IDALOU – They’re Class 3A schools located on opposite sides of I-27 just outside of Lubbock, yet they don’t share a district in football, so Idalou and Shallowater have to measure themselves against each other for games that really count.
At the end of Friday night, all the pride and a lot of the promise ended up on the home side.
Idalou dominated on both sides of the ball from the start, taking an early lead and never letting up in rolling to a 45-20 victory. The Wildcats improved to 3-2 with the win while Shallowater fell to 2-3.
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It had to be considered a bit of an upset since the Mustangs entered the game as favorites. While an Idalou win wasn’t exactly surprising, the ease with which it was obtained definitely was.
“Every year it’s a dogfight with Shallowater,” Idalou coach Clay White said. “Shallowater’s got a great program which is why we play the game, to get ready for district and the playoffs. I’m very proud of the kids for the way we handled it and beat a really good team. You’ve got to have a quick start and our kids did exactly that by getting on the board first and getting some stops early on. We got some momentum and carried that through the half.”
Idalou was balanced on offense and relentless on defense, especially when it came to rushing the passer. The Wildcats actually got on the board in relatively modest fashion, as Jett Dodd kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.
Quarterback Kamdon Lutrick made his presence felt in several ways. Lutrick scored Idalou’s first touchdown on a 26-yard run and later scored on a 9-yard run in the second quarter to put the Wildcats up 17-0, as they led 24-6 at halftime.
On Idalou’s first possession of the second half, Lutrick kept it and ran 47 yards for a score to make it 31-6 and pretty much put away the game. Lutrick ran for 142 yards on 12 carries and completed 12-of-15 passes for 157 yards.
“We had a good game plan but we didn’t expect (Shallowater) to do certain things,” Lutrick said. “We took advantage of what we could take advantage of. (The last touchdown) was a good run, I had a great block from Colt Gandy, and I couldn’t have done it without my offensive line. They came out hot.”
As big a game as Luttrick had, he wasn’t even Idalou’s leading rusher. That honor went to A.J. Huddleston, who ran for 155 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, including an 86-yarder which made it 24-0 in the second quarter, giving the Wildcats a huge cushion.
Lost in the glow of an offensive performance which produced 530 yards was Idalou’s defensive play. The Wildcats gave up only 246 yards to a talented Shallowater.
A bigger story than that may have been the pressure Idalou put on Shallowater quarterback Cooper Martin, who seemed to be running for his life in must-throw situations in the second half. Martin completed only 7-of-24 passes for 52 yards and had two interceptions.
“It had to be all three phases to beat a team like that and our defensive front had a tough guy to stop,” White said. “He can beat you on any snap with his legs or his arm and the performance of our D-line and the linebackers keeping him in check you can’t say enough about them.”
Idalou’s defense kept the Mustangs from finding a rhythm all night long.
“We opened up the game trying to establish the run and we had a little bit of success,” Shallowater coach Rodney Vincent said. “Credit to (Idalou) for playing really good defense tonight. Our passing game was off a little bit. The biggest thing for our team is we’ve got to be consistent.”