West Texas: Preview of the Top Week 3 Games

The 2023 West Texas high school football season enters Week 3 with several scintillating games on the schedule. Several games will be played on Thursday night. Here are the top five games in each region:   PANHANDLE/SOUTH PLAINS   Game of the Week: Frenship at Lubbock Monterey   After going winless in 2022, Lubbock Monterey is writing one of the ‘feel good' stories of the early 2023 campaign. The Plainsmen are 2-0 with wins over Odessa and Abilene Wylie. The secret? Monterey is running the football much better than last year when they averaged 4.4 yards per carry. Through 2 games, Monterey is averaging 5.3 yards per carry (almost a yard more per carry, which is a significant amount). And they're getting more explosive plays out of the passing game. However, the Plainsman have their hands full Thursday night against a very talented Wolfforth Frenship team. The Tigers are coming off an exciting OT win over Lubbock-Cooper and possess one of the best QB-WR tandems in West Texas with Hudson Hutcheson and [player_tooltip player_id='1420687' first='Leyton' last='Stone'].         Midland at Amarillo: A week after pulling out a thrilling overtime win at Rio Rancho (NM) Cleveland, Amarillo's main objective against Midland is easy to sum up: stop the run. The Bulldogs have run the ball 93 times in the first two games compared to 10 passes. Even though the opposition knows it's coming, Midland is still averaging 7.7 yards per rush, proof of just how good Midland's offensive line has been in the first two games. Amarillo's backup QB, Jett Lopez, played in the Cleveland game for the injured Will Flaming.          Abilene Wylie at Lubbock-Cooper: The Pirates are coming off a one-point loss to Frenship in OT when they missed the 2-point conversion in overtime. But LCP has an opportunity to get things corrected against a winless Abilene Wylie team that allowed 69 points to Brownwood and Lubbock Monterey in its first two games.  Jayden Hibbler, who rushed for 109 yards against Frenship, is LCP's top offensive playmaker and look for him to get the ball plenty in this game.      Wichita Falls Rider at Lubbock Coronado: Winless after two games, Coronado faces a must-win situation against Wichita Falls Rider. Granted, Coronado has lost to two very talented teams in Frenship and Midland. QB Isaiah Vazquez has thrown for 450 yards and 3 TD while rushing for a team-leading 121 yards in the first two games. Rider is 2-0 as QB [player_tooltip player_id='1645114' first='Joe' last='Castles'] has completed 72.4 percent of his passes for 278 yards and 5 TD in the first two wins.   Elk City (OK) at Canadian: The No. 1 team in the MaxPreps Amarillo Region poll won last week's high-scoring duel with Bushland in a battle of 3A powers. Canadian dual threat QB Camren Cavalier racked up 472 yards of total offense against Bushland. His favorite passing target is WR Luke Flowers, who caught 4 TD passes in the win over Bushland. Elk City won't be a pushover, though. Defensively, they allowed just 14 points in the first two games. The Elks are 24-5 over the past 2+ seasons, so the current Elk City plyers know how to win.        More Games To Watch: Estacado at Palo Duro (Thur.); Canyon at West Plains; Plainview at Wichita Falls; Hereford at Shallowater; Bushland at Childress; El Paso Mountain View at Seminole; Stratford at Gruver; Muleshoe at Friona; Panhandle at Vega.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/SemperImpetus/status/1699476587370926582?s=20 </div></figure>   PERMIAN BASIN   Game of the Week: Tascosa at Odessa Permian   Both of these West Texas powers have experienced uneven starts to their seasons, but in reverse order. Tascosa opened with a solid 28-7 win over Amarillo rival Palo Duro before getting their run defense ripped apart last week in a loss at Midland Legacy. Odessa Permian began with a sluggish home loss to Abilene but bounced back last week with a promising 27-21 road win at Waco Midway. The Panthers rushed for 289 yards on 41 carries, prompting these questions heading into Friday night's showdown at Ratliff Stadium: 1) Is Tascosa's run defense as poor as we saw against Midland Legacy?; 2) Is Permian's run offense as good as we saw at Waco Midway? Friday night's clash will provide us with some answers. Either way, you should expect Permian will test the Tascosa run defense early and often. We know Tascosa will run the football (a lot) because that's what the flexbone offense does.           Midland Legacy at Abilene: If this game was being played at Astound Broadband Stadium in Midland, it would be the Game of the Week in all of West Texas. Both teams are 2-0 and ranked No. 1 by MaxPreps in their respective region polls. Coming into the season, Midland Legacy Legacy QB [player_tooltip player_id='119032' first='Marcos' last='Davila'] garnered plenty of attention, and deservedly so since he's a Purdue commit and possesses a bazooka arm. However, the Rebels have been relentless on the ground in the first two weeks, amassing 409 rushing yards against Tascosa last Friday. Three rushers gained 95+ yards apiece. Abilene likes to run the football too and QB Dylan Slack is completing close to 80 percent of his passes (27-34) with 5 TD throws and zero interceptions.       