Yoemen Sports Network

FIRST TEAM

OFFENSE

Quarterback: Jeremiah Crawford, Mineola, 5-10, 185, Sr.

Running backs: Nic Dillon, Lexington, 6-0, 185, Sr.; Tyler Gray, Brock, 5-10, 175, Sr.; Trey Sterling, Sunnyvale, 6-1, 190, Sr.

Fullback: Kade Bickham, Boling, 5-11, 220, sr.

Split ends: Jason Florez, Muleshoe, 5-9, 165, Sr.; Sicory Smith, Cameron Yoe, 5-9, 150, Sr.

Tight end: (tie) Tyler Carr, Canadian, 6-6, 250, sr.; Jayton Alexander, Lago Vista, 6-1, 235, sr.

Tackles: Silas Robinson, Yoakum, 6-5, 300, jr.; Matthew Arce, Littlefield, 6-0, 260, Jr.

Guards: Tyler Richardson, Canadian, 6-2, 240, jr.; Hugo Sanchez, Mineola, 5-5, 260, jr.

Center: (tie) Waymon Lay, Big Sandy Harmony, 6-5, 223, Sr.; Ardian Martinez, Gunter, 5-9, 195, jr.

Place-kicker: Bryce Nye, Brock, 5-9, 170, Sr.

All-purpose: Montrell Estell, Hooks, 6-3, 180, sr.

Offensive Player of the Year: Crawford, Mineola

The Yoe soccer program opened up 26-4A play on Friday night.  Both the Lady Yoe (9-0) and Yoemen (3-0) fell to Giddings in the opener.  Cameron returned to action on Tuesday at Smithville.  The boys (2-1) and girls (3-0) both lost their games to fall to 0-2 in the standings. Diego Martinez scored the goal for the Yoemen.  With a seven team district, Cameron will be on a bye on Friday and will return to action on Tuesday by hosting Eastside Memorial.  Cameron will also play Gonzales, La Grange and Taylor in the coming weeks.  

After a week of practice, Lady Yoe head coach Abe Vargas and his team saw their first live action of the year in a scrimmage versus the Troy Trojanettes on Monday night from the Mark Humble softball complex in Cameron. 

“We did a lot of good things,” said Vargas after Monday night’s scrimmage.  “There is a lot of work we still have to do.  Like I told the ladies, the biggest improvement I saw was our mentality.  They hit the ball hard but we never got down on ourselves.”

Cameron will feature a young, but experienced roster in 2017.  This includes two key seniors in Zabrian Sowders (P) and Daniella Hill (SS). 

Sowders was one of Cameron’s mainstays in the circle, pitching 15 games, coming away with a 5-4 record and 22 strikeouts in 50 innings. Hill hit .286 in 2016 and was fourth on the team with 14 runs driven in. 

Franklin

When The Yoemen and Lions played the first go-around in 20-3A play, we saw a low scoring, defensive battle.  Franklin won that meeting in come-from-behind fashion, outscoring the Yoemen 28-7 in the final 13 minutes of play to escape with a 43-33 win. 

On Friday night on the road at Franklin, we got a similar type of ball game. The only difference between the two contests was the outcome, as the Yoemen did just enough to pull out a 47-45 overtime win. 

This is the fourth win in the last five 20-3A games for Cameron (5-4), but this one meant a little more to everyone involved.  Yoe coach Ed Glendening has won over 400 games in his coaching career, and this one will go down as one of the most memorable.

“I want to compliment our seniors,” said Glending.  “Four years ago, we wanted to build a program to compete with better programs and we're excited.”

Franklin

By the time the first quarter of Friday’s 20-3A contest between Cameron and Franklin came to an end, the outcome was well in hand.  The Lions, which had only lost one other district game to number three Academy, were up on the Lady Yoe 42-8 after eight minutes of play.

Despite the overwhelming deficit, the ladies continued to battle all the way through in a 81-40 loss. 

Franklin (10-1) could not miss from the field in the 42-point first quarter.  Half of those points came from guard Jessie Medcalf, whose sharpshooting skills were fully on display from the opening tip. 

“Franklin shot lights out to begin with,” said Lady Yoe coach Corey Cunningham.  “That is not to undermine how good of a team that they are.  We couldn't handle the press in the beginning, and the early turnovers hurt us.”

Jarrell

Entering a road 20-3A tilt at Jarrell, the Lady Yoe sat at 1-7 in district play and out of the playoff picture.  For head coach Corey Cunningham, the last few week’s of this season are not really about the wins and losses, but about the continued effort and fight to get better each and every game despite a limited roster.  

It was a struggle early on to stay competitive on the scoreboard, but Cameron continued to grind out minutes late in a 72-37 loss to the Lady Cougars. 

Jarrell (6-3) came out hot of the gate, building a 26-4 lead after one and extending that to 45-15 at the half.  

“We started off the game slow with a lot of turnovers against their press, but we kept trying to reinforce effort,” said Cunningham.  “Nothing replaces effort and we kept trying to encourage them to keep giving it their all no matter what the score was.”

Jarrell

Nobody likes to lose.  However, if you were the Yoemen last Friday night, you knew it was going to be an uphill battle on the road at the number four-ranked team in 3A basketball.

For three of the four quarters, it was a neck-and-neck battle with the scoring advantage favoring Cameron by two points.  However, the second quarter was all Jarrell, which included a 31-11 scoring run in what was the difference in a 80-60 win.

“We got hot and had a good run there, and then we played even most of the rest of the game,” said Jarrell head coach Drew Sumner. 

Most of the game Cameron (3-4) had to keep up with Jarrell, who has the top scoring offense in the district.  Yoe forward LaRondre Booze made his presence felt early and often, scoring the first eight points for Cameron. 

With the hiring of former Yoe defensive coordinator Joe Oliver (1981-1984), it brought back memories of him and fellow Yoe assistant Eddie Dunn.  Both had great years of coaching, not only football, but a variety of spring sports.  Oliver will now be principal at Yoe High.  Dunn, after leaving in 1988, also returned to be Junior High principal in 1996 in Cameron. 

When Toby York was hired to lead the football program at Yoe High, he was on Bob McQueen’s staff at Temple, as was Oliver.  York built his staff around Oliver (defensive coordinator) and Dunn.  He retained Ken Poole and Steve Gaddis from the year before and of course hired former Yoe player Randy Sapp to lead the Junior High sports, just out of college. 

Following their state championship in 1981, Ken Poole continued to head the basketball program, Joe Oliver took over track duties with help from Gaddis, while Dunn took over the baseball team.

The Yoemen and Lady Yoe powerlifting teams competed in the Belton Tiger Invitational this past week in their third event of the young season.  

Cameron walked away from the meet with impressive finishes across the board. Two Yoemen finished best in class, while multiple others were within the top three of their respective divisions.  

For the Yoemen, Joe Rangel won the 132-pound division while Dortavis Lewis topped the 275-pound class. 

Rangel’s 700 total pounds was a 25-pound increase from his performance two weeks ago in Cameron.  Lewis also posted his personal best with 1,385 pounds.

“We came together this week,” said head coach Eric Balch.  “The kids are all getting stronger, and that helps.  The technique is getting better.  We were third place at a really big and competitive meet, so the kids are doing really well.”