The Pampa Harvesters (1-2) look to get back in the win column tomorrow night as they host the Borger Bulldogs (1-2). The Bulldogs lost to Bushland 61-13 and Dumas 38-14 before beating Big Spring last week 45-28. After defeating Iowa Park on the road in game one, Pampa has struggled in the last two games.
It is homecoming in Pampa for this rivalry game. The Battle on Highway 152.
On last week
Pampa shot themselves in the foot last week with the turnover bug. Caprock ended up winning 33-8 after taking advantage and scoring on most of the turnovers.
“Last week, we went into the game feeling really good about everything and our preparation. For whatever reason, we turned over the ball multiple times. We had 6-7 turnovers overall in the game. Anytime you turn over the ball that many times it will be difficult to win a game. We got ourselves pinned on the north end zone and could not get out of it. They didn’t move the ball on us too well, they had one long drive but most of them were short field after turnovers. It is hard to defend a short field after a while,” Head Coach Floyd White said. “That (turnovers) is one of those things we have to get cleaned up. Once we do that, we can get ourselves right again.”
On Borger
Pampa had a thrilling road victory last year against Borger where they came from behind late in the ballgame to win 34-33. First, coach White discussed homecoming and what that atmosphere will be like.
“Anytime you play a rivalry game you can throw records out the window. It doesn’t matter who thinks they are better than the other one, everyone gets up to play. It is a fun time but also one of those crazy times because it means a little bit more to both communities and on top of it being homecoming, it is one of those cherry on top things that goes with it. There are a lot of festivities. A lot of folks will be coming back into town to see their alma mater from last year or from 30-40 years ago. One of my best friends from Tulsa is coming back even. He hadn’t been here in 30 years. It is one of those things, we have to make sure we get out there and perform and we will be just fine,” White said.
What to expect from Borger?
“Offensively, they are pretty good. They get out there and run the ball well. They have a couple of receivers who they can throw the ball to and get after it. They have a really good slot receiver in #17 and is one of their bigger kids. They try to get the ball in his hands often. He does a lot with it when he gets going. They have a pretty good quarterback #4 who gets out there and distributes the ball pretty well. They are good up front, athletic, they can get around and get on you in a hurry. We have to make sure we are doing what we can to keep those guys at bay,” White said. “Defensively, they are a pretty good little group. They get to the ball really well. They run around really well. They have guys who play both ways like we do. We have to find ways to take advantage of that if we can. They are pretty athletic in the secondary. I feel like the strength of what they do is their defensive line. They have two good tackles and a really good end who can really get after the quarterback and plug up those lanes and get after the ball. We have to do a great job of getting bodies on bodies and getting those guys moved.”
Key Players
Who are the key players for the Bulldogs?
“Quarterback Hunter Randles #4, he is a sophomore. #17 Tyler Brooks, senior wide receiver and defensive back. #15 Caton Saxon, senior defensive end. #11 Ryler Moreno, senior defensive back. He is kind of the Swiss Army Knife for those guys as he plays all over the field. The guys up front who can really get after you are #68 Maverick Lopez, senior lineman, #66 Carlos Cardenas, senior lineman. Those are just some of a few guys they have who can really get after it,” White said.
Keys to the game
• Clean up our game (limit turnovers and penalties)
• Establish the run game (also make the pass plays when needed)
• Stop the run game (limit deep balls)
“The achilles heel the last few weeks has been turnovers. As long as we don’t turnover the ball we are in pretty good shape. We turned the ball over once in the Iowa Park game but we were able to get a couple of takeaways there. The last couple of games we have turned the ball over multiple times. That kind of led to the demise for us and got us behind the sticks. Then, you have a hard time getting going offensively and sustaining drives. It is hard to keep people off the field when you kill yourself with penalties and things like that,” White said. “One of the biggest keys to the game for us is to clean up our own game. It hasn’t been the stuff teams have been doing to us but us beating us. It’s been us turning over the ball. It has been us committing penalties to kill our own drives or extend their drives. That is the big thing I want to see from us. We are putting a lot of emphasis on it this week in practice. We want to make sure we are taking care of the ball. We want to make sure we are taking care of ourselves in the penalty department and not do the silly, crazy things which are causing us issues.”
“We have gotta be able to establish the run game. That will be our heart and soul as we move forward. We have to make sure we are able to dominate up front like we are able to do whenever we are able to do it. That is going to be humongous for us,” White said. “We have to be able to put bodies on bodies and get people moved. When we have to throw the ball, we have to get the ball out there. We have to stick it on people and we have to make those catches. We have to make the simple catches.”
“Defensively, we have to stop the run. They want to run the ball. We know we have to stop the run. We have to get out there and dominate on the line of scrimmage. We can’t give them the vertical creases early in the game. We have to have gap integrity. In the secondary, we can’t give up big plays. You will give up a big play or two but we can’t continue to keep giving them up week after week. We have to make sure to put a body on a body and put ourselves in the best position we can to defend all those balls they will throw up there.”
How to watch
Of course you can attend at Harvester Field at Zach Thomas Stadium. You can purchase tickets on gofan.co and then search for Pampa High School. 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/RQv6m10smnI.
