Turning previous results on their heads, third-year school West Plains looked like the more established program against longstanding contender Canyon.
Jumping on top early and using different offensive methods in each half, the Wolves simply outplayed the Eagles for four quarters, rolling to a 42-28 victory in the inaugural district gridiron showdown between the two schools in the District 2-4A Division I opener.
While it wasn’t exactly a one-sided laugher, the game showed that West Plains (3-3, 1-0 in district) definitely belonged with big brother Canyon (4-2, 0-1) on the same field. In fact, it was the second straight win for the Wolves over the Eagles after they beat Canyon in a non-district game last season.
The Wolves certainly enjoyed the win, carrying around the metal “pig” which goes to the CISD school who wins the annual game. Most importantly, it was a district game.
“It’s our most quality win of the year,” West Plains coach Adam Cummings said. “Canyon’s a great program and I can’t tell you how proud I am of our kids for getting the victory tonight.”
The Wolves didn’t exactly enter the game with a head of steam against a Canyon team which had an open week prior to district, like four of the other five district teams had. West Plains suffered a 56-7 beating at home against Argyle Liberty Christian the previous week which may not have engendered a lot of confidence heading into this week.
That, however, was last week.
“It was just us being us and working on executing at a high level and getting better at the little things,” Cummings said.
In the first half, the Wolves opted to go over the Eagles offensively. Reid Macon threw for over 200 yards and three touchdowns in the first two quarters to give the Wolves a 21-6 halftime lead.
West Plains wasted little time in taking the opening kickoff down the field to get the upper hand. Macon connected with Kaden Hooker on a 47-yard scoring pass to give the Wolves a 7-0 lead.
That was just a taste of what they were cooking up offensively.
“There were a lot of opportunities to take shots in this game and we took advantage of those,” said Macon, the three-year junior starter who completed 13-of-21 passes for 221 yards and ran for a touchdown. “We practiced those all week. We executed them pretty well today. The receivers did a great job of finding those open gaps and beating their man-to-man press. They did a phenomenal job.”
West Plains was far more effective and came back on a 32-yard scoring pass from Macon to Lawson Betancourt to make it 14-6 just before the first quarter ended. The Wolves went up 21-6 on a 28-yard scoring pass from Macon to Kane Tinsley-White late in the second quarter.
“That’s what (Canyon’s defense) gave us,” Cummings said. “They were loaded up in the box and really trying to take away the run so we took advantage of what the defense gave us. That’s one of our things offensively. Coach (Jeff) Lyles did a really good job of dialing it up and Reid played well.”
Canyon, however, came out determined in the second half to make it a game. The Eagles took the second half kickoff and aided by a pair of 15-yard penalties on the Wolves, cashed in when Rudy Flores scored on a 6-yard run to cut it to 21-13.
It seemed like they had grabbed momentum by the neck when it looked like they caught the Wolves napping on the ensuing kickoff when they recovered an onside kick. However, the Eagles were ruled offsides, pushing them back five yards and forcing them to rekick.
That’s when the kicking game came back to bite Canyon, as the Eagles kicked off more conventionally, and Betancourt returned it to the Canyon 24-yard line to set up the Wolves in prime field position. They took full advantage when Macon scored on a four-yard run to make it 28-13.
“When you make mistakes against a team like that you’re going to get your butt beat and we made mistakes in all three phases,” Canyon coach Todd Winfrey said. “A lot of it came at bad times. That happened a lot tonight. You feel like you got some momentum and the special teams let down.”
The Eagles still stayed close on the ensuing possession when Tripp Wright scored on a four-yard run to cut it to 28-21 late in the third quarter. They got no closer.
After burning the Eagles with the pass in the first half, West Plains got more basic in the second half, running the ball to wear down Canyon. The Wolves ran for 144 yards in the second half, as sophomore Russell finished with a game-high 106 yards on 24 carries, all but two of those yards coming after halftime.
“The game plan changed after the start of the game because we knew we were capable of throwing it, so they were going to adjust their defense to that,” Macon said. “We told our offensive line at halftime let’s go boys and they did a great job of blocking up front for Slade in the backfield. That feeling of starting district off 1-0 is so great. Predistrict doesn’t matter so that’s pretty nice.”
