Canadian routs Randall behind first half explosion to stay unbeaten

It was a game that was over as fast as it started.

The No. 2-ranked Canadian Wildcats out of Class 3A Division II wasted no time putting it on Randall from Class 4A Division I, scoring at will during a 69-28 rout that wasn’t as close as the score looked on Thursday night at Happy State Bank Stadium.

Canadian put on an exhibition from both sides of the ball thanks to perfect execution and a Raider team that was flat out overmatched.

The Wildcats offense stole the show from the jump scoring three touchdowns on eight plays in the first five minutes to put the game away at the seven-minute mark of the first quarter with a 21-0 lead.

On the opening drive, that took only three plays, quarterback Camren Cavalier hit a slant to Preston Neumeir who used his blazing speed to take off for a 58-yard touchdown 34 seconds into the contest for a 7-0 advantage.

After Randall failed on a fourth down on its own 34-yard line, Canadian put up its second TD on a double reverse pass from Cavalier to Max Dumbald for 34 yards that made it 14-0.

Moments later, Neumeir found paydirt once again on a 54-yard-deep ball from Cavalier as all of a sudden it was 21-0 and Canadian was rolling.

“It’s great to play at the pace we were,” Canadian quarterback Camren Cavalier said. “The goal is to always try and get the defense tired. That helps us tremendously. We played as a team and had it going, and we were able to run and pass the ball well. The offensive line was amazing, and those guys are a huge factor for us.”

The Wildcats were far from done going up 35-0 by the time the first period ended leaving Raider fans in complete shock.

Canadian continued lighting up the Happy State Bank scoreboard in the second quarter with 24 more points before the half. Cavalier went back to work finding Luke Flowers on a 42-yard scoring pass, then running back Kaden Crooks punched in two of his three touchdowns on gallops of two and 21-yard pushing the lead at 56-0. Just to top things off before the break, kicker Emiliano Hernandez drilled a 25-yard field goal as Canadian went to the locker room up by a whopping 59-0 advantage.

“I feel like we were really efficient to start the game,” Canadian head coach Andy Cavalier said. “Randall has a really good football team and none of what we did came easy, but it was well executed. Camren did a good job of protecting the ball and put it on the money. Preston, Luke and Kaden did a good job of putting it in the endzone. I know we credit the skill guys all the time but it’s the guys up front that opening the holes up front and giving Camren time to throw. They played amazing.”

The halftime stats are what stands out the most. Ignore the second half and just look at the first two quarters. In that first 24 minutes, Canadian’s offense had blasted Randall for 540 yards. Cavalier was masterful going 10-of-14 for 270 yards with four touchdowns and ran 170 yards on only five carries with a 60-yard touchdown run, again, all in the first half.

Neumeir made only three catches, but made them count, going for 130 yards with two scores. Flowers had two catches for 80 yards with a touchdown and Crooks toted the rock 10 times for 73 yards with three TDs.

As great as the offense was, the Canadian defense put on its own clinic. The Wildcat defense led by junior linebacker Wyatt Davis and senior defensive end Nathan Wagner made life miserable for the Raider offense. Randall never found momentum or had anything going mustering 76 total yards at half with only 17 rushing yards and two first downs.

Davis, who leads the team with 73 tackles on the year, finished with 17 total tackles, two for a loss with two sacks and a fumble recovery. Wagner added two tackles with one for a loss.

“I felt like it would be a tall task to stop Randall from running the football,” Coach Cavalier said. “They are dynamic in the backfield and work hard up front. We played really good in that first half though and we were really physical. That was big for us.”

Wagner echoed his coaches’ comments.

“We’re playing really good right now,” Wagner said. “We study hard and put a great game plan together from our coaches. We were efficient and played awesome on both sides of the ball. We were prepared and ready to go.”

Canadian remains undefeated at 5-0 on the year while Randall falls to 3-3. The Wildcats open District 3-3A Division II play at home against Childress on Oct. 6, while the Raiders open District 3-4A Division action at Dumas on the same day.

In a rare occurrence, Randall opted to play an eight-minute quarters in the second half rather than a running clock. The Raiders scored all 28 points in the second half.