History of Yoe Football (2013)

Preseason 2013 had the defending champion Yoemen ranked number two behind Newton, even though the Yoemen had knocked the Eagles out of the playoffs the previous year (39-22) in the semis.  The Yoemen had a slogan “back to back” and they held true to that all year long.  The season started at Yoe Field with another come from behind victory over Waco Connally (37-34).  Lexington came to Yoe field next, and the Yoemen skunked them (47-0).  Next was a visit across Little River to take on the 3A Rockdale Tigers.  It was a back and forth game for a while, but Jason Kopriva hit WR Colton Shuffield with two trick play long passes to put the game away (51-33).  

Following an open date, Yoe traveled to Salado and took another victory (57-28) win over the Eagles.  The Yoemen then entertained the Academy Bumblebees and slapped them (41-10).  Next the Yoemen went to Lago Vista to face the always-tough Vikings.  It didn’t end well, as Lago won (27-20) thanks to two long plays being called back on penalties.  Both were called holding on our wide receivers, but Coach Rhoades showed us on the film Monday night that they were legal blocks.  The fired up Yoemen bounced back the following Friday, taking down a good McGregor team (55-13) on Yoe Field and followed that with two road wins over Troy (41-0) and Marlin (45-10).  The final district win was over Florence (77-0).  The Yoemen were district champs as Lago Vista lost a couple games in district later.  

The playoffs started in Bastrop with a win over Edna (59-20).  Next, the Yoemen withstood a wet, windy and very cold night at New Braunfels to beat Aransas Pass (36-18).  The following week the Yoemen had a rematch with the Troy Trojans at UMHB in Belton.  The result was similar with a (47-17) victory.  The next opponent was a tough Hallettsville Brahma team.  The game was at Texas State in San Marcos and it was close to the end.  The Yoemen withstood a two-point conversion that would have meant overtime to win (28-26).  Next was supposed to be a rematch with Newton, but a very good White Oak team had knocked the Eagles out in their regional semifinal game (55-36) and then took down Franklin (31-0) in the regional finals to earn a state semi-final berth against the Yoemen.  

The matchup would be played in the largest high school stadium (the 60 million dollar one in Allen) in the state.  The Yoemen would trail White Oak (21-7) at the half, but as usual, they rallied in the second half by scoring twice to tie the score as Traion Smith took a screen pass and rambled down field, breaking four or five tackles to set up the tying score.  They then got the winning field goal from Michael Evan.  Then they turned it over to that great Yoe defense.  Michael Gelner hammered the last nail in the coffin with an interception.  

Back to state.  The Wall Hawks (15-0) would be waiting at AT&T Stadium.  The score was tied (14-14) at half and a scoreless third quarter led to a 21-point fourth quarter for Yoe.  Jason Kopriva passed 6 yards to Aaron Sims before Traion Smith tacked on his third and fourth scores of the night.  So back to back became a reality.  Other great players besides those already mentioned were Jalen White, Colt Labay, John Washington, Justin Pratt, Reid Nickerson, Adam Charanza, Carson Hanel, Somari Wright, Ryan Cullen, Jonathan McAnulty, Chris Lewis, Khalil Kelley, A.J. Harwell, Kylen Harrell, Josh Stubbs, Tralund Webber (who was defensive MVP at the state game and now is playing for Oklahoma State), Myles Brooks, Dakota Lee, Sam McKinney, Brayan Garcia, Oscar Locke, Eric Sanchez, D’Andre Adams (now playing for Southwestern in Georgetown, but injured), Lonnie Williams, and freshman Jesse Valdez (currently a starter) on this year’s Yoe team.  In two weeks we will try for the three-peat in 2014.  

Go Yoe!