Booker rallies past Follett

In 1985, the first WrestleMania occurred, the movie Back to the Future made its premiere and San Francisco beat the Miami Dolphins in the Super Bowl. 

That’s also the last year Booker beat Follett as both squads were playing 11-man football in the same district. Fast forward to Friday night and the Kiowas (4-2) found the win column in the Battle of Lipscomb County, 46-42, rallying from double-digit deficits twice in the game.

Wyatt Terrell was a one-man show in the first quarter for the Panthers (2-4). The talented senior raced in from 62-yards out to put Follett up 12-8 before Axel Valdivia returned the ensuing kickoff 67-yards to give Booker their only lead in the game until the final 2:26 of the game at 14-12.

Braddock Frazee hit Terrell on a 14-yard scoring strike near the end of the first to give the Panthers a 20-14 lead. After getting the ball back in the second quarter, Follett marched down the field when Logan Meeks took a handoff at the eight and appeared to be stopped at the four.  However, Meeks and the Panthers team refused to go down as they moved the pile into the end zone and a 26-14 lead.

Facing their first double digit deficit, the Kiowas pulled to within six as Valdivia found the end zone for the second time, rushing in from the four, and cutting the deficit to six, 26-20. Booker then took the opening kickoff after the half and drove for a score as Reydn Rosales raced in from ten yards out to reset the score at 26-26.

That tie was short lived as Terrell found the end zone on two straight drives to push the Panthers lead back out to 42-26 with 4:01 left in third.  On the ensuing drive, Valdivia tossed his second scoring strike of the night, this one to Brayland Gonzales from 15-yards away to chip away at the Follett lead.

It looked like the Panthers might be stopped as they faced a fourth down in their own territory late in the quarter, but Terrell launched a long pass from his own 30 to Meeks who was streaking through the Kiowas secondary at the six. However, Meeks couldn’t haul in the long bomb and Booker took advantage.

After taking over at the Follett 35, the Kiowas quickly scored as Valdivia found Korbyn Vance, seventeen seconds into the final quarter, from the 24 and Booker was a two-point conversion away from tying the game up. However, the Kiowas couldn’t convert and found themselves down 42-40.

Both teams were unable to make things happen on their next possession and Follett took over at the Booker 28. Meeks then swept around left end for a score, but a holding penalty would bring the play back. The Panthers then found themselves with a fourth and two from the 15 but Frazee couldn’t connect with Meeks and the Kiowas were back in business.

Valdivia ran for forty yards into the Follett territory then connected with Gonzales for nine yards. After tossing two incomplete passes, Rosales reeled in a low throw to give the Kiowas a first and goal from the nine where it was Valdivia finding Gonzales again to give Booker a 46-42 lead.

On Follett’s final drive of the night, they moved the ball to their own 31 when Meeks appeared to break free before the lanky Gonzales tripped him up by the ankles for a 15-yard gain.  One play later, Frazee fumbled the snap and Rosales jumped on the ball and sealed the Kiowas win.

Valdivia, the impressive freshman, finished the night with four scoring strikes and 148 yards passing. It was also an impressive night from Terrell who rushed for 282 yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns.

Happy gets first win downing McLean

Behind an undersized quarterback and a bruising ground game, the Happy Cowboys left their homecoming crowd all smiles as they downed McLean, 48-12, while picking up their first win of the season.  

In the last 12 years, Happy (1-5) has been the measuring stick for most programs in the area finding themselves in the postseason in 11 of those years and racking up over 100 wins in the process. This season has been anything but that as the Cowboys have faced four ranked opponents enroute to a winless start in five games. However, as the old saying goes, that’s why you play the games.

Happy coach Stacy Perryman inserted sophomore quarterback Kreid Cluck into the lineup, moving him up from the junior varsity ranks, and the move paid immediate dividends. The Cowboys took the opening kickoff and made a methodical drive down the field chewing up over eight minutes in that opening quarter before Cluck found Mason Wolf from three yards out and an 8-0 lead.

