Week five High School who, when, and where

It's that moment of the week, high school football fans. It's game night, and once again, all of our local teams are in operation. After last week filled with long lightning delays and endless nights of football for some teams, let's hope that this Friday night will be different. It will be a magnificent night of football. It should be enjoyable to watch. As always I'll breakdown who is playing who and where so you can support your favorite local team.

We start off with the Big Spring Steers, who are now 3-1 following an extremely lengthy and frankly strange Friday night last week. I say strange because the lightning delay just seemed to hang around all night long. Eventually, the team from Brownfield forfeited the game and went home after only six minutes of football action. I know the players and coaches are ready to get back on the field after a bye week. This week the Steers will face the Clint Lions. The Lions come into this matchup sporting a 2-2 record on the season. Clint lost to the Monahan's Lobos in week one by a score of 49-17. Then in week two, they won against El Paso 39-26. Week three was another win when they played against Gadsen 26-6. Last week they lost their second game to ElDorado in a remarkably close match, 27-30. Clint brings an old-school style of football to the field. They are a run-heavy team and will lineup in the wishbone offense. Few people run the old-school wishbone anymore, but Clint has got it down. It has been their base offense for many years now. They will try to manipulate the pace of play by controlling the clock and running the ball. They are happy getting four of five yards a carry and maintaining the ball a long time. It will be the Steers who will look to disrupt that style of play. It will take a remarkably disciplined game from the defense to stop the Clint attack. Now on the offensive side of the ball for the Steers, it will be back to business as usual. The high-powered attack will be in full force. QB Gabriel Baeza leads the Steer raid. Baeza has enjoyed an excellent year to this point. On the season, he has 919 yards passing with seven touchdowns in essentially three games so far. He also leads the team in rushing yards with 230 yards on the season and six TD. Kaegen Mitchell has been his favorite target on the season as he has 25 catches for 273 yards and three touchdowns. Eli Cobos has likewise had a great season; he has 15 catches for 235 yards and two touchdowns of his own. This should be an interesting game of styles of football. With the Steers looking to score quickly and relying more through the air, and Clint running the ball, it should be an outstanding game to watch. The game is this Friday, Sept. 24, at Memorial Stadium at 7 P.M.

Next up is maybe the hottest team in the area; it is your Forsan buffaloes. The Buffaloes sit at the #10 ranked team in the state for 2A Region 1. Forsan is 4-0 on the season and has been outstanding in every game. This week will be a homecoming for the mighty Buffs as they take on the Big Lake Reagan County Owls. The Owls bring in a record of 3-1 on the season. Big Lake took on Merkel in week one, which resulted in their only season loss by a final score of 24-15. They thus have reeled off three straight wins. The first win was a dominant victory over Iraan 67 to 0. They followed that up with a 14-12 win over Ozona. Last week they won again when they faced off against San Angelo TLCA by 4014. So this Owls team comes into this game on a roll and playing with confidence. The Reagan County Owls look to have a comparatively balanced offense of run and pass. This will be a tough test for the Buffs, but believe me when I say these Buffaloes will be up to the test they will show up to play. QB Major Stockton leads the Buffs. Stockton is a true dual-threat quarterback. So far this season, he has 337 yards passing with three touchdowns. He also leads the team in rushing yards with 387 and a nine TD. The Buffaloes love to run the football, which is clear by the season numbers. As a team, they have 1105 yards on the year. Second on the team in rushing is the hard-nosed running back Chris Mendez, who has 328 yards on the season to go along with four TDs. While these two players get most of the attention, and for a good reason, none of this amazing running game would be possible without the offensive line doing their part. The O-Line has some nastiness to them, and they open up all the holes for these guys to run through. The defense has also been imposing this year. They play with grit and perseverance and cover the field very well. It has been a complete team effort to make this 4-0 start a reality and being ranked in the top ten in Texas is a noteworthy achievement. This week will be Forsan's homecoming week. The game will be held at Rodger Hudgins Field in Forsan, and they set kickoff for 7:30 P.M.

The Coahoma Bulldogs are now 2-2 on the season as they waited out all the Lightning delays, which lasted about three hours. The Bulldog's patience paid off as they could outlast the Colorado City Wolves by winning 26-12. It has been an up and down season for the Bulldogs. They will look to make it two wins in a row this week as they take on the Merkel Badgers. The Badgers are 2-2 on the season. Merkel opened up the season with a loss to the Reagan County Owls by a final score of 24-15. They then won against the Stanton's bulldogs 19-0. They have dropped two games in a row as they lost to Hawley 41-7, then to Early 48-13. The Bulldogs have shown flashes of what they can do on the field when they put it all together. They have a great QB in Billy Bailey, who has 497 yards passing on the season. The workhorse on this team is the running back, Brysen Kerby. He is one of the top players in all the District. Teams have to game plan on how to stop the phenomenal RB. So far this season, Kerby has carried the ball 94 times for 621 yards, with five touchdowns. Isaiah Eleda has had a good year, as well as he has 17 carries for 239 yards and four touchdowns. The Bulldog's offense is very explosive as they run the ball with power and break one for a long run in the game. This will be a perfect game as both teams come in with the same record and will look to get on the right track. The game will be held in Merkel, and they set kickoff for 7 P.M.

This sets up to be an active night of Friday night football for our local teams. Big Spring will look to make it 4-1 against a tough Clint team. Forsan will show the homecoming crowd as they face off against the Reagan County Owls. The Coahoma Bulldogs will be on the road this week to go to Merkel to take on the Badgers. This will be an epic night of football, no matter who you are cheering for. Please get out and show your encouragement for these local teams.

Dustin is the Sports Writer for the Big Spring Herald. To contact him e-mail sports@bigspringherald. com or call 432-263-7331.