The fast start to the season is a helpful building block for the Hawks who lost 10 seniors to graduation after earning a district championship in 2011.

“We’re playing with four seniors this year, and the challenge for us is to play consistent, practice consistent and be more intense. We still have a lot of work to do in that regard,” said head coach Frank Hense.

The Hawks attacked the Hippos early and often, putting six shots on goal in the first eight minutes of play. Shot number six came off the foot of Mackinzie Browning and found the back of the net. In the 32nd minute Talia Graves put the second Hawk goal on the board with a long shot that deflected off a Hutto defender and into the goal. Senior center-midfielder Megan Baker tallied her first of two assists in the game in the 36th minute, sending a high-flying ball over the back line for Tyane Ramos to run onto and finish.

The Hawks’ second half dominance mirrored the first. Ramos scored her second goal of the night only 90 seconds into the second period thanks to a well-played ball on the ground from the foot of Browning.

“We don’t play soccer by accident. Everything we do is trying to play to feet and make good runs off the ball,” Hense said when asked about the solid midfield play that regularly sent offensive players through the back line. “We didn’t do as much of that today as we normally would. I thought the midfield played well, but we need to finish a little better.”

Baker sent another player into the scorebook with an assist to Anastasia Bradburn in the 65th minute, and Samantha Hentosh finished the sixth goal of the game on an assist from Amanda Garcia in the 68th minute.

“I thought we played well,” Hense said after the game. “I thought Hutto was much improved too. We can play better, and we need to play with more intensity than we played. The kids know that they can play better than they played.”

The loss put Hutto’s season record at 1-2-3 and 0-1 in District 50-4A play. The Hawks had 18 shots on goal while Hutto managed just one.

Pflugerville’s Rachel Boice advances in the 100 breaststroke. Justin Quarles qualifies in the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle and Ryan Tramp will move on in the 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke. The Panthers’ girls 200 freestyle relay, comprised of Alyssa Alvarez, Boice, Amanda Gomez and Melanie Stockton, is also going to region. The team of Foster Hooks, Parker Hooks, Quarles and Tramp qualified in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle.

The Panther girls finished seventh as a team. The boys were sixth. The region meet takes place Feb. 10-11 in Conroe.

1. The commercials are going to be good. The simple fact there is a Ferris Bueller commercial makes this year’s game worth watching (at least until that commercial airs). Matthew Broderick may be well past the age he was when he created the iconic role of Bueller (Bueller, Bueller) but that does not mean it will not be fun to revisit Ferris. I also heard about a Jerry Seinfeld commercial which has piqued my interest as well. So, perhaps I won’t be tuning in to watch the game. That doesn’t mean, however, I won’t be watching.

2. Bill Belichick will bore you. I don’t mean with his coaching, I mean with his answers to any sort of question posed to him. Has there ever been a guy who stayed more focused on not divulging a single thing when faced by a barrage of media than the guy in the hoody? I don’t think so, although Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin could be a close second.

3. You’ll wonder exactly why Madonna is ‘entertaining’ you at halftime. Ever since the infamous wardrobe malfunction a few years back the Super Bowl has played it very safe with its halftime entertainment and I’m sure this year will be the same. There was a time, about 20 years ago, that Madonna was controversial. That time, much like my youth, is long gone. So we’ll be forced to listen to her sing her greatest hits all the while wondering just how those songs became hits in the first place.

4. Eli Manning will outplay Tom Brady. The Patriots defense is so bad I cannot see any possible other outcome. Manning shredded the Packers defense (which is also pretty suspect) two games ago, then threw for over 300 yards and two touchdowns against a very good 49ers defense. On the other hand Brady put up very pedestrian numbers against the Ravens, not throwing for a touchdown, and was very lucky to see his team leave the Razor with a victory. And it will be because of Eli’s play that …

5. The Giants will win the Super Bowl. In my opinion the Patriots, the greatest football dynasty of the first part of the 21st century are simply lucky to be in the Super Bowl. The best team in the AFC (the Houston Texans) lost their quarterback and thus bowed out of the playoffs early. The Ravens (who defeated the Texans in the second round of the playoffs) may have very well beaten the Pats had it not been for a dropped touchdown pass, then saw their kicker miss a field goal that is made 99 percent of the time. As I said, New England has been lucky. The Giants, on the other hand, are the hot team. They dominated Atlanta, blew out the best team of the year Green Bay, then went to San Francisco and beat the Niners. New York may not have been the best team over the length of the year, but they are the hottest team right now and usually the hottest team is the one that wins the Super Bowl.

The Cougars led 10-1 following a Kara Babola basket. They built their lead to 14-1 after Autumn Shead and Xaviera Tucker scored. The Bears would get a free throw from Addison Semer to make the score 14-2 at the end of the first period of play.

