each, a long of 72, and Walker and Au’Maz Jackson, a couple of sophomores who are also dangerous as return guys.
Kicker Ivan Navarro, also a sophomore, hasn’t had just a lot of action; he hasn’t had to, with all of the touchdowns the Lions have scored. He’s kicked 14 extra points and been good on 13 of them. He’s made one of his two field goal attempts.
Defensively, Baker has to be proud: his team has 34 tackles for loss this season, seven sacks, and 18 quarterback hurries. An area the Lions’ ‘D’ might need to work is turnovers: they have only one interception (by senior Trevor Kind) and three fumble recoveries (by Murphy, Corey Harper, and DKalyn Pellum).
Junior Varian Williams leads the way in sacks with three, and then Pellum, Logan White, Isaih Vasquez, and Trae McAlister each have one. Ervin leads the team with five hurries, and Vasquez, second with four.
White leads the team in total tackles (44), tackles per game (just under 15) and tackles for loss (six on the season).
Gainesville’s Leopards look overmatched, but that’s why they play the games.
Tickets, for anyone going, can be bought online at https://vivenu.com/event/hs-football-henderson-vs-gainesville-8k17ho
Leverett’s Chapel vs. East Texas HomeSchool Sports: After starting with a big 60-14 win over Trinity School of Texas, coach Keith Hughes and the Lions look to get back on track tonight against ETHS.
It’s a 7 p.m. start, but there’s a junior high game first at 5 p.m. There’s one gate, according to the Leverett’s Chapel ISD Facebook Page: $6 for adults, $4 for students.
LC is coming off back-to-back losses against Longview Christian Heritage (50-22, back on Sept. 6) and at Chester, last Friday, Sept. 13 (51-0).
ETHS has played a tough schedule, as well, having lost both – at Aquilla (62-14) and at Union Hill (54-6, last week).
After tonight, the Lions only have one more non-district game – at Apple Springs next Friday, Sept. 27 – before starting District 10-1A, Division I play at Union Hill on Oct. 11. There’s an open date in there, too, the week of Oct. 3-4.
