I talked to West Texas Comanche Head Coach Jeff Smith before the game started and he said that the little things would turn this game either way for his team. After analyzing the game, he was right: Those little things like freeing up players by taking a double team, or crucial blocks in the trenches led the way to a West Texas win over Hawley to advance to the 2A DI Regional Round. Here is a recap below.
In the first quarter, the Hawley attack got off to a great start as the Bearcats took their first drive in for a touchdown that went 12 plays for 74 yards and was capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run from Aiden Romo to put the ‘Cats up, 6-0 with 6:51 left in the first after a failed two-point conversion.
The Comanches responded on their opening drive with a touchdown of their own on a drive that took six plays and covered 38 yards and ended with a Cayde Winters touchdown pass of five yards to Kelby Sherwood. And after converting a two-point conversion, the Comanches took their first lead of the ball game at 8-6 with 1:24 left in the opening stanza.
Hawley got their second drive and took it down the field for another touchdown as this was one capped with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Romo to Camden Ables to give the Bearcats a 12-8 lead with 10:51 left in the second quarter after another failed 2-pointer.
West Texas then took their second drive of the game for a 14-play, 59 yard touchdown that included a 15-yard completion to Sherwood on 4th and 13 to save the drive that concluded with a six-yard touchdown run from Sherwood to give the Comanches a 14-12 lead after a failed two-point conversion with 4:54 left in the half.
Hawley then scored on their third-straight possession to take a 18-14 lead before halftime with another rushing touchdown from Aiden Romo. After going into the half with the score, 18-14 in Hawley’s favor, the Comanches took their opening third quarter drive for a touchdown as Cayde Winters plowed his way for a 13-yard rushing touchdown to cap off a 14-play, 52-yard drive to give West Texas a 22-18 lead with 7:25 left in the third.
Hawley then took their first possession of the third quarter and scored on a 52-yard, nine play drive which was finished by Romo on a two-yard score to give the Bearcats a 26-22 lead with 3:23 remaining in the third.
After a fumble by West Texas, and a 3-and-out for Hawley, West Texas scored on a 15-yard touchdown run from Winters to give the Comanches a 30-26 lead over Hawley with 6:03 left in the game.
Lastly, on Hawley’s last possession of the game, Cayde Winters sacked Romo in fourth down to turn the ball over and give West Texas possession and they closed out the game by converting two first downs and the Bearcats ran out of timeouts and West Texas secured an Area Round victory by a final score of 30-26. West Texas will now await the winner of New Home vs Stamford to see who they’ll face off against in a big game next week.
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Jasone Pearson
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