Mineral Wells, Gordon, Santo and Millsap claim opening-week wins
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By DAVID MAY
Special to Mineral Wells Area News
Three of Palo Pinto County’s five high school football teams claimed season-opening victories last week, while the Millsap Bulldogs also opened their 2023 campaign with a win.
Mineral Wells, Gordon and Santo each won Friday. Strawn and Community Christian School will look to get in the win column this week.
Here is a recap of last week’s area non-district games and what’s on tap this week:
Mineral Wells
The Cody Worrell coaching era got off to a great start for Mineral Wells in River Oaks as the Rams over-powered the Castleberry Lions, 47-14, in Class 4A action.
The Rams did it all on the ground, rushing for a whopping 530 yards on 43 carries, an average of 12.3 yards per run. Mineral Wells attempted just four passes, none completed.
Ten Rams had at least one carry. Running backs Jovan Ramirez and Jose Garcia each broke the 100-yard mark. Ramirez ran for 159 yards on 11 carries (14.5 ypc) with three touchdowns, while Garcia rushed for 136 yards on 14 totes (9.7 ypc) with trips into the end zone. Junior Cassious Johnson just missed the century rushing mark with 96 yards on the ground on six carries (16 ypc) with one TD.
Mineral Wells quarterback Owen Gadd added a touchdown. Ramirez collected 95 of his yards on one carry while Johnson reeled off an 83-yard run.
Meanwhile the Rams’ defense picked off a pass and held the Lions to two scores, though Castleberry managed 258 yards on the ground.
Mineral Wells welcomes Fort Worth Western Hills to Ram Stadium for this Friday’s home opener with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. Fans will enjoy the new video scoreboard, and hopefully another win. Western Hills dropped its opener Friday, 40-8, against Maypearl.
Player of the Week
Every week the Mineral Wells Church of God honors a stand out player from the previous week’s game. The first week honors went to Senior Jose Garcia who ran the ball 14 times for 137 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns. Congratulations #9. Time to smash that record again.
Gordon
Returning all but one starter from last year’s 11-1 area finalist team, the Gordon Longhorns are looking for bigger things this season. Last year’s team recorded mercy-rule wins in each of its regular season games, and has started 2023 in the same fashion, finishing off Throckmorton, 48-0, before halftime in Friday’s season opener.
It was almost déjà vu for Gordon. The Longhorns began last season with a 49-0 triumph over Throckmorton.
It was a very efficient win for the Longhorns. They ran just 12 offensive plays resulting in 117 yards producing five touchdowns, with another score coming off a fumble recovery.
Sophomore running back Aiden Shank had two carries, both going for TDS on runs of 33 and 12 yards. Brayden Walters and Stryker Reed added rushing touchdowns for the ‘Horns.
The Longhorns travel to Abilene this week to take on Garden City, which lost to Jayton, 68-20, last week. The Horns will try not to look past Garden City and ahead to the annual Strawn rivalry matchup two weeks away.
Santo
Santo’s rushing offense was firing on all gears Friday, tallying 304 yards on the ground en route to a 27-14 win over Electra in both teams’ season openers.
Quarterback Hut Thornton executed the Santo flexbone offense almost flawlessly. He kept the ball 19 times for 136 yards rushing with one touchdown. Running back Memphis Prosser made the most of his opportunities, scoring three touchdowns on just seven carries while rushing for 74 yards.
Santo scored two quick touchdowns in the middle of the first quarter thanks to recovery of a pooch kick following the first touchdown by Prosser. Thornton scored following the recovery for an early 13-0 lead.
Electra had some success moving the ball offensively against the Wildcats’ defense. But the Tigers were hurt by two fumbles and two poor punts that gave Santo excellent field position in which to operate.
Originally slated as a Santo home game, the Class 2A contest took place on the artificial turf of Mineral Wells’ Ram Stadium because of an inadequate playing field at Santo’s stadium, the result of watering restrictions caused by a summer of excessive heat and drought.
The Wildcats travel to Goldthwaite this Friday for a scheduled 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Goldthwaite lost its season opener, 28-14, to Crawford.
Strawn
It was a battle of cats and dogs to begin the season. The ‘Cats got the better of this six-man matchup.
The Strawn Greyhounds opened its 2023 season against the Crowell Wildcats in a neutral-site game played at Jayton. Crowell walked away with a 100-55 win. That’s not a typo or a basketball score.
Strawn will welcome the visiting Dallas Lutheran Lions on Friday for a slated 7 p.m. contest. Dallas Lutheran plays in TAPPS Six-Man Division II-District 2. The Lions opened their season with a convincing 62-14 win over Greenville Christian.
Community Christian School
They can play a little football in May, Texas. The Community Christian School Warriors found that out against the May junior varsity squad in a six-man contest, one the road Warriors lost, 14-0.
Senior Price Horton threw for 153 yards, spreading his 11 completions to five receivers. Sophomore back HeydonYelverton had 117 all-purpose yards with 59 yards rushing, 40 receiving and 18 coming on kick returns.
But CCS could muster little else offensively. The bright spot for the team is the defense allowing just 14 points, however May’s JVers proved a little better on the defensive side of the ball.
The Warrirors are scheduled to play a home game Friday against the Fort Worth THESA Riders JV team.
Millsap
Millsap and Hamilton were so excited to start the season they moved their game in Millsap up a day to Thursday. Actually, the change was an attempt to avoid playing in hotter conditions forecast for Friday.
Millsap beat the heat and Hamilton with a 20-7 win on the strength of a 13-for-24 for 248 yards and a touchdown passing performance by Bulldogs junior quarterback CR Trippe and junior running back Reid Green’s 146 yards rushing on 18 carries. Tight end Tripp Moore had a rushing and a receiving touchdown and senior Kai Hanog added a rushing TD.
The lone blip on the offensive side was the four interceptions thrown by Trippe. That is something he and coaches will want to quickly clean up. Fortunately, the errant throws were not costly for Millsap.
That was in large part thanks to the Bulldogs defense, which held the Hamilton Bulldogs to just the one TD and haltedanother scoring threat late in the game. Tristan McKnight recovered two Hamilton fumbles.
Millsap will load the busses for a Friday road trip to Henrietta for a scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff. The Bearcats lost a tough season opener, 37-34, to Windthorst.
