From the Houston Chronicle:
Bellville falls to Giddings in Division II Region IV final
From the Austin American-Statesman:
Berry is Giddings' shoelace ace in win over Bellville
From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:
Gilmer, Carthage Face Off
From the Longview News-Journal:
Buckeyes, Bulldogs at a glance
From KETK Tyler:
Gilmer QB has them Stumped
Darian 'Stump' Godfrey Wins and Wins
From KYTX Tyler:
Longview, Gilmer Will Have Their Hands Full in State Quarters
From Dave Campbell's TEXAS FOOTBALL:
Class 3A Round Four Games to Watch
Gilmer/Carthage prediction from TexasFootball.com
From KLTV Tyler:
Buckeyes meeting high expectations again
From the Panola Watchman:
3A game of the year approaches
Bulldogs crush the Tigers dreams
Sports Snapshots
From The Gilmer Mirror:
Buckeyes face Bulldogs at SFA
Listen Live
Saturday night
Dec. 6
The Gilmer Buckeyes (12-1) will take on the Carthage Bulldogs (11-2) in the Class 3A Division II Region III Final (aka state quarterfinal round) on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in Nacogdoches.
The Buckeyes return to the familiar confines of Homer Bryce Stadium on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University, site of the most glorious triumph in the program’s history, the 49-47 win over Jasper in 2004 to secure the state championship.
It is also the alma mater of their head coach, Jeff Traylor.
The team’s most recent trip to SFA was also successful, a 35-28 win over Mabank in the second round of last year’s run to the Division I title game.
The Carthage Bulldogs have not played the Gilmer Buckeyes in the 2000s, but immediately before that, the teams faced off for four consecutive seasons.
In 1996 and 1997, the schools were both members of District 16-4A. Gilmer, although it had one of the smallest enrollments in 4A, handled Carthage both years, 10-0 and 35-28.
Gilmer then went back down to Class 3A and the teams split the next two years as pre-district opponents, Carthage gaining the upper hand, 35-7 in 1998, followed by Gilmer coming back in 1999 to notch a 21-0 shutout victory.
Carthage eventually followed the Buckeyes down into 3A.
Carthage had 151 athletes report for workouts in grades 9-12 in August. Head Coach Scott Surratt numbered among them six returning starters on offense and two on defense.
The offense is guided by QB Si’Darius Blackshire, who has passed for a school-record 35 touchdowns this season, breaking his own record set last year of 33 scoring passes.
He looks to Dwight Smith at TB and Trevor Murphy at TE as weapons to utilize along with WRs Joe Jones and Jarvin Robinson.
Smith is the biggest threat, having rushed for 2,027 yards. He needs 142 more to tie Kris Briggs’ single-season school record of 2,169 yards (1998).
Smith is sometimes compared to Chapel Hill’s Matthew Tucker, whom the Black Flag Defense of the Buckeyes held to only 155 yards on 32 carries on his home turf in October, more than 100 yards below his average per game.
Don’t expect “Freight Train” Smith to carry the freight that many times, though. Unlike Chapel Hill, Carthage has a potent passing attack to complement Smith’s ground game. Just look at the record-setting Blackshire for proof of that.
Coach Surratt, 41, former offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Texarkana, is in his second year at the helm in Carthage. Last season the Bulldogs finished 9-3, bowing out in the second round to Liberty Hill, 41-14, a team the Buckeyes would meet three weeks later in Waco.
Carthage, which won the District 18-3A title, opened its season against the only team to beat the Buckeyes this year, the Kilgore Bulldogs.
Carthage lost to them also, 33-20, very similar to the 28-14 margin of the Gilmer-Kilgore matchup a few weeks later.
Carthage’s only other loss came to Class 4A Nacogdoches, 21-18.
Other common opponents are Diboll, which lost 54-0 to Gilmer and 62-28 to Carthage; and Jasper, which lost 56-28 to Gilmer and 56-21 to Carthage.
In bi-district, Carthage destroyed Tatum in Carthage, 62-20, a week after Gilmer had done so in Tatum, 48-14.
When it disposed of Lorena 49-14 in the second round in Mansfield, Carthage recorded its first 10-win season since 1991 when the Bulldogs went 15-0 before falling to A&M Consolidated in the Class 4A state championship game.
Then last Friday night in Corsicana, the Bulldogs mauled the Rockdale Tigers, 55-28.
Smith carried 14 times in that game for 192 yards and four touchdowns. The previous week against Lorena he carried only nine times, but gained 217 yards.
“We came out and played (with) a little deer-in-the-headlights look,” Rockdale coach Jeff Miller said. “(We had) just no breaks and mistakes against a really, really good football team — hands-down, the best one we’ve seen this year.”
Carthage is the home team this weekend, so it is probably safe to say that there will be an overflow from the packed stands onto the grass on the visitors’ side of the field, just as there was back in 2004 at the Jasper game.
There are six other teams left in Class 3A Division II.
The winner of the Gilmer-Carthage game will be in a semifinal game against the winner of Friday night’s Region IV title game in The Woodlands between Bellville (12-1) and Giddings (10-3), two teams from the same district.
On the other side of the bracket, Liberty Hill (13-0), sporting a 37-game winning streak, plays Bridgeport (12-0) Saturday night in Waco in the Region I title game while Celina (10-3) plays Kaufman (10-3) in Royse City on Friday night to decide the champion of Region II.
For ticket information, call the Buckeye Ticket Line at 903-841-7777. Directions to Homer Bryce Stadium are available at www.gilmerisd.org. A map will also be at www.gilmermirror.com.
Coming in Saturday’s Mirror:
Joe Dodd breaks down Saturday night’s game with Coaches Traylor and Surratt.
Bounty Hunter of the Week: Marlon Granville
Special Teams Player of the Week: Luke Turner
Offensive Scout Team Player of the Week: Trey Webb
Defensive Scout Team Player of the Week: Devonte Brooks
Saturday night’s game will be webcast as always via GilmerBuckeyes.com.
Mineola’s KMOO 99.9 FM will also broadcast the game live on the radio and Internet. See Saturday’s Mirror for more details on both audio and video, live and delayed, of the game.
From Maxpreps:
Carthage vs. Gilmer Game Matchup
From the Longview News-Journal:
'Dogs smash Rockdale
From the Waco Tribune-Herald:
Carthage steamrolls Lorena, 49-14
From the Longview News-Journal:
Carthage cruises past Tatum
From FootballPower:
Gilmer Buckeyes (12-1)
Texas PowerRating
92.35
From BuckinFootball.com:
CLASS 3A -- DIVISION II
Region III
#1 Gilmer (12-1) vs. #2 Carthage (11-2)
(7:30 p.m., Saturday, Homer Bryce Stadium, SFASU, Nacogdoches)
BuckinFootball projection: Gilmer by 1
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