The Pampa Harvesters (1-1) hosted the Plainview Bulldogs (1-1) on Friday night in their home season opener. It was a special day all around as NFL Hall of Famer Zach Thomas was recognized with the stadium dedication. It is now Harvester Field at Zach Thomas Stadium. A great day for football; it was with sunny skies and cool temperatures. Pampa would receive the opening kickoff after Plainview deferred their selection to the second half.
Pampa opened the game with a nice 12-yard gain on a pop pass from junior quarterback Jarren Hill to fellow junior running back Max Neff for a first down. However, the Harvesters’ were stymied and had to punt with 9:54 to go in the first quarter.
Plainview went right down the field and scored with 6:49 to play in the half and take a 7-0 lead.
Pampa benefited from good field position thanks to the kickoff going out of bounds. Neff and Hill shared a couple of three-yard runs to start the drive. Hill then found senior wide receiver Aaron Diaz for a nine-yard gain and a first down. A false start set the Harvesters back five yards before Neff ran up the gut for 12 yards to bring up a big second down at the Plainview 48-yard line. Neff then busted a big run for the 48-yard touchdown score with 4:47 to play in the quarter. Diaz missed the extra point as it was blocked by the Bulldogs to keep the score at Plainview 7, Pampa 6.
“We got out there and in the first half we played great offensively and made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes defensively. We were able to stay close, eat up clock and do things like that on the offensive side. On defense, we played well enough to keep ourselves close in the game. We come out after the first half, got that first stop and bogged down on offense. They got a couple of quick passes and things spiraled out of control,” Head Coach Floyd White said.
Plainview was facing a crucial third-and-goal from the one-yard line before the end of the first quarter. They would open the second quarter with a 7-6 lead and the third down play. Pampa got a stop on the quarterback sneak, and then the Bulldogs went for it on fourth down. The Harvesters looked to have a nice goal line stand before an offsides was called to give the Bulldogs another chance. Plainview scored on the second chance with 10:39 to play in the first half and now with a 14-6 lead after the extra point was good.
Pampa took the ball after the next kickoff at their own 31-yard line with 10:33 to play in the half. HIll found junior wide receiver Jose Alonzo for an eight-yard gain to begin the drive. Neff then ran for eight more yards for the Harvesters and a first down. A Plainview facemask gave Pampa 15 extra yards, and that began a penalty-infested drive on both sides of the ball. The Harvesters had a long incomplete pass where they got a first down thanks to a roughing the passer call. Alonzo had another catch go for 12-yards and a first down on the drive as well. Hill had a great play on the two-yard line for a touchdown to cut into the Plainview lead at 14-12 Bulldogs. The two-point attempt was no good after an incomplete pass, and the score was 14-12 with 6:27 to play in the first half.
“It was a definitely a balance of both (referees over-zealous with flags vs. lack of discipline). There were some ticky-tack calls and if I was to venture I bet it would favor them a little bit more. Ultimately, it comes down to us and we’ve got to learn to clean those things up. We jumped out there and had a couple of PIs, a couple of late hits and silly stuff. When you let things like that happen, it starts to spiral out of control and allows drives to keep going. They keep going because we shot ourselves in the foot,” White said.
The Harvester defense came up with a much-needed stop to force a fourth-and-15 with 4:39 to play in the half. Plainview called a timeout before the fourth down attempt. Pampa intercepted the pass, but unfortunately a pass interference penalty bailed them out and gave the Bulldogs a first down at the Pampa 16-yard line with 4:19 to play in the half. The very next play, Plainview went down for the score and the 21-12 lead after the extra point.
The Harvesters were unable to do anything on their next drive and were forced to punt after a sack. Plainview took over with 2:21 left in the half with hopes of taking a two-score lead into the locker room. The Bulldogs had the ball with a first-and-15 at the Pampa 48-yard line with 1:04 to play in the half before they took a timeout. Senior linebacker Christian Davalos batted down the first pass after the timeout for a huge first down stop. Alonzo just missed an interception on the third-down play with 19 seconds to play in the half, which would have been a huge opportunity for the Harvesters. The Bulldogs converted a first down on the fourth down play, but with only 10 seconds left in the half, Plainview would call a timeout and most likely just take a few shots at the endzone. Both attempts at the endzone were unsuccessful, and the score at half was Plainview 21, Pampa 12.
The Bulldogs would begin the half with the ball after a touchback and offsides on Pampa on the kickoff at their own 30-yard line. Pampa forced a good stop with a six-yard sack by junior linebacker Parker Webb on a third down play. After the punt, Pampa began their first drive of the second half with 10:36 to play in the third quarter.
Neff started the drive with a big 22-yard run for a first down. He added a couple of more runs on the drive as well. Pampa had a huge fourth-down conversion on a pass from Hill to Neff, but it was unfortunately called back due to an illegal man downfield penalty. Pampa then turned it over on downs with 8:18 to play in the quarter.
Plainview went down with ease to score on their next drive and take a 28-12 lead with 8:07 to go in the quarter.
The Harvesters looked like their next drive was going nowhere before HIll ran for 10 yards and a first down. Hill also found senior wide receiver Bryce Lynn for a 46-yard pass play and a first down. Neff punched it in from 20 yards out for his second score of the night to cut the lead to 28-18. The extra point was no good with 5:02 to play in the quarter.
Plainview went right down the field again for another score and a 35-18 lead with 3:07 to play in the quarter.
The Harvesters went for it on a fake punt call with 1:29 left in the third quarter and did not get it. Plainview would take over deep in Pampa territory at the 36-yard line and still with the 35-18 lead.
Plainview went down and scored to take the lead, 42-18. The Harvesters went three-and-out, and then a botched snap on the punt attempt resulted in a safety to make the score 44-18 with 10:31 to go.
The Bulldogs seemed content to try to run the clock down as much as possible on their next drive, taking over six minutes off the clock while scoring again to make the score 51-18 with 4:32 to play in the game.
Pampa would also be content to run the clock out to cut their losses on this game and get into the locker room to begin working on next week. It was a steady dose of Neff on the final drive for the Harvesters as he ran for 15, 3, 10, and 11 yards to start the drive. Pampa had a huge pass play from Hill to junior wide receiver Caden Waldrip for 22 yards before the ball was stripped and recovered by Plainview to virtually ice the game. The Bulldogs ran the rest of the time off the clock.
Final: Plainview 51, Pampa 18.
UNOFFICIAL STATS
Jarren HIll 7-9 passing for 112 yards. He added 22 yards on the ground with a touchdown on 13 carries.
Max Neff had 20 carries for 190 yards and 2 TDs. Max had 1 catch for 12 yards.
Christian Davalos had 2 carries for 4 yards.
Aaron Diaz had 1 catch for 9 yards.
Jose Alonzo had 3 catches for 23 yards.
Bryce Lynn had 1 catch for 46 yards.
Caden Waldrip had 1 catch for 22 yards.
Pampa will host another home game next Friday the 13th at 7 PM against the Caprock Longhorns. Catch the preview article in next Thursday’s paper.
“One thing we’ve got to do is go back to the drawing board and clean up our act. A lot of our stuff is self-inflicted, we’ve got self-inflicted injuries with penalties and things of that nature. That’s on us on the coaching staff to make sure we get those things cleaned up. Caprock will be a good tough group, but we’ll get out there and battle our tails off and come out on top again next week,” White said.
