West Plains dismantles Hereford to claim District 2-4A Division I championship
The West Plains Wolves showed beyond a shadow of any doubt why they are champions Thursday night.
All questions and possible tiebreakers to determine who will stand atop District 2-4A Division I were settled in the most direct manner at Happy State Bank Stadium.
In a showdown to determine a district champion and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, West Plains ended all speculation by taking control of the game in the first half and routed Hereford 45-14 to win the school's first district title in 2-4A DI.
The Wolves (7-3, 5-0 in district) ended their regular season as undefeated district champions with one day still to go in district play. That set the top three seeds in the district for the playoffs starting next week, with West Plains as the district's No. 1 seed.
Hereford (7-3, 3-2) will settle for the district's No. 3 seed while Randall, who will finish the regular season Friday night against Canyon ISD rival Canyon at Happy State Bank Stadium, will be the No. 2 seed.
Thursday, however, it was Canyon ISD's newest program, West Plains, which had the night to itself. The Wolves scored 38 unanswered points to take control of the game and leave no doubt.
Hereford got the upper hand early, but after that West Plains was in control, as the Wolves scored the last 17 points of the first half to take a 17-7 halftime lead.
The Whitefaces took the opening kickoff and marched right downfield for the score, concluding the drive on a 20-yard pass from Kalub Ramirez to Tell Bryant for a 7-0 lead. That lasted less than two minutes, though, as West Plains responded with an equally impressive drive, culminated by quarterback Reid Macon taking it in from two yards out to tie it 7-7.
West Plains took the lead late in the first quarter on Gipson Gnagy's 26-yard field goal to make it 10-7. Hereford twice got the ball into West Plains territory after that, but both times came up empty thanks to a missed field goal and an interception off a gadget play, The Wolves marched the ball 98 yards down the field in the second quarter to end the first half run.
On a third-and-eight from their own 1-yard line, Macon completed a deflected pass which was nearly intercepted but ended up in the hands of wide receiver Kane White-Tinsley for a 32-yard completion which gave them a huge spark.
Macon ended the drive with a 16-yard pass on a slant pass to Boston Ladd to make it 17-7.
Aside from a 31-yard loss on a flea flicker which went badly awry, Macon was just about perfect on the night, completing 16-of-19 for 266 yards and four touchdowns. Macon threw three long scoring passes in the third quarter to Ladd, White-Tinsley and Kaden Hooker to extend the lead to 38-7 and end all illusions of a Hereford comeback.
In addition, Slade Russell ran for 228 yards on 20 carries and ended the scoring with a 9-yard run 49 seconds into the fourth quarter.
As if that wasn't enough, White-Tinsley might have had the best night of anybody for West Plains. Not only did he have four catches for 93 yards and a 35-yard score, but he also had three interceptions on defense to thwart any offense hopes for Hereford.
A bright spot for Hereford offensively was Brylyn Lopez, who ran for 153 yards on 18 carries. Ramirez did throw two touchdown passes, but struggled with the rain and the West Plains defense, completing 12-of-23 for 109 yards and three interceptions.
