In Friday night’s much-anticipated postseason clash between Canyon ISD schools at Happy State Bank Stadium, the so-called upstarts continued teaching the establishment about playoff tradition.
That’s pretty much been the thread connecting playoff victories for the West Plains Wolves over the first four seasons of the school’s existence, regardless of their opponent. So it was no surprise that the Canyon Eagles became the latest school to find out about who’s got the power in these parts, as West Plains handed Canyon a 35-3 whipping in their Class 4A Division I region semifinal game.
West Plains is now 12-1, and set a school record for single season victories by beating Canyon (8-5). Next up for the Wolves is powerhouse Stephenville, who routed another Canyon ISD school, Randall, 51-6 on Friday.
That sets up a rematch between West Plains and Stephenville this coming Friday at 7 p.m. on Lubbock’s Lowrey Field in the region final. The two teams met in the same round last year, with the Wolves pulling off the biggest victory in the program’s history, 42-35.
So far in this postseason, West Plains hasn’t been seriously challenged, as Canyon played the Wolves closer than anybody else has in the playoffs this year. Regardless of the opponent, West Plains just looks like it belongs.
“We were in a dogfight and (the Eagles) are a good football team and play hard,” West Plains coach Adam Cummings said. “At the end of the day our kids and our coaching staff made some good adjustments at halftime and they came out in the second half and executed and our defense continued to play well. The thing about a Wolfpack is it’s not one person, it’s a whole slew of us. Everybody picks up the slack.”
West Plains showed the playoff experience between the two teams in the first half, and while the Wolves dominated statistically, they still led only 14-3 at halftime.
The Wolves seemed primed to dominate from the opening kickoff. They took it and went 75 yards on 10 plays, culminating with a 6-yard scoring pass from Reid Macon to Kaden Hooker for a 7-0 lead, the first of two scoring connections between the duo.
For most most of the rest of the half, though, West Plains wasn’t as cohesive offensively. The Wolves had two drives end on downs in Canyon territory as the Eagles got tough defensively when it counted.
Meanwhile, the Eagles struggled mightily offensively. They managed only 61 yards and three first downs in the first half, and compiled most of their offense on a drive which concluded with Lane Burton’s 30-yard field goal to cut it to 7-3.
Canyon had a chance to go into the locker room only one score down after stopping West Plains on downs inside the 10-yard line. Two plays later, though, Brox Hacker hung up a deep ball to the sideline into the wind intended for Canyon’s top receiver Bayler Schilling, and Hooker intercepted it, returning it to the Canyon 15.
“We’ve been scouting that all week,” Hooker said. “(Schilling) likes to run a little comeback on that side and we anticipated it. I knew I had help underneath and I was over the top. I was lucky I had some blockers on that side of the field so I cut it up and made a play.”
On the next play, Lawson Betancourt carried it in on a reverse run with 1:01 left in the half for a 14-3 halftime lead. It was still a competitive game, but the Eagles had to wonder about what might have ben going into halftime.
“It comes down to turnovers and Brox was fighting his tail off tonight trying to make plays,” Canyon coach Matt Lovorn said. “That one in particular just didn’t go. Turnovers like that are just hard to come back from.”
West Plains was more efficient than dominant in the first half offensively with 219 total yards. Just as importantly, the Wolves didn’t turn it over.
In the third quarter, West Plains wasted little time after forcing a Canyon punt following the kickoff. Macon hit Kade Schneider with a 26-yard scoring pass to extend the lead to 21-3
It ended up being yet another fairly typical playoff game for four-year starter Macon, who completed 18-of-26 for 251 yards and three touchdowns.
“Kudos to the O-line,” said Macon, like any smart experienced quarterback would. “I could praise them every day of the week, 24 hours a day. They did a great job at blocking on (Canyon’s) stunting and blitzing and they figured it out. They gave me a lot of time to make those throws.”
Later in the quarter, Macon and Hooker struck again, this time for a 62-yard score and a 28-3 lead which pretty much sealed West Plains and Stephenville meeting again next week.
“It was a great atmosphere to play out last game at Happy State Bank,” Hooker said. “We knew we had to come out and make big plays. We couldn’t take (Canyon) lightly so we just had to come out and be us. I’ve played with Reid my while life and I know where he’s at on the field and he knows where I’m at on the field. It’s like playing with a brother.”
Canyon was driving in the fourth quarter to make the score look more respectable and had the ball inside the West Plains 20. However, Hacker was sacked and the ball came loose, and Aiden Green picked it up for West Plains and rumbled 79 yards for a score to put an exclamation point on the win.
It’s something the Wolves have gotten used to, even after only four years as a program.
“There’s a belief our kids and coaching staff believe in with our game plan and they just go out and execute at a high level,” Cummings said. “It says a lot about their character. We’re playing December football and I love that part. Obviously we have some things we can improve on but at the end of the day we’re one of eight and that’s something special.”
It was a rematch of the District 2-4A Division I opener between the two schools in October, which West Plains won 39-10. That was Lovorn’s first game as Canyon’s head coach after Todd Winfrey was removed at midseason.
“I’m very happy,” said Lovorn, a Canyon alum who won a state championship at Stratford and was Canyon’s offensive coordinator. “These young men are resilient and they did a really good job. I’m super proud of them and the big thing is they fought against some odds which some people would give up on. They never let anything divide them.”
