Hereford stays unbeaten holding off rival Plainview in front of electric crowd

HEREFORD- An electric packed house of 5,000 fans at Whiteface Stadium fit exactly what the Hereford-Plainview rivalry is all about, and the game certainly didn’t disappoint.

The two surprise teams of 2023 went toe-to-toe for all four quarters with Hereford coming away with a thrilling 24-21 on Friday night.

After a 1-9 season a year ago, the Whitefaces turnaround continues with a perfect 5-0 mark, the Whitefaces best start since 2009. Plainview suffers its first loss after a successful start falling to 4-1.

“This atmosphere was amazing,” Hereford head coach Adam Naron said. “We had a sellout crowd and playing a heated rival. It’s never easy when we play Plainview. This was a great atmosphere for our team, and this will give us a look at what district is going to be like.”

 

Hereford’s defense played on its head in the first half. With the offense putting them in tough situations and the Bulldogs able to move the ball, the Whiteface defense played with a bend don’t break mentality.

In a stat that Naron will certainly be proud of, Plainview ran 20 plays inside Hereford’s 30-yard line and 12-plays inside the Whitefaces 10-yard line all in the first half, however, only came away with one touchdown right before halftime.

“We didn’t do the greatest job offensively in the first half,” Naron said. “We put our defense in a bind at some points. We had a lot of crazy things happen but that’s what you want in these first six games. You need adversity to work through. But our defense was tremendous the entire game. It was a great effort.”

Hereford seemed to take control in the third quarter on back-to-back scores that gave the Whitefaces a 17-point lead. With Hereford up 10-7 early in the third quarter, quarterback Kalub Ramirez found a streaking Ethan Gonzales on a 46-yard touchdown toss that put the Whitefaces up 17-7. On the following kickoff, Hereford recovered a pooch kick and then capitalized moments later when running back Brylyn Lopez found the sideline for a 20-yard scamper extending the advantage to 24-7 with 6:52 left in the third.

“We were feeling great,” Naron said. “We’ve been a second half team all year and at that point we were feeling in control. Give credit to Plainview in the fourth quarter they were able to battle back. We were trying to play ball control, but we had some penalties and some plays not work out and they battled back.

Plainview didn’t back down hitting a quick strike on the following possession when Seth Mayberry found Maddox Ellis who got behind the Hereford secondary for a 55-yard score cutting the lead at 24-14.

With 3:32 in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs made things more interesting when Mayberry connected with Uriel Belmarez in the corner of the endzone for an 11-yard TD toss and all of a sudden it was 24-21 Hereford.

However, Hereford put the game away on its final drive. After two negative plays, the Whitefaces faced a 3rd and 13 with two minutes to play. Ramirez was able to scramble and deliver a perfect pass to Gonzales for a 16-yard first down reception and Hereford was able to kill the clock from there for the win.

“Anytime you have to call a play longer than 10 yards your playbook gets a little bleak,” Naron said. “Ethan made a great catch from Kalub and then we were able to get one more first down and put it away.”

Lopez once again was the best player on the field. For a fifth game in a row Hereford’s physical running back went over the century mark by leading a strong ground attack being called upon to run the rock 33 times for 201 yards with three touchdowns.

“We came out to play our best,” said Lopez, who has 809 yards rushing in five games this season. “The defense and offensive line was amazing. This atmosphere was unbelievable. I’ve never experienced this, and it was just awesome.”

Ramirez overcame an interception including a couple of sophomore mistakes to go 15-of-22 for 166 yards with a touchdown pass and the Hereford defense held Plainview to 259 yards and was in the Bulldog backfield all night rattling Mayberry with six sacks. Defensive lineman Marcos Acosta led that excellent defensive effort with a sack, seven tackles with three of those for a loss.

“We’re loving being around each other,” Naron said. “We’ve had good players around here and they have great energy. Things have been going our way this year. We’re 5-0 but that doesn’t mean a lot. We have only one more game to get ready for district then all the records are off the table.”

Hereford will end its non-district schedule with a showdown against West Plains (4-1) at 7 p.m., on Friday at Happy State Bank Stadium in Canyon.