Eight weeks into the season players from around the area have made their mark on the stat sheet in a big way.
Looking at three offensive stats, passing, rushing and receiving, and three defensive stats, tackles, sacks and interceptions, there are several players from each of the five teams around the area that are top-10 and even top five in those categories.
Taylor Ducks
Starting with the Taylor
Ducks senior quarterback Ryan Valdez is ranked third in their district in passing yards with 881 yards with eight touchdowns. Even with a collarbone injury Ducks junior quarterback Josh Mikulencak still cracks the top 10 being ranked sixth in their district with 427 yards and five touchdowns.
Staying with the offensive side of the ball Ducks sophomore Andrias Fisher is on pace to reach 1,000 rushing yards this season and is currently ranked second in the district for rushing yards. Fisher has accumulated 644 yards on the ground this season but was not the only Duck to be top 10 in rushing yards as Valdez slides in at 10th in their district with 201 rushing yards.
The brothers in balance, senior Jarvis Anderson and junior Treos Richardson, lead the way receiving wise for the Ducks. Anderson’s 541 yards is good enough to be ranked second in the district while Richardson’s 273 yards earned him the 10th place spot. Defensively, the Ducks are led by a set of junior linebackers in tackles and sacks. Nikolas Garza-Walker and Jackson Meller have tormented offenses all season long. Meller is currently ranked second in their district for tackles with 77 and Garza-Walker is ranked seventh with 38 tackles.
Meller and Garza-Walker are also ranked top five in sacks on the season with both players being tied for second place with three sacks each.
Sticking with defense, Anderson also leads their district in interceptions with five and senior Conner Barcuch joins Anderson in that category with two interceptions which earned him fourth place in the district.
St. Mary’s Rams
Switching over to six-man football to look at the St. Mary’s Rams who have improved a lot since last season. Sophomore Kolbe Barta has acclimated to his role under center, so much so that he has thrown for 368 yards and is ranked fourth in the district in passing yards.
Running the football, the Rams are lethal having the number one running back and number five ranked running back in their district. Senior Ryan Altman and sophomore Ethan Lively have been the backbone to the Rams offense and have run for 1,264 yards and 371 yards respectively.
Lively is also the Rams leading receiver with 152 receiving yards this season which puts him at ninth place in their district.
Defensively, the Rams have two more players ranked in the top five as far as tackles go and ironically enough it is another senior and sophomore duo. Senior Andrew Flores, like Altman, is also ranked first in the district with 68 tackles and sophomore Tyler Zimmerhanzel is ranked third in their district with 53 tackles.
Zimmerhanzel is also ranked sixth in their district with two interceptions.
Granger Lions
Transitioning back to 11-man football which puts the Granger Lions are up next. Senior Nathan Tucker is leading through this team through the air with 535 passing yards which slots him in second place in their district. Tucker’s yards may seem low, but when you have a rushing attack like the Lions have it is hard to make a case to pass more.
McClelland is a huge part of the Lions offense and is currently ranked first in the district for rushing yards with 1,119 yards. Tucker is also ranked in the top-10 in rushing with 314 yards which earns seventh place and Isaac Lizardo comes in ninth place with 163 yards. McClelland also leads the Lions in receiving with 171 yards followed by Lucas Matta, Thomas Hall and Tripp Wilkie with 136 yards, 60 yards and 58 yards respectively. McClelland is ranked third while Matta, Hall and Wilkie are ranked sixth, ninth and 10th in the district for their district.
Defensively the Lions are led by junior Chase Edwards with 66 tackles which ranks him second in their district. McClelland makes another top-10 being ranked seventh with 40 tackles. Lions senior Evan Hutka leads the team with two sacks and is ranked fifth in their district while junior Trae Herrera is also ranked fifth in their district with two interceptions.
Thrall Tigers
Next up is the Thrall Tigers and their statical district leaders. Starting with junior Jack Watson, who is fourth in district with 776 yards. He is also 10th in rushing with 186 yards. Staying with rushing leaders, senior Brady Burlison, like Watson, also ranks fourth in the district with 315 yards. Close behind Burlison is senior Joseph Butler with 226 yards and ranked seventh in district.
Burlison is also contributes to the passing game for the Tigers being their second leading receiver with 223 yards. Burlison was edged out of the leading receiver spot by junior Tyler Bonkowski who has 315 yards which puts him at fifth place in the district, Burlison ranks eighth.
Defensively, Bonkowski leads the way on the team and in the district with three sacks followed by junior Rylan West in sixth place with one. Senior Tyler Beer for the Tigers also finds himself in ninth place in the district with 36 tackles and the Tigers.
For interceptions the Tigers have two seniors and a junior crack the top-10 in district with, Bobby Clark being ranked fourth with two picks and Cade Talley and Breken Proctor are tied for fifth with one each.
Hutto Hippos
Last but certainly not least, is the Hutto Hippos who have a ton of playmakers. Passing the football and running the football are led by the same player for the Hippos and that is junior Will Hammond. Hammond is first in their district with 1,795 passing yards and only one interception and 21 touchdowns, Hammond also lead the Hippos in rushing with 451 yards which ranks him eighth in the district.
Close behind Hammmond is senior running back Jaylon Banks with 393 yards and is ranked ninth in their district.
Junior Alex Green leads the Hippos in receiving with 504 yards ranking him third in the district. However, Hammond has found senior Gary Choice and junior Carson Laplante a good amount of times and they have 228 receiving yards and 266 receiving yards respectively, which earns them seventh and 10th place in the district. Senior Brody Bujnoch has 104 tackles for the Hippos defense this season, which is good enough to be ranked second in the district. The Hippos’ defense is ferocious and now we know why, because in addition to Bujnoch the Hippos have the seventh and eighth place players for tackles on their team.
A trio of seniors starting with Kenny Settles, who is in seventh place with 67 tackles, is only two tackles ahead of teammates Theodore Anderson and Jaylen Parkinson who are tied for the eighth spot with 65 tackles.
Parkinson also leads the Hippos in sacks with three and a half followed by junior Matthew Medrando with two sacks. Their performances rank them third and seventh place respectively.
Settles also found his way to the top of another category by leading their district with 4 interceptions. Settles is joined in the top –10 by teammate senior Steven Galindo with one interception on the season which ranks him ninth in their district.
There are still three games left in the season for all of these teams and they have already made their mark on the season. Congratulations to all these young athletes and good luck the rest of the season.
