High School Football: West Plains routs Seminole in critical district football game
CANYON — What was highly anticipated as the game of the week and a potential district title decider ended up being a first half rout Friday night.
The West Plains football team put a first half beatdown on Seminole at Happy State Bank Stadium and never let up. Jordi Hernandez ran for three scores in the opening two quarters. It amounted to a 48-23 victory for the Wolves.
It's the third consecutive week West Plains (6-1, 1-0) has knocked off a previously unbeaten opponent after it took down Lubbock Estacado two weeks ago and Hereford last week. This one was expected to be a much tighter contest after Seminole (6-1, 0-1) won 38-28 last season and entered the night with an unblemished record. Instead, the Wolves forced two turnovers in the opening half and Hernandez led the offense the rest of the way.
"We're just not focusing on the fact that we're playing 5-0 teams," head coach Adam Cummings said. "We're just focused on making our game cleaner, executing at a high level on offense, defense and special teams. We're focused on fixing what we need to fix but also improving as an overall program in terms of leadership and character and all of the things we want off the field, too."
Quarterback Reid Macon was sharp with two touchdown passes while Boston Ladd and Kane White-Tinsley each had interceptions for the hard hitting Wolves' defense. Hernandez finished with 106 yards in addition to the three scores.
After Seminole hit a field goal on its opening possession, it was all West Plains with three Hernandez TD runs and an 18-yard scoring strike from Macon to Kyron Wooten to make it 28-3 Wolves at the midway point. Crockett Henry had an interception in the third.
While this was the district opener, it's widely expected Friday's game will end up determining who finishes first in District 2-4A Division II and who finishes second. The other three teams in the district, Perryton, Levelland and Borger, entered Friday night with one, two and three wins each, respectively.
West Plains 48, Seminole 33
SHS 3 0 7 13 -- 33
WP 7 21 10 10 -- 48
First Quarter
SHS – Rowin Donaldson 29 kick 3:52
WP – Jordi Hernandez 2 run (Joseph Estrada kick) 1:09
Second Quarter
WP – Hernandez 23 run (Estrada kick) 8:41
WP – Hernandez 1 run (Estrada kick) 4:12
WP – Kyron Wooten 18 from Reid Macon (Estrada kick) 3:28
Third Quarter
WP – Jensen Phillips 29 from Macon (Estrada kick) 10:19
WP – Estrada 46 kick 7:58
SHS – Logan McCormick 11 from Braden Gonzales (Donaldson kick) 0:15
Fourth Quarter
WP – Estrada 27 kick 8:06
SHS – Logan McCormick 5 run (Donaldson kick) 6:13
WP – Blaine Henry 19 run (Estrada kick) 3:19
SHS – McCormick 7 from Gonzales (2-pt no good) 1:45
TEAM STATISTICS
SHS WP
First downs 19 19
Rushes-yards 44-121 32-228
Passing yards 183 194
Comp.-att.-int 18-29-3 15-21-0
Punts-avg. 1-37 1-26
Fumbles-lost 4-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 1-5 13-130
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
SHS – Wyatt Holmstrom 14-38, Aiden Garibay 11-34, Logan McCormick 5-13, Braden Gonzales 11-21, Caton Cramer 3-15
WP – Jordi Hernandez 13-106, King Tallant 6-39, Slade Russell 6-28, Noah Hernandez 1-3, Kaden Hooker 1-7, Boston Ladd 1-5, Blaine Henry 4-40
PASSING
SHS – Wyatt Holmstrom 12-18-2, 95, Braden Gonzales 6-11-1, 88
WP – Reid Macon 15-21-0, 194
RECEIVING
SHS - Reagan Elder 1-1, Caton Cramer 6-78, Stephen Davis 5-29, Myles Espino 3-51, Logan McCormick 3-23
WP – Kyron Wooten 8-92, King Tallant 4-23, Jordi Hernandez 0-0, Crockett Henry 1-20, Jensen Phillips 1-29, Kaden Hooker 1-30
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This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: West Plains High wins critical district football game against Seminole
