Photos by Brandon McAuliffe
By Nolan Ruth
X – @RealNolanRuth
ABILENE— The Byron Nelson Bobcats football program suffered a major blow in the offseason with the sudden passing of head coach Travis Pride on May 28. Pride had been the head coach of the Bobcats since 2016 and led the program to seven postseason appearances and a perfect regular season in 2023.
Zach Woodward took over head coaching duties after serving as defensive coordinator. As fate would have it, his first game at the helm, and the first game since Pride’s passing, happened to fall on Woodward’s 40th birthday.
After a defensive first quarter against the Wolfforth Frenship Tigers, the Bobcats scored 20 points in the second quarter, and the defense kept Frenship at bay the rest of the way en route to a 30-7 victory to open the 2025 season.
“We told our guys that there were going to be a lot of eyes on them,” Woodward said about the emotion of the team. “Our message to them was ‘When God puts eyes on you it is so you can put eyes back on Him.’ Coach Pride built this program on a foundation of those standards, and living for God. We want to show people that that’s what we are going to continue to be. We’re still Byron Nelson.”
Despite a scoreless first quarter, the opening frame was not without its exciting moments. Four different times the offense for either team faced a fourth down. Each time, they went for it. Only once was it converted.
Nelson opened the game with the ball and reached midfield before turning it over on downs. Frenship drove all the way to the three yard line, converting one fourth down, before failing to score on fourth-and-goal. Then finally the Bobcats tried again from the Frenship 43 yard line but failed again just before the first quarter ended.
The Tigers had gotten into Nelson territory by the time the second quarter started, and on the first play of the new frame Campbell Blair sacked Frenship quarterback Quaid Ferris, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Tyson Diggs to give the Bobcats the ball.
However, Nelson then fumbled the ball away back to the Tigers. Frenship could not do anything with the opportunity and punted the ball back to the Bobcats.
Quarterback Parker Almanza finally broke the scoreless tie by driving Nelson down to the one yard line and scoring on the quarterback sneak to put the Bobcats on top 7-0.
Almanza is now at quarterback for the Bobcats after playing tight end in 2024. He is a commit as a tight end to play at Baylor. He finished the night completing 18 of 24 passes for 164 yards and 2 touchdowns, adding 58 yards on 16 carries and another score.
It was then that the Nelson defense made the biggest and most important play of the game. Ferris threw a pass over the middle that was tipped and then intercepted by Colt Pride, the son of the late Bobcats coach.
“Football coaches probably aren’t supposed to say this,” Woodward said with a pause. “I cried. That was awesome for him. That was awesome for our team. That was awesome for everything. I was with Coach Pride for 17 years, so I’ve known Colt literally since he was born. That was really, really cool.”
Pride finished his night with five tackles on top of the interception.
Pride’s play allowed Nelson to drive right back down the field and score on a six yard run by Macavion Hill. A missed extra point kept the score at 13-0. With just over a minute to go in the half, the Tigers went into the two-minute drill and ended up scoring on a pass from Ferris to Texas Tech commit Chase Campbell.
However the first half fireworks were not over. The Bobcats used 45 of their remaining 50 seconds in the half to drive down to the 20 yard line where Almanza threw a dangerous pass that was deflected, but fell safely into the hands of Gavin Tracer who was able to walk it in, bringing the halftime score to 20-7.
Following the theme of the game, Frenship once again failed on fourth down to open the second half. Nelson then went on a long drive that stalled at the Tiger 14 yard line, but Oliver Bell came on to kick a 31-yard field goal to make the score 23-7 after three quarters of play.
With the Tigers not able to do anything offensively, the Bobcats were able to put the game away early in the fourth quarter with one more touchdown on a screen pass from Almanza to Franck Makong to bring the final score to 30-7.
Nelson begins the season on an emotional high-note with the win and will now turn its attention to a road game against Lewisville next Thursday, while Frenship returns back to the greater-Lubbock area with a sour taste in its mouth for the second straight year and will face Wichita Falls Memorial next Friday.
