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Normal Lake Level is 322.00 feet above Mean Sea Level.
Current level for Cedar Creek Lake is: 322.04 Water Temperature:
68  degrees - top
65 degrees - bottom

Farmers hold off Bulldog comeback
By Kerry Yancey
Monitor Staff Writer
MESQUITE–Farmersville’s Farmers controlled the ball in the second half just long enough to escape with a 17-14 win over the Eustace Bulldogs in a bidistrict championship contest at Mesquite’s Hanby Stadium Friday night.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Eustace Bulldog defensive lineman Cody Folsom (54, left) trips up Farmersville running back Chase Wiggins (14) as Bulldog defenders Blake Ward (45) and JoJo Bradburn (11) come in to cut Wiggins off during Eustace's 17-14 bidistrict championship loss Friday at Hanby Stadium in Mesquite.

With both teams primarily running the ball, each possession became critical. Each team had just seven possessions during the relatively brief contest, although Eustace’s fourth possession of the first half began with just seven seconds on the clock.
The Bulldogs scored two touchdowns, punted three times and stalled on downs once with their six other possessions, while the Farmers scored two touchdowns and kicked a field goal with three of their four second-half possessions after punting, fumbling and stalling on downs in the first half.
Eustace ended their injury-plagued season at 5-6, while the Farmers improved to 8-3 and will advance to face Pleasant Grove’s Hawks in the area round at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Mount Pleasant. Pleasant Grove had a bye in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Bulldogs opened the contest with a nine-play march, moving from their 27 to the Farmersville 44 on the strength of fullback Justin Calhoun (four carries, including a fourth-and-one conversion), before stalling when a third-and-seven pass fell incomplete.
Bulldog senior quarterback Chris Compton pinned the Farmers inside the 15 with a punt fair-caught at the 13.
Similarly, the Farmers put together a serious march on their first possession of the game, moving from their 13 to the Eustace 25 in eight plays, keyed by the running of quarterback Austin Brooks and halfback Chase Wiggins.
Brooks opened the march with a 13-yard run, and Wiggins had runs of 11 and 22 yards to get to the Bulldog 26.
However, the Farmers stalled on two straight incompletions, and the Bulldogs took over at their 28 with 1:34 left in the first quarter.
Eustace put a second drive together, moving to the Farmers 30 in six plays, including an 11-yard run by Joseph “JoJo” Bradburn and a 10-yard scamper by Trevan Johnson.
Johnson, who suffered a knee injury in the Kemp game and missed the final two regular-season contests, played the whole game, but was clearly not at 100 percent.
Disaster nearly struck on the fifth play of the march, when Calhoun fumbled, but offensive lineman Raymond Shutak recovered for a gain of eight.
After runs by Johnson and Compton got nothing, the Bulldogs tried a little razzle-dazzle, as Johnson took a toss right, stopped and threw deep for a wide-open Justin Hall at the goal line, only to see the pass go about an inch or two too long.
On fourth-and-15 at the 35, Compton pooched an absolutely perfect punt, rolling the ball out of bounds inside the Farmersville 1, although the Farmers were given a very generous spot at the 2.
Despite the poor field position, the Farmers came back with another strong march, getting out of the hole on runs by Morgan Harbison and Steven Duncan.
The march was helped tremendously by a very questionable pass-interference call against the Bulldogs, on a pass that was at least 10 feet over everybody’s head.
Eustace head coach Doug Wendel said later the pass-interference call was one of the four plays that cost the Bulldogs the game.
“We had them stopped at third-and-15,” he said. “That cost us a possession, and likely a short field. It was huge.”
Given new life at their 26, the Farmers ground out three first downs on runs by Harbison and Brooks, overcoming an illegal block penalty with a seven-yard scamper by Brooks.
On first down at the Eustace 34, however, Harbison fumbled, with Jacob McCarter recovering the bobble at the Bulldog 25.