The Cougars started the second quarter with a steal and layup by Azaria Miller to increase their lead to 16-2. Magen Cavazos scored the first Bears basket from the field halfway through the period to make the score 18-6. The Cougars closed the quarter on a 15- 1 run to take a 33-7 halftime lead. During the run Miller scored five straight points to make the score 23-6. Following a 3-pointer by Cherise Patterson, Mariah Wells scored five straight points to give the Cougars a comfortable 33-7 lead.

In the third quarter Babola connected on a mid-range jumper to make score 35-7. Following a basket by Shead, Wells scored after grabbing an offensive rebound to increase the Cougars lead to 39-7. Brittany Reed scored the only points of the quarter for the Bears on a driving layup to make the score 39-9. However, Latasha Street scored the final points of the period to give the Cougars a 41-9 lead at the end of three periods of play.

The Bears got the first four points of the final period as Reed connected on two free throws and Semer scored on a layup to cut the Cougars’ lead to 41-13. Patterson answered for the Cougars by nailing three 3-pointers consecutively to push the score to 50-13. Cavazos followed that up by connecting on the Bears’ only 3-pointer of the night.

The Cougars were led in scoring by Patterson with 14 points and Wells with 13 points. The Bears were led by Reed with 10 points and Cavazos with 8 points.

The Bears dropped to 2-12 in district action.

The Panthers jumped out to a 20-4 lead in the game and were up 44-13 at intermission as they improved to 34-0 on the year and a perfect 10-0 in District 16-5A.

Itiana Taylor led the Panthers with 21 points. Jaden Sturm added 14.

Pflugerville 61, McNeil 42

Itiana Taylor scored 13 points and Diana Omozee added 10 as the Panthers stayed perfect with a win over the Mavericks on Tuesday. Ari Booth and Taylor Ross each scored nine points for Pflugerville (35-0).

Hendrickson 70, Manor 31

The Hawks jumped out to a 25-7 first-quarter lead and never looked back as they picked up their eighth district win of the year. Jazmin Griffin and Mariah Meyer each scored 15 points to lead Hendrickson. Daryanne Yarbrough added 13.

Boys

Westwood 71, Pflugerville 61

The Panthers jumped out to an early lead and were up 27-26 at halftime but couldn’t hang on for the district win. TJ Williams led Pflugerville (13-8, 5-2) with 25 points. Justin Moss added 12 and Napoleon Onyeje had 11.

Connally 68, Cedar Creek 34

Adrian Williams scored 15 points, Joesph Mitchell had 14 and Marcel Pimpton scored 13 as the Cougars got closer to securing a playoff spot. Connally led 37-12 at halftime as they improve to 15-14 and 7-5 in district.

Leading the PISD class was Hendrickson’s Daje Johnson who switched from his verbal commitment to TCU to sign with the University of Texas. His Hawk teammate Kingsley Ike settled on Purdue while Victor Irokansi will head to Oklahoma State. Hendrickson’s Reid Mitchell signed with Rice and Kerrick Rhone committed to Kent State. Hawk Jordan Townes is headed to Mary Hardin Baylor while Will Ward, Gabe Whitman and James Potts will all play at Campbellsville College in Kentucky.

Pflugerville had just one signee, Khalil Shotwell who’s headed to Wayland Baptist in Anchorage, Arkansas. Connally’s Jerryl Yarbrough and Breion Evans will both play at Midwestern State in Wichita Falls while teammate Adam Burns takes his talents to Prarie View A&M.

In addition to the football players, Hendrickson soccer player Gabe Williams committed to West Texas A&M in Canyon.

The Hawks join Pflugerville High in Region II District 16-5A. The rest of the district is made up of Round Rock High, Cedar Ridge, McNeil, Stony Point and Westwood. Connally remains at the 4A level in Region 3, District 17. The Cougars keep many of their same district foes as Bastrop, Bastrop Cedar Creek, Elgin, Hutto and Manor join them in the district. Georgetown and Georgetown East View round out the district.

Look for more on this story in next week’s print edition.

The Rangers got on the board quickly when A’Shanian Smith drained a three less than a minute into the contest giving Bryan the early lead. The Hawks responded by going on a 9-0 run in a one-minute span that ignited the home crowd but more importantly gave the Hawks the lead at 9-3.

A pressing defense and transition offense were the catalyst for the Hawks early offensive explosion. Both teams settled into the game and from that point on the first quarter was a back-and-forth affair with the teams trading buckets. Halfway through the quarter the Hawks still held the lead at 11-7 and seemed to be controlling the flow and pace of the game.

As the quarter went on the Rangers did cut the lead to just two points but thanks to the scoring of Issak Gonzalez and Josh King, who combined for 12 points in the first quarter, the Hawks went into the second quarter leading 18-16.