After getting the ensuing onside kick, it looked like Happy could make matters worse for the Tigers (1-5) but the offense was unable to move the ball and McLean took over. On their first offensive play of the game, in the second quarter, Andrew Bauer hit Grey Hagler on a short pass, and the sophomore did the rest. Hagler avoided three Cowboys defenders to race 64-yards and pull McLean within two, 8-6.

Midway through the second quarter, the Cowboys defense made their mark. Forced to scramble, Bauer dropped the ball trying to avoid Luke Dempsey and AJ Seal scooped it up at the 38-yard line and raced untouched from Swisher to Randall County as the Happy extended the lead to 16-6.

As they have done all season, McLean refused to go away.  Wyatt Hagler found Levi Sparling from 26-yards out with less than thirty seconds to play in the half to send the Tigers to the locker room down 16-12.

Happy found the end zone again halfway through the third as Cluck hit Luke Dempsey from the five to push the lead to 24-12. Coach Perryman then dialed up the onside kick, and the Cowboys executed it to perfection to recover the ball in McLean territory.  Dempsey then scored his second touchdown of the quarter as he took a quick hit up the middle and raced in from 18-yards out and Happy never looked back.

The rushing attack for the Cowboys was unstoppable as they gained 287 yards on the ground led by Kaden Baker’s 93 yards on 20 carries and Dempsey notched 68 yards on ten attempts.  Cluck was efficient for Happy going 8-of-12 on the night for 74 yards and two scores.

Claude Mustangs run wild against Valley

District 1-1A Division I action kicks off next week and Claude has put the rest of the district on notice that they want to move into the postseason for the first time since dropping down to the Six-Man ranks. 

The Mustangs (5-1) posted their third straight mercy rule win, 54-8, against Valley Friday night at Mustangs Stadium.

The Patriots (0-6) came into the game winless on the season but four of those losses came against ranked teams including the top team in both divisions and a hard-fought contest last week against highly ranked Whitharral on the road. That backdrop didn’t seem to faze the Mustangs though.

Korbin Jackson got the party started quickly with a 32-yard kickoff return to the Valley 15 and Trapper Godfrey did the rest. The impressive runner took the first handoff from scrimmage and raced to paydirt and a quick 6-0 lead.

Valley’s first drive ended quickly as Cole Walden coughed up the ball at the Patriots 25-yard line and Godfrey got to work again. After rushing the ball to the one, the speedy junior finished off the drive, and the Mustangs led 14-0 with only 31 seconds gone in the game.

Undaunted, the Patriots got back in the game as Damian Valdes hit Kacen Thompson from 38-yards out to pull Valley back to within six, 14-8 with 7:54 left in the first. Unfortunately for coach Daxton Allen’s squad, they wouldn’t get any closer.

Godfrey found the endzone again from the one to push Claude’s lead to 22-8. Walden coughed up the ball again and Brady Shelton fell on it at the Patriots 28.  Godfrey found the endzone for the fourth time in the quarter as Holden Tice rolled out to the right and threw back across the formation to find his ace running back at the nine and he strolled in from there to go extend the lead to 30-8.

As if the Patriots hadn’t seen enough of Godfrey, he made his presence felt on defense picking off a deep pass late in the quarter that gave the Mustangs the ball back. Thomas Slack, the thunder to Godfrey’s lighting, put the ball in the end zone from the four as Claude finished off the Patriots by halftime.

Godfrey carried the rock 16 times on the night for 166 yards and three scores while Slack racked up two scores and 37 yards on the ground.  Defensively, Brady Shelton was impressive stacking up five tackles a sack and two tackles in the Patriots backfield as they held Valley to 64 total yards.

White Deer edges Kress

Many see Six-Man football as a high scoring affair, but those people weren’t in attendance at Kangaroo Stadium Friday night. White Deer used a tough defense and the running of Foster Black to top Kress, 34-30, as the Bucks head into district action next week with only one loss.

Defense was the story of the first seventeen minutes of this affair before the Roos’ Zavian Pacheco raced to the house from seven yards out to give the home team a 6-0 lead. That score was short lived as Black galloped 30 yards for the score to tie things at six.

