Friday night, the Pampa Harvesters (0-3, 2-6) hit the road back to where they played last week to Happy State Bank Stadium in Canyon to face the Randall Raiders (2-1, 7-1). It is the second to last game of the season and last road game for Pampa. Randall has suffered defeat at the hands of West Plains 43-21. They beat Dumas 21-17 and Hereford 41-34. Randall also defeated Perryton 49-19 and Plainview 26-16, a couple of other common opponents of the Harvesters.
On Canyon
Pampa had a goal line stand early in the game. However, a fake punt by the Harvesters deep inside their own territory was unsuccessful. Pampa held it close with the score being 22-14 at halftime before the second half was a completely different story.
“Right off the bat they started driving on us and we bowed our necks and got the stop. We got a first down right after that drive but then we ended up having to punt. It was lined up and it was the look we had been looking at all week. I talked to coach (Burklow) right beforehand and told him if we could get it to within a 4th and 3, we were going to go for the fake to try to keep a drive going and the momentum. It didn’t quite work out. We missed a block, a guy came through and clipped our heels. They drove right after that and ended up scoring on that,” Head Coach Floyd White said. “Our kids are fighting hard. We just are not executing all the time. Sometimes we simply just have a missed block. That is part of our growth process in the program right now. We are still not executing all the time…….It is crazy sometimes when it comes down to it. One thing I can tell you is that our kids are never quitting. They are always working their behinds off. That is one thing I can tell you about our guys is they are resilient.”
“We came out in the second half and we didn’t match their intensity. If you match their intensity early you have a chance to stay in the game but if you don’t that is where the problem is. That is part of our growth process as a program. We have to learn how to play all 4 quarters. We are sitting there and knocking on the door but after a while we are not quite there yet. That falls on me to figure out the right mix of players and inspiration to get them going.”
On Randall
Randall is a pretty good team on both sides of the ball. They were undefeated before the West Plains game.
“They have done a great job all year. They were undefeated for a reason. West Plains shocked them early. If you watch that game and ours against West Plains, there are a lot of similarities. You turn over the ball a couple of times and the next thing you know you are behind the sticks. We were able to move the ball on West Plains early and Randall struggled to move the ball a little bit, they turned the ball over and next thing you knew they were behind big. Those guys are a good, good outfit. Don’t let the score from last week fool you. A couple of breaks here or there and that game would be completely different. They also are experiencing some injuries and got things like that going on. You hope none of those guys are hurt too bad,” White said. “Ultimately, we have to get ourselves out there. We cannot worry about what happened with them or try to do comparison scores. We have to just go out there and keep coaching our guys to do the best thing they can do.”
“Offensively, they are a lot like everyone else we see. Inside, outside zone and power run. They run a lot of RPO game. We have to make sure we are paying attention to our keys so we can defend the things they want to be able to throw and defend the run game to the best of our ability,” White said. “Defensively, they are similar to us and Canyon with a 3-4. They will sit out there and they will read and get in there on the run. They are disciplined in what they do. We have to use what we know and how we know to defend things to get us in the right position in order to be successful.”
Key Players
Who are some of the key players to watch for on the Raiders?
“Their skill kids across the board are pretty good. They have a lot of kids who are track runners on the 4x100 state ranked team. Their running back #21 Dylan Ray is pretty good. He is a guy who can take that ball and make one cut and be in the endzone in a hurry. We have to make sure we keep him under wraps. They are really good at the receiver spots. Against Hereford (on a 1st and 10 from the 1), they ran just a simple slant, a guy got inside the backer and safety, and next thing you know 99 yards later he is sitting in the endzone. Those guys are very, very explosive in all the skill spots,” White said. “Defensively, across the board they are pretty good up front. Their backers are pretty good. #7 Cayson Butler is their outside backer and he is pretty good and they move him all over the place to make sure they can get the matchups they want. Their weak side outside backer is #26 Mark Gallegos and he is a really good player also. Those guys up front make stuff happen. They are disruptors and get off the ball and move. Once they get there, they create all kinds of havoc. Those are the guys we really have to make sure we take care of.”
Keys to the game
• Protect the ball
• Maintain blocks
• Play 4 Quarters
“We have to make sure we protect the ball. We cannot lose any fumbles or give them any kind of extra possessions. We have to make sure upfront we maintain blocks. That is the one thing I feel like we have to do is control the line of scrimmage on offense and defense. If we can control the line of scrimmage on both sides, I feel like skillswise, we matchup kid for kid to be able to do the things we need to be able to do,” White said. “Finally, we have to play 4 quarters. That is the short and the long of it. We have proven first halves we are as good as anybody. You come back out after halftime, there are not a lot of adjustments that need to be made, you just have to ramp up your intensity. That is what we have to make sure we do this week. We have to make sure we match their intensity person for person so we can make things happen
District 2-4A matchups
West Plains looks to stay undefeated in district with a road test at Dumas. Hereford hosts Canyon in a huge matchup. Hereford can make next week’s game with West Plains for the district championship by winning against Canyon. Here are the district 2-4A standings - Top 4 advance to playoffs: West Plains 3-0. Randall 2-1. Hereford 2-1. Dumas 1-2. Canyon 1-2. Pampa 0-3
How to watch
Of course you can attend by coming over to Canyon and Happy State Bank Stadium. The game recap article will be 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/7YC5JV4m9p4.
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.