The downside to the Hawks aggressive defense was the foul trouble they got themselves into very early in the second quarter. Only a minute into the quarter the Rangers were already in the double bonus and from then on were able to go to the line frequently. Even at that, the Hawks maintained the lead for most of the second quarter by fighting off every Rangers’ offensive run. It wasn’t until the waning minute of the quarter that the Rangers regained the lead at 33-29. Rudder’s second quarter charge was led by Will Martin’s seven points and Demarshon Wilson’s six points that gave Rudder a 34-33 lead heading into the break.

The Rangers opened the second half with an 11-4 run in the first two minutes of the third quarter to extend their lead to 45-37. Hendrickson’s King continued to have the hot hand as he added seven more points in the third, but that was not enough to counter the lights out shooting by Rudder’s Jonas Suber. Thanks to Suber the Rangers turned an eight-point lead into a 14-point lead with two minutes left in the third quarter. It looked as if the Hawks were done until they outscored the Rangers 9-0 in the final two minutes to cut their lead to 53-48.

A 3-point shot by Hendrickson’s David Hernandez with 7:05 left in the game pulled the Hawks to within two at 53-51 but unfortunately that was as close as the Hawks would get the remainder of the game. Rudder finished the night by rattling off 20 points in the final seven minutes to take the win.

Led by Napoleon Onyeje’s 21 points and TJ Williams 20, the Panthers (5-3 in district) had the Mavericks on the ropes late in the fourth quarter but could not deliver the knockout blow, ultimately falling 83-74 in overtime.

With less than a minute to play in the final period of regulation, Williams sliced through the McNeil (8-1 in distirct) defense and scored a layup, putting Pflugerville up 69-67 with 54 seconds on the clock. Daniel Oschner stopped the ensuing Maverick possession, blocking Robert Waters’ shot and returning possession to the Panthers. With 27 seconds remaining McNeil was forced to foul and sent Williams to the line to shoot a one and one. Williams missed the front end of the charity shots and the Mavericks grabbed the rebound. With 14 seconds left in the game McNeil’s Hayden Worrell drove to the basket and was fouled by Oschner. Worrell knocked down both charity shots, knotting the score at 69-69. The Panthers had one final possession to get the win and got the ball down the court but Williams’ shot did not find the basket and the game moved on to overtime.

The extra period was not kind to Pflugerville. The Panthers missed their first two shots of the quarter then turned the ball over three consecutive times. Pflugerville did not get a basket until just 14 seconds remained on the overtime clock when Williams finally scored.

As the Panthers floundered, the Mavericks found their groove. Jeremiah Jones and Waters each scored buckets to put McNeil up 73-69. Jacob Jiongo and Waters each converted two free throws to continue to increase the Maverick lead and when Waters knocked down a couple more charity shots late, McNeil led 83-71.

The game was a back-and-forth affair from the beginning. The Mavericks jumped out to an 8-0 lead before Darian Bostic (19 points) scored on a driving layup at the 5:08 mark to the board. The basket sparked a 13-3 Pflugerville run that ended when Oschner took a pass from Onyeje and dropped in a bucket to give the Panthers their first lead of the game at 13-11. The teams continued to trade blows through the rest of the first. McNeil took a 22-15 lead before Justin Moss and Onyeje scored back-to-back baskets to tie the score at 19-19 after a quarter of play.

The Panthers came out firing in the second quarter, taking a 25-19 lead after Williams scored twice and Onyeje added another bucket. Pflugerville was up 27-24 following an Oschner put-back, but, as they did all game, the Mavericks answered. Waters scored, then fired a perfect lob pass to Trey Dilworth who grabbed the ball and slammed it home for two. Williams responded for the Panthers with a couple free throws and Onyeje buried a 3-pointer, putting Pflugerville up 32-29 but Jones knocked down a three for McNeil, scoring the last basket of the half and tying the game at 32-32.

The Mavericks dominated the first four minutes of the second half. Waters scored five points as McNeil built a 45-38 advantage at the 4:35 mark. Pflugerville struck back, however. Moss scored three points, Bostic drained a 3-pointer and Onyeje scored on a layup, cutting the Maverick lead to 49-46. The Panthers were not done chipping away either. Williams and Moss scored on back-to-back buckets to briefly put Pflugerville up 50-49. The lead was shortlived as McNeil scored the final two points of the quarter on free throws to take a 51-50 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Panthers will wear pink uniforms in the game and the proceeds from the game will go to the Susan Brown Memorial Scholarship fund. Brown was a friend of both Pflugerville coach Nancy Walling and McNeil coach Amanda Aguilar. She passed away last year from cancer. During the game donations will be accepted and purple t-shirts will be on sale for $10, with money raised going toward the scholarship fund as well.

The Pflugerville squad will have another fundraising game Friday when they host Georgetown in their annual Souper Bowl of Caring Food Drive game. The Panthers will be taking food donations in the gym prior to the game and all food donated will be given to the Storehouse Food Bank.