After the Bucks (5-1) defense held Kress on downs at their Kangaroos 39, Black found a hole and sprinted to the one before being stopped. On the next play, Caynden Mynear plunged in from the one to give White Deer their first lead of the game, 14-6, with 32 seconds remaining before half.

That final half minute turned disastrous for the Kangaroos (4-2) as a long pass was picked off by the Bucks Isaac Lanham and the senior was off to the races.  Lanham avoided an early tackle and sprinted from the far sideline to the near side and outran the home team to the endzone from 68-yards out to give White Deer a 22-6 halftime lead.

The teams exchanged scores in the third quarter as the Bucks held a 28-14 lead going to the fourth. Kress got things started in that final stanza when they recovered a fumbled snap at the Bucks 21 on the first play of the quarter and found the end zone a ninety-six seconds later as Kingston Brumley hit his big man, Jordan Burns, from 24-yards out to trim the lead to 28-22.

Defenses on both sides then dominated the offenses until the Bucks Logan Matlock made them pay. The senior signal caller hit Mynear in the middle of the field and the speedster did the rest racing 62-yards to paydirt for a 34-22 lead with 1:44 to go.

The Kangaroos didn’t waste time as Brumley threw a 29-yard scoring strike with 1:14 left to put Kress back to within four at 34-30. After forcing the Bucks to hand the ball over on downs, the home team had one final play but was unable to score from their own 32 as time expired.

Black continues to put up impressive numbers rushing for 155 yards and two scores on 22 carries while Matlock was 7-of-9 for 120 yards passing. Lanham finished the night with two picks while Lucas Radina racked up nine tackles and forced a fumble.

Week 6 quick hits

Hart continues a great season with a 60-12 win over Anton (2-4) as Tradien Worsham racked up155 yards on the ground and three scores while JJ Jimenez picked up 175 yards and four touchdowns.  The Longhorns are now 5-1 which is the best start in the school’s history at the Six-Man level.

Just like Happy, Silverton (1-5) found the win column for the first time this year with an exciting 37-33 win over Groom (2-4) at home Friday night.

In a rare Saturday matinee, San Jacinto Christian Academy enjoyed the afternoon sun with an 84-7 shellacking of Plainview Classical.

Miami (6-0) remained unbeaten as they scored at will in an 84-0 win over Holy Cross and Lefors (4-2) had no problem with Amarillo FFC, 62-7, Friday night.

Springlake-Earth’s Froylan Agundiz carried the ball 20 times against Whiteface (4-2) for 193 yards and a score and finished 20-of-39 through the air for 222 and yards and six touchdowns but his efforts weren’t enough as the Wolverines (2-4) fell 82-48 to the Antelopes.

Motley County (6-0) blanked Petersburg 54-0 and Meadow’s Brayson Parker rushed for 233 yards and found paydirt nine times in their 86-55 win over Lorenzo (2-4) as the Broncos remain undefeated in six tries.

Boys Ranch (5-1) found Amarillo PCHEA to be scrappy but walked away with a 68-45 win and Whitharral (6-0) remained undefeated as they took care of Nazareth, 72-24, at home Friday night.

Wildorado (0-6) fell to Lubbock Kingdom Prep, 50-0. Hedley (0-5) couldn’t hang with Guthrie (4-1), falling 68-0 and Lazbuddie (1-4) dropped their cross-border game with Logan, New Mexico (6-1), 50-0.

State roundup

Third-ranked Water Valley (6-0) had the game ball delivered by a parachutist then proceeded to bury eight ranked Rankin, 61-15, in the top matchup in Six-Man for Week 6.

Top-ranked Jayton (6-0) in Division II had no problem with ninth ranked Newcastle (3-2) cruising to a 61-15 win.

Coolidge’s Devonta Johnson had another incredible game rushing for 394 yards on 18 carries and registering six touchdowns, throwing for 103 yards and a score and tacking on 12 tackles as the Yellow Jackets (5-1) gave Mount Calm (5-1) their first loss of the season, 56-26.

Campbell began Six-Man play in 2012 and has struggled for success going 38-76 with only one winning season. Friday night the Indians moved their record to 5-1 for the first time ever as they took down Apple Springs (3-3) 74-26 on the road.