Odessa at Keller: Odessa has been the ‘Kardiac Kids' in the first two weeks with both games going down to the wire. Last week the Bronchos kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired to beat El Paso Americas, 22-20. If there's one certainty about the Odessa offense, it's this: they will throw the ball frequently in the direction of 6-foot-6 WR Ivan Carreon, who has 10 receptions for 256 yards and 4 TD in eight quarters of football. It's the job of junior QB Mikey Cota to get Carreon the ball. Odessa travels to the Metroplex to take on Keller, which is 2-0 after victories over Abilene Cooper and Plano West.       Big Spring at Monahans: The Monahans Loboes, a Class 4A program, are No. 2 in the MaxPreps Odessa region poll ahead of Permian, Midland and Odessa. Their offense has been fun to watch in the first two weeks as they've scored 97 points in victories over Shallowater and Andrews. Big Spring bounced back from a Week 1 loss to Pampa with a solid road win at Lubbock High, sealing the win late with a clock-draining drive.             Wink at Alpine: Wink has risen to No. 7 in the latest MaxPreps Odessa poll with a 2-0 start. Freshman RB Kemyd Faciane had 217 yards rushing in last week's win at Ozuna. Alpine is still looking for its first win of the season following losses to El Paso Mountain View and Fort Stockton.      More Games To Watch: Andrews at Midland Greenwood; Reagan County at Crane; Kermit at Coahoma; Midland Christian vs. Texarkana Pleasant Grove (Neutral Site).   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/ECISDAthletics/status/1699229294096978411?s=20 </div></figure>   FAR WEST TEXAS   Game of the Week: Pebble Hills at Eastwood   This is unquestionably the best game of the week in El Paso, and arguably one of the games of the year in Far West Texas. The fact it's also a district game makes it even more compelling. Both teams are loaded starting at QB where Pebble Hills' Gael Ochoa (UTEP commit) and Eastwood's Evan Minjarez, two outstanding dual threat signal callers, will duel. Pebble Hills escaped Canutillo in Week 1 with a last-second field goal before routing Del Valle, 33-6, in Week 2. MLB Dorian Jaramillo leads a solid Spartans defense. Eastwood took it on the chin in the opener at 6A power Southlake Carroll but rebounded nicely last week with a 55-28 bashing of Las Cruces (NM). Minjarez has already thrown for close to 600 yards, while Max Mancilla is a great option in the run game.             Franklin at EP Coronado (Thur., Sun Bowl): Who's No. 3 in the MaxPreps El Paso Region poll? Franklin. The Cougars deserve the ranking after impressive victories over Las Cruces (NM) Centennial and Andress. QB Shay Smith is off to a sensational start. Coronado's first two games have been decided by a total of 6 points. Last week they fell to Canutillo, 21-19. QB [player_tooltip player_id='628089' first='Owen' last='Levesque'] and RB Thomas Murray are the top offensive threats.      EP Austin at Canutillo: Canutillo is No. 5 in the MaxPreps El Paso Region poll and the Eagles have played two close, hard-fought games. They took Pebble Hills to the final seconds and then beat Coronado last week. Canutillo mainly runs the football with RB Rene Huerta being the main weapon. EP Austin is winless and beating Canutillo will take an A+ performance in all three phases.      Eastlake at El Dorado (Thur.): Eastlake is No. 4 in the MaxPreps El Paso Region poll and they have two lopsided victories over Andress and Rio Rancho (NM) to support their cause. Falcons QB Luke Lomeli is another reason it's the ‘Year of the Quarterback' in El Paso. El Dorado is 0-2 and earning its first win of the year won't be easy. The good news for the Aztecs is stud RB [player_tooltip player_id='212439' first='Ryan' last='Estrada'] returned last week after missing the opener.       Montwood at Americas: Americas will try to rebound from an excruciating loss to Odessa at home last week on a walk-off field goal. RB Cam'ron Johnson already has 200+ rushing yards after two games, putting him squarely on pace for 1,000 yards. Montwood is 0-2 but they also suffered a close loss in Week 2. The Rams hosted San Angelo Central and dropped a thriller, 35-33. QB Michael Southern passed for 457 yards in the first two games.      More Games To Watch: Burges at Parkland; Andress at Del Valle; Chaparral (NM) at Bel Air; Clint at Gadsden (NM); Hanks at Irvin.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/SamGuzmanTV/status/1698488811980726771?s=20 </div></figure>

The 2023 West Texas high school football season enters Week 3 with several scintillating games on the schedule. Several games will be played on Thursday night. Here are the top five games in each region: