Category: Warhorses & Arabians

Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
The Arabians should be more than ready to kick off District 29-4A action on Friday, September 13 in Uvalde as they put their extremely challenging preseason schedule to bed last night in the DSAC against Navarro.
Although the season has been full of adjustments with many new players in new positions this year, Head Coach Leigh Anne McIver believes her team is coming around at the right time to make its move toward a championship.
“The girls showed some fight and the drive to win against McMullen County,” McIver said after their five-set nailbiter last Friday evening. “Something clicked right before the third set, and we never looked back. I’m proud of the girls, and hopefully this is just the start for them.”
Devine looked sluggish the first two sets against McMullen, losing 25-19 and 25-20, to go down as two sets to none.
But, when it looked like doom and gloom would prevail, the Arabians rose…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
Devine’s freshman Arabians went 2-1 Saturday in their host volleyball tournament, finishing as runner-up to D’Hanis’ JV squad. The team played Navarro last night, and open District 29-4A play this Friday in Uvalde before entertaining Carrizo Springs next Tuesday.
“We had a slow start in the Pleasanton game, which is typical it being the first game of the day,” said Stacy about the bright and early first-serve. “Once the girls got going it was hard to stop us after that, though!”
vs Pleasanton 25-10, 25-13
“It always feels good to take down a district opponent in pre-season!” was the exclamation after the Arabians slid past Pleasanton with ease.
Sydney Solis led in kills with 4, while Leann Guemes had 3. Peyton Dixon Davis added 2 kills to go along with a block.
Gigi Madrid tossed in 6 assists and Aaliyah Moralez netted 2.
A’Dell Holder had a whopping 7 aces, and Madrid served up 5.
Greeley Malone had 2 digs.
D’Hanis JV 17-25, 23-25
Ah, dad-burn-it! That pesky D’Hanis JV team slipped into Devine and took…

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Devine boots Indians from
Warhorse Stadium 34-19

Brayden Reyes rushes for 217 yards & 3 TDs

Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
What a difference a week makes! Devine put on a show in their second home game of the short season as they defeated the visiting Jourdanton Indians behind Brayden Reyes’ 217 yard, three touchdown performance.
The Warhorses racked up 409 yards total offense as Reyes, Eli Contreras, Wero Torres, Anthony Saldivar, and Edward Perez combined for 373 yards on the ground.
Oh, but the defense stole the show for much of the game as that unit also came up huge over and over again. The Indians never got their running game off the ground, while their pass attempts mostly dropped helplessly to the Warhorse Stadium turf.
After his team’s overall performance in their season-opening loss to Randolph (also at Warhorse Stadium), Devine Head Coach Paul Gomez was thrilled to see the quick turnaround from his team as Jourdanton was certainly a real threat prior to kickoff, to hop on their high-horse after this game and gallop out of town with a victory of their own.
“I am very proud of our effort,” stated Gomez as he began his post-game comments. “I thought we executed very well this week, and we eliminated most of the penalties that killed our chances to win our first game.”
Even though Devine still committed its fair-share of penalties, it was night-and-day improvement in that area.
The Indians put the first points on the Brown Chevrolet scoreboard as they booted a 30-yard field goal with 5:49 to go in the first quarter. Devine’s defense bent, but did not break as Jourdanton began this drive only 35-yards away from the end zone, thanks to a bad snap on a Warhorse punt attempt near mid-field.
“That first stand was a great momentum boost for us defensively. We gave them great field position, but our defense was able to hold them to only the three points.”
Devine answered that three-pointer with a quick drive of their own as Contreras converted a big third-down play by rushing 19-yards for a first down. Contreras’ run set up the first of Reyes’ three scores, this one from 24 yards with 2:41 to go in the opening frame.
Teotimo Stafford converted the extra point, and the Warhorses led 7-3 going into the second quarter.
The Warhorse defense looked as though it may force a three and out on Jourdanton’s next possession, but a questionable penalty negated what would have been…

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QB Jacob Sollock launches a pass. Photos by Brigid Howard.

Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
New Devine Defensive Coordinator Danny Sanchez has made himself right at home as the signal caller for the Warhorse ‘D.” In fact, after just two ballgames in the books, Sanchez has already brought his own analytics to the forefront of showing his players how good of an outing they actually had in their previous Friday night tilt.
These results are known as “SanchoStats.”
Anyone who watched Devine shut down an overall bigger-bodied, more-skilled team in Jourdanton at Warhorse Stadium had to walk out talking about the effort and plays made on the defensive side of the ball.
After reviewing game film, SanchoStats read as such: vs J’town—RUSHING 23 rushes for 54 yards/2.35 yards per carry/1 TD (4 of these were scrambles for 17 yards…take those away and it is 19/27 for 1.95 yards a carry) PASSING 18 of 36 passing (50%) 238 yards 1 TD, 2 INTS, 1 Sack.
The only possible stat that could be negative is the 18 of 36 passing for 238 yards, but, and this is a huge but, Jourdanton only managed one score through the air on those completions.
Not giving up the deep-ball for six is a valued part of the game. Keeping the ball in front of defenders and making tackles to negate yards after the catch is vital, and the Horses did just that.
“We wanted to take away the running game from Jourdanton, and we did,” Sanchez stated after accumulating his data. “Our secondary knew they would try to expose us in the air, and we were up for…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
Devine’s 34-19 blistering of visiting Jourdanton last Friday brought plenty of attention to the football program, and to one Warhorse individually as Brayden Reyes was awarded a San Antonio Express-News “Game Ball” by sportswriter David Hinojosa.
Reyes rushed 18 times for 217 yards and three touchdowns in Devine’s impressive 15-point victory. He also caught a pass for seven yards.
Congratulations, Brayden!

Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
The Devine JV Horses continued their early season dominance as they defeated Jourdanton on their home turf 46-0 last Thursday evening. Devine is now 2-0 on the season after defeating Randoph in week one and are ready to go 3-0 as they will once again combine with JV2 to play in Natalia Thursday at the conclusion of both the 7th grade and 8th grade Colt football games.
“This year has been very fun thus far,” said Coach Lon Cozby after his team put up its second consecutive shutout victory. “This group plays well as a family and takes care of each other in every aspect. It is hard to beat a team that plays all 11 as one unit and that is exactly what we have done.”
Enoch Hall got the game going on the right foot as he returned the opening kickoff to the 40-yard line before running back Ryan Weinkam showed more than a little speed on the first play of the game.
“Ryan took the ball off the left side and busted passed everyone for a 60-yard touchdown. Dylan Hinnant had a pancake block early in…

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Devine JV battles Jourdanton. Photos by B Howard.

Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Arabian volleyball may be on what many call a “rough patch” as the losses are outnumbering the wins at this point in the season. Head Coach Leigh Anne McIver is fully aware of what lies ahead for her team as the tough “tournament season” portion and pre-district schedule is almost complete.
“I understand that we do not have the full concept of ‘how to win’ right now, but that is why I scheduled these tough-type games and tournaments that lead into District 29-4A,” McIver said, confident in her team’s ability to learn on the fly and to be ready for what is still to come during the 2024 campaign.
Recent games against perennial playoff teams like Crystal City, Canyon Lake, San Antonio Christian, Hondo, Medina Valley, and last year’s 29-4A winner Floresville has helped the Arabian squad come together as a team more than any normal fan can probably see at this point.
“Our confidence is not shaken; it is actually…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Nine Devine Cross Country runners competed in the Panther Invitational at Medina Valley this past Saturday and they combine to place fourth overall as a team. The Horses tallied 113 points.
Donovan Dixon continues to pursue his quest for the State Meet in early November as he finished third of 117 runners in his division. Dixon ran a time of 17:48 and racked up the lowest team-point available as he was first as far as teams that…

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Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Devine has numbers on their sub-varsity teams for the first time in quite a while. Unfortunately, some other towns are continuing to struggle to get their fair share of players in order to have true freshman and JV teams.
The Warhorses ran into that problem last week as the Randolph Ro-Hawks only had enough players for one squad, forcing Devine to combine their JV1 and JV2 football teams for their Thursday evening contest.
Devine returned home with the decisive 24-0 victory
“We platooned it,” Coach Lon Cozby simply stated. “JV1 played offense for a series then JV2 played the following series. We did the same thing on defense.”
Even though Randolph won the toss, they elected to defer which gave the Horses the first possession of the game.
“Alejandro Ramirez ran it 18 yards for the first touchdown on the third play of the game, then, as quarterback, he found Cole Reyes on a slant route to add the two-point conversion.”
The quick start continued on the next series as it took a mere three snaps for Devine to find the end zone once again.
“Enock Hall, behind a great lead block from…

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