Each week, six-man football insider Leman Saunders shares his news and notes from the Class 1A action across Texas. Be sure to follow Leman on Twitter @lemansaunders.

Tough Teams Playing Tough Teams

With such small districts in class 1A there are always a good sample size of top tier teams playing each other in non-district play and week 3 was no exception.

DI top five ranked Milford played DII top five ranked Oakwood in what is quickly becoming a rivalry game last week and the Bulldogs managed to hold off the Panthers and win a highly contested game 57-42.  The two main take-aways from this game is 1.  Oakwood, despite having one of their wins coming at the hands of a JV team, is a legit contender in division two.  2.  Milford is a deep team with more weapons than Taron Smith.  Smith left the game early via accumulating two personal fouls for celebration after going 6-6-0 for 128 yards, 3 TDs passing.  Rickey Pendleton came in to take up the slack and ended the game with a rushing stat line of 10-176 yards, 3 TDs.

DII Iredell dominated DI Blum 60-14 as the Dragons threw for 111 yards with three TDs going 6-7-0 as a team and Morgan Whitfield rushing for two TDs and 91 yards on just 10 carries.

In a battle between DI top 10’s Borden County destroyed a very talented Knox City team 64-15.

Crowell and Aspermont are both solid teams that have been bumped up to DI and they faced off in Aspermont and Crowell hung on to win 69-66 outscoring the Hornets 12-8 in the final quarter as Michael Reeves had a hand in seven touchdowns, including passing for the Wildcats’ final three and returning an INT back 80 yards for a score early on.

Garden City held on thanks to a big third quarter to defeat Balmorhea 53-32 in a battle between two DI top 10 teams.

Happy notched their first win of the season as the defeated Valley, coached by former Happy HC Tye Keith, 58-48.

DI #1 McLean won easily over DII ranked Follett 48-0.

Surprising 3-0 Teams

Aside from the usual suspects, there are several teams that are off to a great start this season that should be recognized  

Gustine, Northside, Evant, Saint Jo, Gholson, Covington, Blanket, and new UIL school Bluff Dale are all off to a perfect 3-0 start to the season.  As we move deeper into the season it will be interesting to see if these teams have the staying power to be full-fledged playoff contenders once we enter weeks 9, 10 and 11.

While they aren’t 3-0 it is worth mentioning that Patton Springs is off to a 2-1 start having won two straight against Cotton Center (35-18) and Odessa West Texas Homeschool (56-8).  Last week’s mercy rule win was the first such win since 2010 and the 2-1 start is the best for the Elks since 2009.

Low scoring games!

Six-man football has kind of become known for high-scoring offenses.  However, week three gave us some low scoring affairs:  Jonesboro rebounded from their week two loss by beating Waco Live Oak 24-14.  Evant edged Brookesmith 34-7; Leakey moves to 2-1 by beating SA Lutheran 36-7; May beat Lometa 34-14; Saint Jo beat Forestburg 32-6; Abbott topped Penelope 36-0; and Kopperl won their first game 34-6 over Rochelle.