The Light and Champion (Center, Tex.), Vol. 138, No. 91, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2015 Page: 13 of 20
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Sports Day
Roughriders open postseason against Rains
Rams building
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toward 2016
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Shelbyville tight end Kai Metcalf (left) stands a defender up while blocking during a recent game.
Jason Chlapek/The Light and Champion
Dragons take on Big Sandy
See DRAGONS, Page 3B
See RAMS, Page 4B
Thursday Night Football
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Photos by Jason Chlapek/The Light and Champion
The Light and Champion
Friday, Nov. 13,20151 IB
RIGHT: Timpson quarterback Chandler Burgay fires a pass during a recent game. The Bears opened the Class 2A-Division II state playoffs against Iola on
Thursday in Palestine.
ABOVE: Tenaha defenders send a Mount Enterprise running back airborne during the Tigers' 54-8 rout of the Wildcats last week. Tenaha opened the Class
2A-Division II state playoffs against Colmesneil on Thursday in San Augustine.
I Coming Tuesday
Sports action from
around the county
*
By Jason Chlapek
Sports Editor
By Jason Chlapek
Sports Editor
SHELBYVILLE - Prior to to-
night, there have been three de-
grees of separation between Tam-
pa Bay Buccaneers head coach
Lovie Smith and Shelbyville head
coach Jason Ferguson.
Smith played at Big Sandy
where he guided the Wildcats to
three consecutive state champion-
ships between 1973-75. The 1974
state championship was a co-cham-
By Jason Chlapek
Sports Editor
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After a one-year absence, the Center
football team is back in the postseason.
The Roughriders completed quite
the turnaround in District 6-4A-Division
II play as they went from not winning a
league contest in 2014 to finishing in a
three-way tie for first and the No. 1 play-
off seed. Center (8-2) begins its playoff
quest tonight when it faces Emory Rains
(6-4) at 7:30 at Pine Tree High School in
Longview.
Rains finished fourth in the 5-4A-DII
standings behind defending state cham-
pion Gilmer, Bullard and Canton, respec-
tively. Despite the Wildcats’ finish in the
district standings, Center coach Barry
Bowman isn’t taking them lightly.
“Their kids play really hard and
they’re a well-coached team,” Bowman
said. ‘They’re run-oriented and we have
to hold up their offensive line. They’ll try
to keep the ball from us, and they’re sim-
ilar to what we saw against Hardin-Jeffer-
son.”
Rains, like H-J, operates offensively
out of the slot-T. The Roughriders de-
feated H-J, 21-7, in September, but on the
Hawks’ lone scoring drive, they held the
ball for 10 minutes, 30 seconds.
The main cog in the Wildcats’ offense
4
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Joaquin linebacker Cole Powdrill (No. 6)
wraps up Timpson running back Haydeb
Smith (No. 7) during the Rams' contest
against the Bears last month.
Jason Chlapek/The Light and Champion
ing the Dragons,” Ferguson said
via email. “They have a lot of tal-
ent. They have good size. I think
they are actively seeking their own
identity. I just hope they don’t find
it come (tonight). They are loaded
with potential.”
The Dragons are in the postsea-
son for the second year in a row.
They were ousted in the bidistrict
round by Ore City, and haven’t won
V1
1
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pionship as Big Sandy battled Celi-
na to a 0-0 tie.
That season, Celina was
coached by G.A. Moore - the same
G.A. Moore who coached Fergu-
son at Pilot Point years later. To-
night, Ferguson will try to lead
Shelbyville (9-0) to its first playoff
victory since 2001 when it faces
Big Sandy (7-3) at 7:30 at Carthage
High School in a Class 2A-Division
I bidistrict playoff contest.
“Lovie Smith ain’t playing for
them and G.A. Moore ain’t coach-
I
than it was, and I feel like
we’ve done that in attitude
and effort. Now we need
to develop the kids into
the physical players we
need to run type of pro-
gram we need to run.”
Joaquin began the
season with a 4-1 record,
which included its first
win against Tenaha since
2012. But injuries hurt the
Rams in District 10-2A-Di-
vision I play as they won
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is quarterback Ryan Ratliff. The 6-3,
240-pounder has rushed for more than
1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns, while
throwing the football just 30 times this
season.
“They like to run the quarterback,”
Bowman said. “He’s a big kid and he’ll
run the ball off the edge and quarterback
sneaks.”
When Ratliff does not keep the pig-
skin, he usually hands it off to running
back Mason Krantz, who has rushed for
more than 900 yards and eight scores.
Rains’ top receiver is Chris Goforth, who
has caught three passes for 105 yards
and two scores.
Defensively, the Wildcats operate out
of a 4-2-5 alignment. Krantz is the leading
tackler from his linebacker position with
126, including 16 for a loss.
“They’ll mix between man and zone
coverages,” Bowman said. “Their
strengths are their tackles and lineback-
ers.”
Center is coming off of a 38-36 loss to
Gladewater last Friday. Bowman hopes
his team learned from facing the Bears
last week.
“Gladewater is the best offensive line
and running back corps we’ve seen all
season,” he said. “Wwe hope that playing
a physical team like Gladewater will help
us down the road.”
JOAQUIN — There
wasn’t a lot of time for the
Joaquin football program
to dwell on the 2015 sea-
son.
After this past week-
end, the players who will
return for the 2016 season
were in the weight room
on Monday.
“We already started
the offseason,” Joaquin
coach Wade Lawson said.
“We did five sets of 10 on
Monday. It’s real simple
— we have to get stronger
physically because you
can’t run the slot-T with-
out being strong. We also
have to obtain a mental ca-
pacity for a great amount
of work. There’s a lot we
can build from and we laid
a good foundation, but
we’re not going to waste
a day.”
The Rams concluded
the 2015 season last Fri-
day with a 48-18 loss to
Beckville. They finished
5-5 in Lawson’s first sea-
son as head coach.
“I’m not pleased with
it,” he said. “A 5-5 record
is not acceptable for me or
for Joaquin. My job is to
make the program better
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Center receiver Joe Carraway (No. 8) runs behind the block of Octavius Evans during a recent game.
Steve Snyder/The Light and Champion
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Snyder, Steve. The Light and Champion (Center, Tex.), Vol. 138, No. 91, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 2015, newspaper, November 13, 2015; Center, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1278959/m1/13/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library.