Hounds at home to host former district foe

When the UIL realigned the football districts last spring, they didn’t put Boerne and Pleasanton in the same district like they had been for the last four seasons.

No matter, the coaches from both schools wanted to keep the other team on the schedule and that’s why the Greyhounds and Eagles are playing in a non-district contest this year.

Boerne High hosts Pleasanton this Friday at BISD Stadium, 7 p.m.

“It’s a good quality match up,” BHS coach Che Hendrix said. “Neither has to travel too far and it’s a good game for both teams.”

The Greyhounds have dominated the series, winning all four games played in the last four years but the contest in 2021 was the closest with Boerne earning a 39-31 victory at Pleasanton.

One of the reasons last year’s game was so close was because of Eagles running back Joel Arevalo, who ran for 151 yards on 32 carries, but Arevalo graduated and Hendrix said Pleasanton is trying to find his replacement. 

‘That’s their biggest loss from last year, he was excellent and that’s a big hole for them,” the coach said. “At their scrimmages they were trying out three and four different guys in that spot.”

The Eagles do return their quarterback Sean Ramos and two talented receivers in Jayden Palacios and Diego Luna.

“They have some weapons offensively and their best defensive player, a linebacker, is back,” Hendrix said. “They’re breaking in some new linemen, but they’ve got a good little team.”

Pleasanton is coming off a 29-12 loss to Antonian, while the Greyhounds held off Flour Bluff, 35-32.

Sophomore QB Jaxon Baize threw for two touchdowns and also ran for two scores.

Hendrix said Baize had a strong debut but knows he can get better.

“He played well, the difference is always the speed of the game and how fast it is at the varsity level,” Hendrix said. “There’s no no substitution for that except playing time.” 

TJ Dement and Adam Hicks both had touchdown catches, while Braden Baize did a good job on special teams returning punts and kickoffs that set up the offense with great field position.

After watching film. Hendrix said there’s room for improvement but was happy with how the game went.

“The main thing is trying to learn how to execute and know your assignment when you’re tired, there’s nothing like game shape,” he said. “We’ve got to clean some stuff up on the O line for sure and we’ve got to clean up some timing on routes, but that’ll come. We did a good job not committing a lot of penalties and we played clean for a first game.”