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All-Wharton County football team loaded with talent
He went down with an ankle injury early this season and missed four games. Returning from his injury, Hayes helped the Brahmas win two playoffs games. For the season, Hayes scored 20 touchdowns and rushed for over 1,400 yards to earn Offensive Most Valuable Player honors on the Wharton Journal- Spectator/El Campo Leader-News All- Wharton County Football Team. "It feels great that I got this award because I started kind of slow," said Hayes, who hopes to be playing college ball next season. "I got better as the season ended. All the coaches on the staff, my dad and teammates really helped me and told me to keep my head up when I was out." East Bernard second year coach Jerry Long, the Coach-of-the-Year selection, praised Hayes for his outstanding season.
"He got healthy at the right time and stepped up his play. He was unbelievable once the playoffs started and we'll miss him." As far as his own award, Long singled out his players and staff. "This a tribute to these guys that are here and the coaches who worked back at the office," said Long. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them." The Brahmas weren't expect to advance as far as they did this season.
"We talked about proving people wrong all season and raising the expectation level of the community. You hope to get those things and I'm not going to take the credit. I'm going to give it to the kids and the staff." "You surround yourself with good people and good things happen," he said. "That's what I try to do." El Campo senior Anthony Terrell earned Most Valuable Player honors. The Ricebird fullback was the key to El Campo's running attack this year. Terrell finished the season with 232 carries for 1,768 yards and 23 touchdowns. Terrell refused to take credit for his MVP honor. Instead of citing his own impressive stats, he bragged on the Ricebird offensive line. "Most of our line was here last year," Terrell said. "They have more experience and opened up better holes." He said last season's experience helped him improve to become one of the best backs in the area his senior year. "It helps a lot because you know what you didn't do last year, you can do this year," said Terrell. "That really helps your game get better. When I got in the open field last year, I never pushed myself. I felt like I just couldn't run hard. This year, every time I saw open field, I tried to cut the grass." Louise junior Matthew Blumrick picked up the Defensive Most Valuable Player. The linebacker led the Hornets in tackles. He finished the season with 143 tackles and five forced fumbles. "I just went out and played my best every game," said Blumrick. "I guess I was all over the field the way it looked." Blumrick said there is some extra pride in representing the smallest school in the county with his award. "I know (the bigger schools) played tougher schedules, but for 1-A, we've got the toughest one pretty much in the state," he said. "It's a real pleasure to make that many tackles in our division and also more tackles than anybody in Wharton County." El Campo sophomore Landon Appling landed Newcomer-of-the Year honors. "I was trying to make it (the award) one of my goals," Appling said. "I had to do what I did for the team and by helping them out, I knew I'd probably get something good." As a linebacker, he finished with 45 tackles, two for losses, and one interception. Appling also ran the ball for the offense 14 times for 167 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 11.93 yards on every carry. Appling was also a big kick returner. On nine returns, he ran for 212 yards this season. First team selections included Louise quarterback Cory Hajovsky, who came in for the injured Nick Barrera early in the season. Hajovsky completed 20 of 76 passes for 292 yards. He had five TD passes and no interceptions. The first team running backs are Boling's B.W. McLeod, East Bernard's Lance Crump and Louise's Antwon Parson. McLeod scored 14 touchdowns and rushed for 1,202 yards. Crump scored 10 touchdowns and rushed for just under 800 yards and Parson scored nine touchdowns and rushed for 678 yards. The two receivers are Boling's Thomas Felder and El Campo's Larry Williams. Felder caught 23 passes for 339 yards and Williams caught 14 passes for 244 yards. East Bernard junior Randy Perkins, a blocking back, earned tight end honors Offensive linemen are Wharton's Chris Owens, Boling's Matt Steiner, East Bernard's Tyler Kramr and Clinton Graves and El Campo's Troy Lawson and Junior Thompkins. Earning first team kicking honors is East Bernard junior Chris Plunkett, who booted five field goals and 37 extra point kicks in 10 games. He had several kickoffs which went in the end zone. First team defensive selections include Wharton sophomore lineman Marcus Melton, who led the Tigers in tackles. He was joined by East Bernard's David Sims and Brady Kubena and El Campo's Bryce Skow and Chris Raun. Sims had 38 solo tackles with 21 assists. Kubena had 17 tackles. Skow had 101 tackles with four sacks and one interception. Linebackers are East Bernard's Jacob Hudman, El Campo's Bryan Skow and Louise's Desmond Pulliam. Hudman had 42 solos with 27 assists. Skow had 60 tackles with four sacks. Secondary players are Boling's Sean Hollis, Louise's Chris Hicks and El Campo's Thad Deiss. Hollis had 48 tackles and Deiss had 91 tackles with six knockdowns. Rounding out the first team defense was El Campo senior punter Tyler Woods. Second team offensive selections included East Bernard quarterback Matthew Stelzel, who missed three games with an injury. While not throwing the ball a lot, he engineered several Brahma scoring drives. ..The running backs are El Campo's Maverick Smith, Louise's Kyle Lawson and Plunkett. Smith scored four touchdowns and rushed for just under 500 yards. Lawson scored 14 touchdowns and rushed for 1,084 yards and Plunkett scored eight touchdowns and rushed for just under 800 yards. Second team receivers are Boling's Kalin Ray and Trevor Archer. Ray caught 23 passes for 303 yards and Archer caught 22 passes for 240 yards. Linemen are Tanner Thompson of Boling, Austin Matura of East Bernard, Danny Estrada of Louise and Chase Bullard and Derek Martinez of El Campo. Woods garnered the kicking honors and Louise junior Javier Padron took the tight end position. Second team defensive selections include linemen Jonathan DeLeon of Louise, Alex Wasek of East Bernard, Marlon Lopez of Boling and Kris Escobar of El Campo. Linebackers are Barnaby Coronado and Jared Minks of East Bernard, Clint Barerra of Louise and Josh Garcia of El Campo. INDIVIDUAL AWARDS MOST VALUABLE PLAYER ANTHONY TERRELL, EL CAMPO, SR. OFFENSIVE MVP MIKE HAYES, EAST BERNARD, SR DEFENSIVE MVP MATHEW BLUMRICK, LOUISE, JUNIOR NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR LANDON APPLING, EL CAMPO, SOPH COACH OF THE YEAR JERRY LONG, EAST BERNARD, 2ND YEAR FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
FIRST TEAM DEFENSE
SECOND TEAM OFFENSE
SECOND TEAM DEFENSE
HONORABLE MENTION BOLING: JUSTIN HOBBS , JR; SIMON MENDOZA, SR; TYLER KULAK, SOPH. EAST BERNARD: CAMERON MAZOCH, JR; JOSH CHMELIK, SR; ADAM KUBENA, SOPH. EL CAMPO: DEREK MARTINEZ, SR; JAC AXEL, SOPH; GERROD FARROW, SR ; DAKOTA PIETSCH, SR. LOUISE: WESLEY BRANSCUM, SR; ANDREW CARDENAS, JR; ZACK LAWSON, SOPH; GARRETT BROWN, SR. WHARTON: JESMON GRANT, JR; J.D. RIVERA, SR; LOUIS BYARS, SR. |
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