Yoemen Sports Network

This past week, Noah Kostroun added to the already long list of Yoe seniors committed to play at the next level.  Kostroun signed as a preferred walk-on to play football for Incarnate Word University.

“What Incarnate Word like about him was his athleticism,” said athletic director and head football coach Tommy Brashear.  “He has good size and a good build to him.  They liked that he was a deep snapper.  He did that for us the last two years and was very solid for us.  I don’t remember him having any bad snaps on specials teams.  That is huge because sometimes you take it for granted.”

In addition to his role as deep snapper, Kostroun was a mainstay for the Yoemen at defensive line the past two seasons.  In his junior season, Kostroun totaled 56 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.  This past year, the senior had 54 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and 7 sacks. 

Wherever IWU decides to use Kostroun, Brashear feels he is going to add value.

Last Thursday, the Yoe golfers competed in quite possibly their toughest tournament of the regular season on the road at Brenham.  Cameron was up against a majority of teams from larger classifications, but held their own with a fifth place finish and a team total of 366 on the day. 

In total there were four 3A schools and one private school, with the rest being 4A or larger competition.  The Yoemen were just 15 strokes behind 3rd place Rockdale (351).  Bellville tied Brenham at the top of the standings at 334.

Nikolas Keratsopoulos won his second tournament in a row with a 75.  The finish was two strokes better than Bruceville-Eddy’s Preston McGinty.  Keratsopoulos and McGinty ended in a three-way tie for second at state last year. 

Freshmen Kobe Young has shown strong improvement throughout the year and ended Thursday with an 89, which was good enough for a tie at the 21st spot.  Young shot a 92 last week in the Cameron tournament.

After jumping into the state’s top 25 rankings two weeks ago, the Yoemen proved their staying power by going a perfect 3-0-1 in the Franklin tournament this past weekend.  The Yoemen navigated their way through a field of 30 teams all the way to the championship game against number one Lago Vista.  Cameron led that contest 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth before heavy showers forced the game to be called.

Cameron picked up wins over Fairfield, College Station JV and Brazos Christian and advanced on a tiebreaker against Navasota to the championship game.  On Monday, the Yoemen were rewarded by an advancement in the rankings, moving from number 24 up to number 20.  Other local teams ranked in TxHighSchoolBaseball.com’s 3A rankings include Lago Vista (1), West (6), Troy (8), Groesbeck (14), Georgetown Gateway Prep (19), Clifton (21) and Rogers (22). 

Below is a recap from each of the games in Franklin.

Fairfield (W, 7-1)

20-3A has always been regarded as one of the better baseball districts across Central Texas and the entire state. With the deep amount of quality teams, each and every game tends to go down to the wire. We got one of those ball games on Tuesday night at the Yards of Cameron as the Yoemen won in walk-off fashion against the Jarrell Cougars, 2-1.

The storyline of the district opener was both pitchers each going the distance. Both Jason Llanas of Cameron (7-3, 1-0) (7 IP, 3 H, 1 R 0 ER, 6 K) and Forrest Bell of Jarrell (7-2, 0-1) (6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 8 B) both had outstanding pitching lines.

“I thought Jarrell’s guy did a great job tonight,” said Yoe head baseball coach John Broussard. “He threw three pitches for strikes and he kept us off balance and did a great job. I thought Llanas matched him just as well. They scratched one early and I’m proud of our guys for fighting back and ended up getting the win in the last inning.”

Over the weekend, the Lady Yoe played in their final tournament of the year at Franklin. The ladies broke even in two days and finished with a 2-2 mark overall. On Tuesday, Cameron fell to 0-2 in 20-3A play with a 8-5 loss to Jarrell. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Cameron but field conditions forced the move to Williamson County.

Franklin Tournament

Riesel (L 17-3)

In the opening game of the tournament, Cameron gave up multiple runs in the first four innings, including nine in the fourth in a 17-3 loss to Riesel. The Lady Indians only had eight hits in the 5 innings played, but also took advantage of six Lady Yoe errors in the process to balloon the score. Cameron scored one run in the second and two runs in the third. Kenzie Wimmer and Karla Martinez each had an RBI. Molly Oges and Alexis Vargas had the two hits for Cameron.