With their third possession, the Bulldogs put together their first scoring march, moving 75 yards in six plays.
Key plays in the march included a 16-yard run by Johnson and two big runs by Compton, one of 10 yards and a second of 45 yards to the Farmers’ 15.
A facemask penalty on the stop put the Bulldogs at the Farmersville 7, and Compton got that on a relatively easy run to the left one play later.
McCarter’s point-after kick was blocked by huge (6-4, 305) Michael Thompson, but the Bulldogs were ahead 6-0 with just 59 seconds left before halftime.
During that final minute, the Farmers threatened, as Brooks hit Wiggins with two straight passes for gains of 13 and 11, but the Bulldog defense stiffened at the Farmers 40.
Bulldog Cody Folsom sacked Brooks for a loss of five, and teammate Justin Bersterman blew up a bit of razzle-dazzle by the Farmers, who tried a hook-and-lateral, with a pass to Byron Books, who tossed the ball to Wiggins, only to have Bersterman drop Wiggins for a loss of one.
Another sack forced the Farmers to punt on fourth-and-19, and a run by Calhoun took care of the final seven seconds of the first half.
Farmersville took the second-half kickoff and put together their first scoring march, moving 69 yards in nine plays.
Key plays in the drive included an 11-yard run by Harbison, a gain of 15 on two runs by Duncan, a 10-yard run by Wiggins, and two runs by Brooks, one for 10 that put the Farmers at the Bulldog 1, and the scoring plunge.
Marcos DeLaFuente added the PAT kick to put the Farmers in front, 7-6, with 7:45 left in the third quarter.
The Bulldogs went three-and-out on their first possession of the second half, as Farmer Dalton Wood sacked Compton for a loss of eight on third-and-11 to force a punt.
Brooks returned the punt to the Farmersville 49, and the Farmers took six plays to march 51 yards for their second touchdown.
Key plays in the drive included a 16-yard run by Duncan on a toss left and the scoring run by Wiggins, a 20-yard scamper on a toss to the right.
DeLaFuenta’s PAT gave the Farmers a 14-6 lead with 3:00 left in the third quarter.
The Bulldogs put a strong march together, moving from their 20 to the Farmersville 14 in nine plays, keyed by a 35-yard Compton scamper to the Farmers’ 21.
On fourth-and-three, Compton gained just one, giving the Farmers possession at their 13.
For the third straight time, the Farmers put together a scoring march, moving from their 13 to the Eustace 9 in seven plays, including a 56-yard gallop by Wiggins to the Bulldog 26.
On third-and-nine at the Bulldog 9, Wiggins was dropped for a three-yard loss by Bradburn, and DeLaFuente came on to toe a 29-yard field goal to give the Farmers a 17-6 lead with 6:28 to play.
Needing to score, the Bulldogs put together their second scoring march, moving 72 yards in 14 plays.
Key plays in the march included Calhoun runs of eight and 13 yards and another halfback pass by Johnson to Bradburn.
Bradburn did a great job of getting both toes down inbounds for a 23-yard gain to the Farmersville 14.
From there, the Bulldogs inched closer on runs by Calhoun and Johnson, who converted a fourth-and-two with a five-yard run to the Farmersville 1.
It took Compton two tries to punch in from the 1, and Bradburn got the two-point conversion on a run to the left to make it a one-possession game at 17-14 with 2:04 left to play.
Everybody in the stadium knew the Bulldogs would be trying an onside kick, and when officials unpiled the scrum at midfield, the Farmers had possession.
Even though the Bulldogs still had all three of their time outs, with just two minutes to play, both teams knew that a first down would probably ice the contest for the Farmers.
Brooks moved to running back, with Curtis Stanley coming in at quarterback (something the Farmers did a couple of times in the second half), and Brooks got the game-clinching first down with a 13-yard run to the Eustace 40.
An offsides call against the Eustace defense enabled the Farmers to get another first down on a sneak by Stanley, and Brooks knelt once to run out the final seconds.

