CANADIAN – An opportunistic defense along with an explosive offense, was the exact recipe the Canadian Wildcats needed to run away with a 49-27 victory against rival Childress during a district championship game on Chris Koetting Field at Wildcats Stadium on Friday night.
The tradition rolls on for Canadian, which captures its fourth straight District 1-3A Division II champion and will head to the postseason with a 9-1 overall mark on top of a perfect 4-0 league record.
“District championships are special,” Canadian head coach Andy Cavalier said. “They never get old. These players put a lot of work in and we’re excited to see them earn this. This is another gold ball for our trophy case, and it shows what all the time and dedication the coaching staff and these kids put in.”
Childress (3-1 in district) end the season at 7-3 and will be the No. 2-seed out of the district.
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The Wildcats offense didn’t hesitate jumping all over the Bobcats. After both teams went three-and-out to open the game, Canadian went to work on its second drive. Behind quarterback Weston Mitchell, the Wildcats marched an eight-play, 90-yard drive that resulted in a third and 13 pass from Mitchell to Isaac Saenz for a 7-0 lead.
Following a Childress punt, Canadian’s offense clicked once more. Mitchell dumped a screen to running back Slayden Dickinson. Dickinson made a defender miss, and then used his breakaway speed to go 62-yards to the house and all of a sudden it was 14-0 Wildcats late in the first quarter.
The Bobcats did answer on a Koen Galligan 12-yard touchdown toss to Jacob Mora to close the opening quarter, cutting the deficit at 14-7, but that’s when the Canadian defense started its terror on the Childress offense. Pinned deep in their own territory, Galligan made his first mistake throwing a pass into traffic, that allowed Wildcat linebacker Luis Pantoja to make an interception inside the Childress 20.
The Wildcat offense made the Bobcats pay a few moments later, when Mitchell called a play action pass, rolled right and found C.J. Jimenez on a two-yard score. From there, the Wildcats were in complete control up 21-7 and it never got closer for Childress.
The Canadian defense held Childress under 100 yards in the first half and forced six turnovers on the night including five interceptions. One by Pantoja, two by Jimenez, one by Saenz and a fourth quarter pick-six by linebacker Parker Sanchez making it 49-27 Canadian.
“I feel like both sides of the ball played well up front and has all year,” Cavalier said. “But, the defensive group was so good in this game like they have been all year. They are hard to run against and that forces teams to throw. Sometimes that works out for them, but we are also able to force turnovers because of that. The goal all year is to force 50 turnovers on the season. We got six in this game because of that defensive line. We hurried their quarterback and picked up some big stops.”
Offensively, Mitchell played arguably his best game of the season. Canadian racked up 471 yards of offense with 307 of those coming from the pass game. Mitchell, who threw for 256 yards in the first half, finished the contest going 19-of-31 for 307 yards with four touchdowns. Mitchell had a plethora of weapons helping out. Dickinson not only ran for 86 yards on 12 carries, but added 80 yards receiving on three catches including the 62-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Riggs Pennington snagged four catches for 91 yards and Junior Cervantes had four catches for 59 yards.
“Weston is one of those players that has a great mindset for a quarterback,” Cavalier said. “He never gets rattled, he doesn’t get flustered and the moment isn’t too big for him. He played in a big game with the stakes at their highest and delivered. We put him in the right situations and he delivered the entire game.”
Childress’ Galligan did throw for 232 yards with two touchdowns despite the four interceptions. Mora caught six passes for 107 yards.