Tonight, the Pampa Harvesters (0-2, 2-5) hit the road to Happy State Bank Stadium in Canyon to face the Eagles (0-2, 4-3). Canyon has suffered defeat at the hands of West Plains 42-28 and Dumas 35-9 to begin district play. The common opponents were Perryton and Caprock. Canyon beat Caprock 27-3 and lost to Perryton 45-44. It is a big game for both teams to try to stay alive in the District 2-4A playoff race. The top four advance to the playoffs out of the six teams. This means, in all likelihood, teams must have at least two district wins to make the playoffs and only three games remain.
On West Plains
Pampa had a good chance early in the game to score after a seven yard punt by the Wolves due to the wind. They got the ball to start at the Wolves’ 25-yard line but were unable to punch it in after a few mistakes.
“They are very athletic and pretty fast. When we got into and got going our kids went out there and gave their hearts out. Ultimately, when it came down to it, those guys (West Plains) executed really well. We executed well at times, especially in the second half, but we got ourselves behind the 8-ball really early. It was difficult for us to come back and compete,” Head Coach Floyd White said. “That is where we have to continue to grow as a team. We can’t just allow people to jump us on early, run away from us, and then we decide at that point to compete. We can’t beat ourselves at birth basically. That is kind of what we did, we let them get out there and then all the sudden we realized ‘hey, we can compete with them’ and by that point it was a little bit too late.”
On Canyon
Canyon is a pretty good team on both sides of the ball.
“Offensively, they come out in a lot of formations and different personnel groupings. They are going to try to run the ball down your throat. They get you sucked up there and then they are going to try to dump a ball or two over your head. They are just really good all-around,” White said.
“Defensively, they line up a lot like we do. It is about playing assignment football making sure you are in the right position and not being over leveraged in one position or another. They are pretty good up front on both sides of the ball. They have pretty good skill kids on both sides of the ball. They are not just world beaters. It comes down to the same thing every week in this district. Everyone is just good enough, it is how well you execute. Last week, Canyon took it on the chin to Dumas. Dumas wasn’t doing anything special. They were just running their base stuff. That is what we are going to have to do is our base stuff, and do it well. If we do it, we will be right in the middle of everything,” White said.
On Thursday Night Game
With Canyon ISD having three high schools, a game must be played on Thursday when two of the schools are at home. Pampa got the short straw for scheduling and will be playing Canyon tonight. Does that change anything in the preparation for the Harvesters?
“It is just one less day to prepare. Normally, we get our last lift of the week in and all that on Thursday. This kind of accelerates your schedule a little bit. You can still get your long days of preps in but your walkthroughs and stuff like that you do there will be less chance to get those things in. You tend not to install very much new on short weeks because you don’t get that extra day to decide if you do or don’t like it. It affects you a little bit but it is not a huge effect,” White said.
Key Players
Who are some of the key players to watch for on the Eagles?
“On defense they have a big nose guard #64 Da’keydrion Ford. He is a big, big joker and can take over a game if you allow him to do so. We have to do a good job of getting him loose so he doesn’t plug up our run game inside. On offense, they have big tight ends. Their quarterback #6 Boston Bell is pretty good. He runs around there and does a lot of really good things. They have a good tailback #2 Colt Cruth who gets in there. They use a couple of different tailbacks. They have a tight end #44 Isaiah Amaya and an H-Back #11 Tripp Wright that they use all over the place in everything that they do. Those guys are tough because they can use so many different personnel groups and do so many things out of those groupings. Just getting out there and having to ID those guys and making sure you have your right matchup on those guys is hugely important going into the game,” White said. “Up front, they are pretty good on offense. They do a good job of getting around and doing some things. They can get out on the edge in a hurry. They are pretty big and athletic so we are going to have our hands full with them.”
Keys to the game
• Execution
• Be consistent
• Win the Turnover Battle
“The key to the game for us is going to be execution. It seems like we say that all the time but when we go back and watch film there are no magical plays you can call. There is nothing that you can call that will get you here or there. When it comes down to it, when we are having our issues, it is not because the other team is doing anything special, it is because we are not executing,” White said. “The first play of the game, we have a guy blocking the wrong person. He thinks it is the right person and it creates a whole chain of events that plugs up a hole that is a country road wide. It is a huge hole, because one person does something wrong, it causes the next person to say ‘oh, he’s blocking my guy,’ and turn and go back to block the guy he was supposed to block. So, now you have two people in the hole. Then, the quarterback goes to toss the ball to the running back and get in the hole. The hole is wide as can be but now there are four people in it. That’s what it is. It becomes an execution deal. It is just making sure we execute to the best of our ability. That is a huge key for us making sure we do that.”
“Being consistent all the way through is another key. Realizing we can play with these guys the whole game and not waiting until the end to all the sudden say we should have gotten these guys. For us now, it is just about being consistent across the board,” White said.
“We have to win the turnover battle. We have got to start creating more takeaways and limiting what turnovers we have. When we do that, we will give ourselves a chance to win the game. To me, those are the huge keys to the game for us,” White said.
District matchups
The Hereford Whitefaces (1-1) host the Dumas Demons (1-1) as both teams look to pick up their second district win. The Randall Raiders (2-0) play a “road game” at Happy State Bank Stadium tomorrow with the West Plains Wolves (2-0). The winner of that game will be on cruise control atop the district as the lone undefeated. Those scores can be found online as most of them will not be available for press time.
How to watch
Of course you can attend by coming over to Canyon and Happy State Bank Stadium. John Lee will have the game recap article in Saturday’s paper. You can also find the score on our social media pages. If you cannot make it, the game will be streamed on Harvester Sports Network. You can find us on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@HarvesterSportsNetwork/. You can also follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarvesterSportsNetwork. Lastly, we have a Twitter/X page: www.x.com/PampaHSN. Kevin Hunt and Richard Hawthorne will be calling the game. The game will also be broadcast locally on 101.3 Legends Classic Country. That station will be piped through our YouTube feed.
The pre-game show will begin on YouTube and 101.3 at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Here is the direct link for the game:
https://www.youtube.com/live/YOJQd3k3E4o.
We have also added a stat program. You can track the play-by-play along with the YouTube video at this link: https://www.turbostatslive.com/football/webcast/08002411464633.
