Brauny's Best: Highlighting top high school performances from Week 6

We've passed the halfway point of the high school football season. Where has the time gone? Anyway, it's another rendition of Brauny's Best, where we highlight some of the top performances from around the prep landscape with a little Maroon & White tint.

Texas A&M's Class

2025 Forney LB Kelvion Riggins‍

• 15 tackles (5 solo), 2 tackles for loss, 1 QB pressure

With all due respect to Noah Mikhail‍, who was sensational again this week, I went with one of the pied-pipers of the recruiting class in Riggins because I'm trying to spread the love a little bit. Riggins possesses all the physical traits to be an impact linebacker at the next level. Sure, it helps that he's an outspoken member of the recruiting class, but Jay Bateman didn't identify him as a must-get guy this cycle because he's fun-loving and charismatic. The Aggie staff loved his potential as a downhill linebacker with the athletic traits to run sideline-to-sideline. He also tends to arrive at contact with bad intentions and creates big collisions with the ball carrier.

The State of Texas

2025 Longview RB Kelvin Washington‍

• 381 rushing yards, 6 rushing TDs
• 2 catches, 110 receiving yards, 2 receiving TDs

John King's Longview Lobos kicked off district play with a blowout win over Rockwall last week, and senior RB Kelvin Washington had a historic night, which is saying something considering the history of that program. He got his night started with a 95-yard scoring run. That set the stage for 491 total yards and eight touchdowns when it was all said and done. The 5-foot-9, 180-pounder is committed to Lamar, but you have to wonder if the stat line from last weekend is going to garner new recruiting interest from across the region. The tape shows a lot of intriguing qualities, and inevitably, there are a few running backs across the state each year who somehow, for lack of a better term, fall through the cracks each cycle.

My Coverage

Bridgeland's Defense and Special Teams

I had to get creative this week since the game I went to featured only one offensive score, which was by the losing team with under two minutes remaining in the game. Therefore, since Bridgeland's head coach is a former Texas A&M defensive lineman and roommate of Billy Liucci, I'll shout out Lonnie Madison's defense and special teams for their impact on winning last Thursday's game over Cy Springs. The Bears kicked a field goal on their opening possession of the game. On their first defensive snap of the game, LB Tristen Villanueva stepped in front of a receiver to pick off a pass and rumble into the end zone for a pick-six. The ensuing Cy Springs possession was a three-and-out that ended in an errant snap through the end zone for a safety. The free kick that followed was returned for a touchdown by Henry Soine. In total, the Bridgeland defense and special teams scored 18 points (the team total for the entire game) in eight snaps of the football.