Lady Panthers crush WP
Monitor Staff Reports
MABANK–The Mabank Lady Panthers improved to 2-0 on the young basketball season Saturday with another dominating home-court win, this time crushing the Wills Point Lady Tigers 63-40.
Following an open Tuesday night, the Lady Panthers are scheduled to host Spring Hill Friday, Nov. 20, with a 4:30 p.m. sub-varsity contest opening a three-game slate.
Next Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 23-24, the Lady Panthers are scheduled to host Canton Monday and visit Kerens Tuesday, but game times had not been set as of presstime Tuesday.
Following the Thanksgiving break, Mabank’s girls will host Kaufman Tuesday, Dec. 1, before playing in the Spring Hill tournament Dec. 3-5.
Wills Point was originally scheduled for Friday night, but the game was moved to Saturday evening to avoid conflict with the Wills Point football team’s bidistrict playoff game (see related story).
The quicker Lady Panthers again opened an early advantage, outscoring the Lady Tigers 20-6 in the first quarter, and outscoring them 21-12 in the second period to take a dominating 41-18 halftime lead.
During the second quarter, the Lady Tigers lost multi-sport athlete Precious Spencer to a knee injury. She did not return in the second half.
In the third quarter, Wills Point came out hot, while the Lady Panthers came out ice-cold. The result was a 9-1 run by the Lady Tigers, which cut Mabank’s lead to 15 points, 42-27, going into the fourth quarter.
During the final frame, the Lady Panthers found the range again, outscoring Wills Point 21-13 to forge the final 23-point margin.
Guard Sara Springer led the Lady Panthers with 27 points, as Jeanice Mojica had 13 and Chelsea Alldredge seven points.
Ashton Norman and Kourtney Holyfield both scored six points each, while Amanda Cook and Olivia Pannell both scored two points each.

Kemp girls open with win at Palmer
Monitor Staff Reports
PALMER–A 24-15 run over the middle two quarters enabled the Kemp Lady Yellowjackets to defeat the hosting Palmer Lady Bulldogs Friday in Kemp’s season opener.
The Lady ’Jackets were scheduled to host Scurry-Rosser in their home opener Tuesday.
Friday, Nov. 20, the Lady ’Jackets are scheduled to visit Venus for a 5 p.m. varsity contest, and Monday, Nov. 23, the Kemp girls will visit Kaufman for a three-game slate, opening with a 4:30 p.m. freshman game.
Following the Thanksgiving break, the Lady ’Jackets will host the Ferris Lady Yellowjackets Tuesday, Dec. 1, with a 4:30 p.m. freshman contest opening a three-game slate.
At Palmer, the Lady ’Jackets started slowly with some typical early-season mistakes (it was Kemp’s opener and Palmer’s second game), and the hosting Lady Bulldogs hit some uncontested shots to take an 18-14 lead.
In the second quarter, the Lady ’Jackets made adjustments and tied the score at 24 by halftime with 3-point baskets from Brandy Simmons and Michelle Ritterbach, as well as strong penetration moves by Brittany Simmons.
Ritterbach again got hot in the third quarter, hitting three baskets, including a trey, while Brianna Powell added a 3-point basket of her own to enable Kemp to forge a five-point lead, 38-33, going into the fourth quarter.
In the final stanza, the Lady ’Jackets outscored Palmer 10-7 to forge the final eight-point margin.
Ritterbach finished with a team-high 12 points, while sophomore post Kandace Rose played aggressively inside, scoring eight points and dragging down 11 rebounds, including six offensive rebounds.
Brandy Simmons finished with nine points and four rebounds, while Brittany Simmons had six points, dished out five assists and grabbed three steals.
Powell finished with seven points, while Amanda Lawrence had six points and two steals. Shannon Shipp, Shelbie Wright and Brittany Henderson combined for nine rebounds, one steal and one block.