The Eagles improve to 6-0 on the year and 2-0 in district with a 48-20 victory over the Gainesville Leopards. While the Eagles won handily by four touchdowns, the game was nowhere as close as the score would suggest. A slow first quarter and back up defense led to a closer score than the stats tell. The offense put up nearly 500 yards lead by star quarterback Dane Ledford and running back Don Williams.

The true stars of the game were the defense. The Eagle defense held Gainesville to 256 yards and 8-20 passing for less than a hundred yards. While one long touchdown burnt the Eagles in the first quarter, the Eagles rebounded by shutting down the Leopards keeping Gainesville off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter. Besides the long touchdown in the first quarter, the Eagles held the Leopards to an average of 2.55 yards per carry. The defensive effort for the Eagles was lead by senior middle linebacker Pierce Davies.

Pierce was a starter on last year’s state finals team as a safety, and with the graduation of Hudson Speed, Pierce was moved to the middle linebacker position. This season the Eagles have thrived with Pierce roaming the middle, playing its best football in years. After struggling the past two years defensively, the Eagles have stepped up especially in the absence of Dane Ledford due to injury.

Two games into district, the Eagles have two dominant performances leading into this week’s rivalry game vs. Sanger tonight. The Eagles are very confident going into playoffs, as they look to continue to roll through the three remaining games.

“I feel we’re very confident. We’ve played very well so far this year,” said Davies. “We’ll be continuing to practice hard and look forward to playoffs.”
After the Sanger game the Eagles have two remaining games against West Texas teams: Wichita Falls-Hirschi and Burkburnett. Hirschi is a very talented,high powered team similar to Decatur and Burkburnett who is 0-7 but has given Argyle tough games in the past.