The football season for Wood County teams is now history, but several individual players from Mineola and Alba-Golden had stellar seasons. The Yellowjackets ended their season at 6-4 with a bi-district playoff game. The Alba-Golden Panthers ended at 5-4 with close losses to Winona (25-23) and Grand Saline (3-2) keeping them from a third-place finish and the playoffs.
Mineola
Mineola sophomore sensation Trevion Sneed led the area in rushing with 1,613 yards on 219 carries for an average of 7.4 yards per carry. Sneed hit touchdown pay dirt 16 times.
Senior quarterback Shaw Franklin gave the ‘Jackets a dynamic running game, adding 1,209 yards on the ground on just 137 carries for an 8.8 yards per carry average while scoring 14 times. Franklin also hit on 46 of 113 passes for 715 yards and seven touchdowns. Montrell Williams added another 280 yards on 43 carries for a 6.5 yard per carry average while scoring three touchdowns.
The leading receiver for the ‘Jackets was Cameron Bowman, who caught 15 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns. Wylie Franks had nine catches for 160 yards and three touchdowns while Cole Castleberry caught eight tosses for 106 yards and one touchdown.
Leading scorers for the ‘Jackets were Sneed with 98 points, Franklin, 86, and Gustavo Sanchez, who scored 30 on 27 extra point kicks and one field goal.
On the defensive side of the ball, Hunter Wright had 103 tackles, a 10.3-tackles-per-game average. Sneed had 82 tackles, Dalton Rogers, 81, River Simonek, 65, and Kaleb Griffin, 52. Castleberry led the team in pass break-ups with11. Griffin and Sneed each had 11 quarterback hurries.
Alba-Golden
The Alba-Golden Panthers went 5-4 and were three points shy of winning two more games and being in the state playoffs. Several Panthers had big numbers in the running game. Junior speedster Jon Michael Chadwick led the rushers with 813 yards on 59 carries for an 11.78-yards-per-carry average and six touchdowns, with his longest run 80 yards. Quarterback Zane Smith had a productive senior year, rolling up 263 yards on the ground and 1,073 through the air. Smith scored seven touchdowns and threw for 10 more. He also booted nine PATs.
Boedie Baker ran for 492 yards on 54 totes for a 9.11-per-carry average. Jacoby Harle added 450 yards and a 5.95 yards-per-carry average. Dylan Arenas ran for 407 yards on 39 carries for an average of 10.44 per carry.
The rugged Panther defense was led by the hard-nose play of Arenas, who had 110 tackles for an average of eight per game. Linebacker Tim Mitchell had 53 tackles and led the team with four sacks. Ryan Jackson had 58 tackles, Kyle Hammond, 47, Baker, 42, and Smith, 40. Smith also had three interceptions.
Quitman
The Quitman Bulldogs were lead on offense by Trey Berry’s 178 carries for 1,173 yards and nine touchdowns. Josh Medlin, whose season ended early due to an injury, ran for 279 yards and two touchdowns.
Elisio Turcio came on strong in the final three games, running for 268 yards on 78 carries and scoring three times. The Bulldogs ran for just under 2,000 yards and 15 touchdowns in nine games.
Rylie Flanagan led the receiving corps with seven catches for 141 yards and two scores. Ty Holland also missed the last few games of the year but still managed eight catches for 83 yards. Dylan Coe added 12 catches for 66 yards and one touchdown.