It wasn’t easy, and the Boys Ranch Roughriders had to earn it for four quarters, however, history was made.
For the first time since the program started in 1957, Boys Ranch clinched a district championship thanks to a furious second half rally to knock off White Deer 32-24 in a battle of unbeaten teams Friday night at Bucks Stadium.
Boys Ranch is not only the District 1-1A Division I champion, but also remains unbeaten with their best start in school history at 8-0, and 3-0 in league play. This is the first time for the Roughriders to make the playoffs as a Six-Man school and it’s their first time in the postseason since they were an 11-man program in 2023.
“This is a blessing,” Boys Ranch head football coach Louis Kelley III said. “We have a lot going on at Boys Ranch and you never know what’s going to happen out here. It’s always more than wins and losses with these kids. These guys have been with me for four years. We went 0-10 a couple years ago, but we’ve held these guys to a better standard. We changed the summer workouts and everyone has stepped up. This is awesome to see.”
White Deer, which suffered its first loss on the year, dropping to 8-1 overall and 2-1 in district, will now have to earn a win at Claude this coming Friday in a winner take all second place game.
The Bucks flustered the favored Roughriders in the first half taking a 16-12 lead into halftime. With Boys Ranch leading 12-8, Maddox Bowers scored on a 9-yard run. Alongside a Cason Powell 2-point kick, White Deer took a 16-12 lead into the half.
Late in the third quarter the Roughriders took over the momentum for good on the play of the night. Jacobe Gonzales took a handoff and was immediately bottled up by the White Deer defense. Noticing he had nowhere to go behind the line of scrimmage, Gonzales had the wherewithal to lob a pass to Mi’kaiel Cooper, who took off 51-yards for a the go-ahead score putting Boys Ranch up 18-16 with 1:27 left.
That was part of 20 unanswered points for Boys Ranch. On the ensuing possession, Gonzales broke loose down the sideline for a 28-yard score giving the Roughriders some breathing room 26-16 at the 7:53 mark of the fourth. Then, quarterback Isaac Acosta hit Camden Yarbrough on an 18-yard pitch and catch to put the game away at 32-16 with 4:13 to play.
“This was a huge game for us and we knew what was at stake,” We had some nerves going into this game and we had a key player out. We went into half time and we had a good talk and we got motivated. We came out in the second half and played the football I knew we could. I was proud to see that.”
Gonzales had a huge outing for the Roughriders rushing for a team-high 124 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown on top of his passing TD. Acosta countered going 6-of-8 for 145 yards with a pair of scores and Cooper led the receiving effort with 119 yards on three receptions with a touchdown.
“This was a complete team effort win,” Kelley III said. “The offense didn’t play the best, but the defense did their job. The defense was outstanding and this weather was a challenge for our offense. I did think in the second the offense settled in and played much better, but again this was just a team effort all the way around.”
Bowers led White Deer with 83 yards rushing on 19 carries with a pair of TDs. Kaleb House had 62 yards rushing for the Bucks on 16 carries and forced two fumbles on defense.
Photo gallery by Jamie Gates:
