The Pampa Harvesters will take the field one final time Thursday night as they travel to face the West Plains Wolves (5-4, 3-1) in the 2026 season finale. While the season has presented its share of challenges, Head Coach Floyd White believes his team has continued to demonstrate something that cannot always be measured on a scoreboard: heart, determination and an unwillingness to quit.
For the Harvesters (0-9, 0-4), Thursday’s matchup represents one final opportunity to put together a complete four-quarter performance, reward their seniors for their commitment and give their younger players something positive to carry into the offseason.
Coming off another difficult first half against Canyon, Pampa once again showed improvement after halftime, putting together several scoring drives and continuing to compete until the final seconds.
White believes that resilience is a reflection of the mentality his coaching staff has worked to establish throughout the season.
Second-Half Fight Continues to Show
Despite struggling to establish an offensive rhythm during the opening half against Canyon, the Harvesters responded with a stronger second-half performance.
White explained that the message at halftime was not about the scoreboard, but about focusing on what the team could control.
“You don’t look at the scoreboard. You don’t look at anything else,” White said. “Just worry about winning this play. Worry about winning the next play. Whether or not the play is successful, you can’t worry about it. You’ve just got to get on to the next play.”
That mentality was evident in several individual performances.
After missing a field goal attempt in the first half, junior kicker Brayan Montelongo responded by connecting on his next opportunity, demonstrating the ability to move past a mistake and remain focused.
“I’m proud of him because sometimes for young kids that can really throw them into a tailspin,” White said. “But for him, it’s just like, okay, that happened. Let’s go ahead and move on to the next play. He was ready, man. He went out there and drilled it.”
The Harvesters also produced explosive offensive plays, including a 75-yard touchdown run by junior quarterback Jeryn Owens and a determined scoring run from sophomore running back Colton Rose in the closing seconds.
With the outcome already decided, Rose could have simply accepted the final play and allowed the clock to expire. Instead, he fought through multiple defenders to reach the end zone.
“I loved Colton’s last run,” White said. “He had like four people that had a chance to make a tackle on him. He spun, twisted, turned, ducked, dived and dodged, and got himself in the end zone.”
For White, that effort represented the character of his football team.
“They’re going to continue to fight, continue to fight, continue to fight,” White said. “That’s what I’m most proud about with our kids. Our kids are going to continue to fight.”
Martinez Emerging as a Playmaker
One player who has continued to impress White is junior receiver Aaron Martinez, whose development has extended beyond catching passes and making plays with the football.
White pointed to Martinez’s work ethic, attitude and willingness to contribute in areas that might not always appear in the statistics.
“He’s really kind of starting to take the bull by the horns as far as receiver goes,” White said. “He comes out there every day with a good attitude and just goes out there and busts his butt and continues to make plays whenever sometimes it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to be made.”
One particular play stood out to the Harvester coaching staff.
During Owens’ long touchdown run, Martinez delivered a block that helped spring the play, driving his defender all the way toward the track before looking for another opponent to block.
“Most people don’t realize until you watch the film, he took the corner he was blocking and blocked him all the way onto lane seven of the track,” White said. “And then took off and tried to get somebody else.”
White believes that type of effort, particularly against quality competition, is an example of what the Harvesters need to establish consistently throughout their program.
Short Week Brings Adjustments
Thursday’s matchup against West Plains means the Harvesters have one fewer day to prepare than they would during a traditional Friday game week.
White explained that the shortened schedule requires the coaching staff to accelerate preparations, particularly when it comes to situational football and third-down planning.
“Everything’s just got to be condensed and moved up,” White said. “Things that you normally get a good chance to have a day to look at, instead of having the whole day to look at it, you have half a day.”
However, White believes the adjustment is less significant this late in the season than it would have been during the opening weeks.
By Week 11, players have developed familiarity with their offensive and defensive systems, allowing the coaching staff to concentrate on execution rather than installing new material.
“At this point of the season, people are who they are,” White said. “Kids know how to run plays. Kids know how to run defenses.”
West Plains Brings Physical, Balanced Attack
The Wolves present another difficult challenge for the Harvesters, particularly with their ability to establish the running game and create opportunities through play-action passing.
Unlike many modern spread offenses, West Plains frequently operates with its quarterback under center, utilizing traditional formations with one or two running backs.
White estimates that the Wolves run the football approximately 65 percent of the time, relying heavily on mid-zone and outside-zone concepts while mixing in inside runs and other blocking schemes.
“They are a lot under center,” White said. “They are two-back I, one-back I, with a little bit of spread. They go into the gun a little bit, but they’re not just chunking the ball all over the park.”
One of the biggest concerns for Pampa will be senior running back Slade Russell (No. 10), a powerful ball carrier whom White described as approximately 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds.
“He’s their workhorse,” White said. “He gets downhill. He can make people miss, but whenever he gets going downhill with a head of steam, he’s really hard to touch.”
The Wolves also feature junior receiver Boston Hunt (No. 3), whom they move around the formation to create favorable matchups and opportunities in open space.
Sophomore quarterback Timber Russell (No. 16) directs the offense, managing the Wolves’ running attack and play-action passing game.
White also praised the West Plains offensive line for its athleticism and ability to work together.
“They move really well in unison and can get on people in a hurry,” White said.
Wolves Feature Aggressive Defensive Front
Defensively, West Plains presents another challenge with its ability to alternate between a traditional 3-4 alignment and a 3-3 stack.
While the Wolves occasionally present a four-man front, White explained that those looks generally come from adjusting the alignment of an outside linebacker rather than substituting additional defensive linemen.
“They live and die in the stack or in the 3-4,” White said.
Up front, White identified senior defensive lineman Kylan Akins (No. 54) as a particularly disruptive player, while describing the linebacking corps as the strength of the Wolves’ defense.
“Their linebacking crew is probably the strength of everybody,” White said. “They fly around, they make things happen.”
Among those linebackers is senior Cash Lofton (No. 44), whom White praised for his leadership and physical style of play.
“He’s a heck of a player,” White said. “He’s a senior and he flies around and he plays the way seniors are supposed to be playing.”
The West Plains secondary also presents challenges, with defenders who consistently maintain coverage and limit opportunities for receivers to get open.
White described the Wolves as a solid defensive team across the board, emphasizing the importance of execution and avoiding mistakes.
Starting Fast Remains the Biggest Priority
Perhaps the most significant challenge for Pampa entering Thursday’s finale is finding a way to bring its second-half intensity into the opening minutes.
Throughout district play, the Harvesters have frequently shown their best execution after halftime, but early deficits have made it difficult to turn that improvement into victories.
White believes the solution comes down to mentality rather than motivational speeches.
“We have to have the right mentality going into it,” White said.
He compared the team’s occasional slow starts to someone cautiously testing the water rather than jumping into a swimming pool.
“We can’t go out there and dip our toes into the pool,” White said. “That’s what we do sometimes. We spend the first two or three series trying to feel out whether or not, man, can we do this? Can we not do this?”
Instead, White wants his players to approach Thursday’s contest with confidence and urgency from the opening kickoff.
“We’ve just got to go ahead and do the cannonball into the pool,” White said. “Whether or not we can swim, that remains to be seen, but let’s go ahead and jump into the pool and give ourselves a chance to swim.”
That approach connects directly to the team’s final word of the week: heart.
White explained that the coaching staff selects its weekly themes months in advance, building them into the program’s annual calendar.
By the final week of the season, he believes the Harvesters should understand what it means to compete with heart regardless of the circumstances.
“By this point of the year, we should be playing with great heart,” White said. “That’s going to be the tenacity that pushes us over the edge and allows us to get started earlier.”
Keys to the Game
For the Harvesters to give themselves an opportunity against West Plains, White identified three major priorities: starting faster, protecting possession and improving defensive execution.
Offensively, Pampa must establish rhythm early while limiting opportunities for the Wolves’ dangerous playmakers.
Defensively, White stressed the importance of finishing tackles, particularly after missed opportunities contributed to long touchdown runs against Canyon.
“We’ve got to make sure that we wrap up,” White said. “We give up plays, but a lot of plays that we give up are plays where we have people there.”
White explained that several explosive runs could have been prevented had defenders completed tackles when they were in position to make them.
Beyond tackling, the Harvesters must also find ways to create additional possessions for their offense.
That means forcing third-down stops, getting off the field and producing turnovers.
“We’ve got to create more possessions for our offense,” White said. “We’ve got to create third downs where we get off the field, and then we’ve got to make sure that we get a couple of takeaways and get the ball back to the offense for extra possessions.”
One Final Opportunity for the Seniors
Thursday’s game will mark the end of the high school football careers of Pampa’s seniors, a group that has continued to represent the green and gold through a challenging season.
For the younger players, many of whom have gained valuable varsity experience because of injuries and other circumstances, the finale offers one more opportunity to demonstrate their development heading into next year.
White would love nothing more than to send his seniors out with a victory against a talented West Plains team.
“I want to see them go out with a win,” White said. “I want to see them go out with a win versus a group that’s going to be a playoff contender and going to have a chance to make a good run.”
However, White emphasized that the final score will not be the only measure of success.
More importantly, he wants his players to leave the field knowing they gave their best effort and demonstrated how much they have improved since the beginning of the season.
“I want them to go out the way that they want to go out,” White said. “If I can go out and play better in Week 10 than I did in Week 1, versus a better opponent, then that’s exactly what you want.”
For a program that has endured injuries, difficult losses and numerous challenges throughout the fall, Thursday offers one final chance to demonstrate its resilience.
White believes his players will embrace that opportunity.
“They want to put on the best possible performance for the community and for their school,” White said. “That’s what they’re going to do. That’s what I’m excited to go out there and watch.”
The Harvesters will close their 2026 season Thursday night on the road against the West Plains Wolves.
You can find HSN on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@HarvesterSportsNetwork/. You can also follow them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarvesterSportsNetwork. Lastly, there is a Twitter/X page: www.x.com/PampaHSN. Mike Mitchell and Troy Schwiegerath will be calling the game. The game will also be broadcast locally on 103.3 FM KRXZ Radio. That station will be piped through the YouTube feed. The pre-game show will begin on YouTube and 103.3 FM at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