White Oak (W 6-4)

Over the weekend, the Lady Yoe played in their final tournament of the year at Franklin. The ladies broke even in two days and finished with a 2-2 mark overall. On Tuesday, Cameron fell to 0-2 in 20-3A play with a 8-5 loss to Jarrell. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Cameron but field conditions forced the move to Williamson County.

Franklin Tournament

Riesel (L 17-3)

In the opening game of the tournament, Cameron gave up multiple runs in the first four innings, including nine in the fourth in a 17-3 loss to Riesel. The Lady Indians only had eight hits in the 5 innings played, but also took advantage of six Lady Yoe errors in the process to balloon the score. Cameron scored one run in the second and two runs in the third. Kenzie Wimmer and Karla Martinez each had an RBI. Molly Oges and Alexis Vargas had the two hits for Cameron.

White Oak (W 6-4)

Always like to remember assistant coaches over the years. Most were just passing through, but you probably know Cameron stayed on their mind throughout their career. You know “Once a Yoemen, Always a Yoemen”.

I picked a twelve-year period starting with head coaches Hal Stanislaw (68-71), followed by Ed Cauley (72-76), and Max Graham (77-79). Hal and Ed still reside in Cameron while Max came with Cauley as his top assistant for five years before taking over when Ed took the Lufkin job. After his three good head coaching years, he rejoined Cauley at Lufkin.

My last article two weeks ago highlighted Ron Murdock’s great four years leading the Yoe roundball to great results, but he also served Stanislaw as JV coach (2 years) and freshmen (1 year) with better than average success on the gridiron.

The spring sports season is now in full swing as track has competed in their first meet of the year. Cameron sent a plethora of runners to compete in the Troy Trojan Relays on March 2. The Lady Yoe finished in fourth place overall as a team with 63 points while the Yoemen were third with 107 points. Both teams will be in the Moody meet today.

Lady Yoe

The Lady Yoe earned points in seven different events, with the 4x100 relay leading the way with 12. The tandem of Ashanti Brooks, Ashlee Balch, Destiny Anderson and Zakara Bryson finished in third place with a time of 52.14. The 4x200 meter relay team, consisting of Brooks, Balch, Anderson and Lyric Epperson, finished fourth with a time of 1:58.82, while 4x400 team of Brooks, Epperson, Maddi Kenney and Cailynne Hoelscher finished sixth at 4:57.62.

Last Thursday and Friday, the Yoe tennis teams competed in the second tournament of the year in Cameron. It was a successful day as the Yoemen finished 2nd as team while the Lady Yoe captured gold. In total, Cameron had three first place medalist at the varsity level.

Houston Harris won the lone singles title on Friday for both squads. Harris drew a first round bye before defeating Stefek of Lexington (9-7) and Skrhak of Granger (8-4) in the finals. The varsity boys doubles team of Journey Page and Casey Greene also captured first by winning three consecutive matches over opponents from Granger.

As we wind down closer to the start of district, the Lady Yoe golfers are continually fine tuning their game by participating in as many tournament as possible. On Monday, the ladies were in the Brenham tournament. Cameron finished 10th in a field of 15 teams that were primarily from the 5A and 6A level.

The ladies shot a a 430, which was 100 strokes behind the leader Cinco Ranch. Rockdale (424), Central Heights (477) and Trinity (538) were the only other 3A schools in the competition.

Cameron’s Alexis Magre led the ladies for the second straight week with a 95, good enough for 12th overall in the competition. Sarah Zimmerle of Cinco Ranch was first medalist with a 76.

Julia Harwell came in second for Cameron with a 106 and 35th place finish. Jazmin Vaculin (113, 50th), Presley Berry (116, 57th), Darci Denio (120, 64th) and Emily Graham (121, 66th) all shot rounds for the Lady Yoe. A total of 86 golfers competed in the event.