Sports and Outdoors

 Lake Info

Normal Lake Level is 322.00 feet above Mean Sea Level.
Current level for Cedar Creek Lake is: 321.41
Water Temperature:
na degrees - top
71 degrees - bottom

Bulldogs to host Crandall
Monitor Staff Reports
EUSTACE–After a 42-7 loss to Mabank last Friday night, the Eustace Bulldogs are approaching this Friday’s home game against the Crandall Pirates as a playoff game.
The Pirates enter Friday’s contest at 3-4 on the season and 2-0 in District 13-3A play, while the Bulldogs go in at 4-3, but 1-1 in district play. A second loss would hurt the Bulldogs’ playoff hopes with league-leading Kaufman and Ferris still to play.
“If they win, they’re in,” Eustace coach Doug Wendel said. “If we win, we’ll have a good chance at making the playoffs.”
The Bulldogs will be playing at home, and if they can win two of their last three, they’ll be in the playoffs, he said.
“We are going to have to eliminate mistakes, control the ball and tackle better,” Wendel added.
Against Mabank, the Bulldogs played hard, “but we had absolutely way too many mistakes,” he said. “Penalties, (five) turnovers, and I made two or three bad calls on offense – two bad fourth-down calls.”
Wendel said he had to give Mabank credit. “They’re good at what they do,” he said. “We never stopped them (aside from one interception).”
Crandall enters Friday’s game coming off a wild 38-30 win over Kemp last week.
“We played Kemp to a five-point game, and they played Kemp to an eight-point game,” Wendel said.
The Pirates use a spread offense, but they run out of that offense about half the time, Wendel said. Running back Jared Pellman had 23 carries for 128 yards and three touchdowns against Kemp.
Against Mabank’s spread offense, the Bulldogs’ defense “got tired,” Wendel said.
“We didn’t want (Mabank quarterback Kolton) Browning getting 500 yards passing,” he said. “They saw five men in the box, and ran on us.”
Crandall quarterback Tayler Jones does a good job throwing the ball, with his primary receiver being Cale Barnes.
“Those are two key players, in my mind,” Wendel said. “Barnes makes big plays on both sides of the ball.”
Against Kemp, Barnes had six catches for 157 yards (including a 93-yard TD) and made two interceptions.
A strong showing by the Bulldog defense will be a key against Crandall, Wendel said.
“I feel good about where we are offensively,” he said, noting the Bulldogs are averaging 353 yards and 24 points a game.
“I would like to throw a little bit more than we are,” he added. “Defensively, we’re young. We’ve got to continue to get better at tackling.”
 

Mabank sweeps Eustace
Monitor Staff Reports
MABANK–Mabank’s Lady Panthers improved to 9-0 in District 13-3A play Friday with a 3-0 win over the visiting Eustace Lady Bulldogs.
Now 26-12 on the season, the 10th-ranked Lady Panthers were scheduled to wrap up district play and the regular season at home Tuesday against the Kemp Lady Yellowjackets.
Eustace dropped to 18-13 on the season and 5-4 in district play, and were scheduled to host the Ferris Lady Yellowjackets Tuesday in the season finale. The Lady Bulldogs needed to defeat Ferris to secure the district’s third-place playoff berth.
If there had been any doubt about the Lady Panthers winning the district championship for the second straight year, Friday’s win erased it.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Mabank Lady Panther Hali Schultz (13) hits between Eustace Lady Bulldogs Rebekah Walter (10) and Jenny McConathy (8) during Mabank’s 3-1 win over Eustace Oct. 2.

Winning two straight titles is something the Lady Panthers volleyball program has never done before, head coach Stacy Shelton said.
“If we play well against Kemp, we could have 20 district wins in a row,” she said. “Hopefully, we will start a big tradition in Mabank.”
“We played a strong first game, but just couldn’t hold that level of play,” veteran Eustace coach Chuck Powers said.
Mabank edged Eustace 26-24 in the first game, but won the next two handily, 25-18 and 25-9.
As the district champion, the Lady Panthers will await the winner of a bidistrict match pitting the District 16-3A runner-up against the 15-3A third-place team.
Mabank will play a warm-up match Friday against Dallas Woodrow Wilson, but a time and place had not been set as of presstime Tuesday.
If Eustace secured the third-place playoff spot with a win Tuesday night, they would play in the bidistrict round, probably Monday or Tuesday, Oct. 29-30, at a time and place to be determined.
“We still do not have Bridgette Tanner back (from illness), and I don’t look for her to be back for a while,” Shelton said. “All the girls who played in her spot did a great job. Lauren Hamilton, who has not played front row all year, played well for us.
“These girls have done an awesome job for me this year, and I am so proud of their district play,” she added. “I’m looking forward to their playoff run.”
As usual, Miranda Groom and Hali Schultz led the Lady Panther attack. Groom finished with 19 kills, one block and seven digs, while Schultz had 17 kills, one block and 10 digs.
Setter Kelsi Reynolds notched 38 assists, two digs and one kill, while Jessica Penney added an assist and Erica Umana had one dig.
Ashley Corter had three kills, one block and one dig, while Hamilton had one block and Macey Thomas had three kills, three blocks and one dig.
On defense, Katie Cross had eight digs and two serving aces, while Amanda Johnson added two digs.
Cassie Freeman led the Lady Bulldog attack, notching 20 kills, while Jenny McConathy had eight kills.
Nicole McNeel (22) and Caty DiBari (18) combined for 40 assists, and DiBari added four kills.
Chelsea Truitt and Camille Rogers each had four kills, while Rebekah Walter added two kills and Brisha Ward had three scoring points.