On Friday night, the Pampa Harvesters (2-3) will travel to Hereford to face the Whitefaces (4-1) at Whiteface Stadium. Hereford ran into a buzzsaw at Seminole last week for a 49-17 loss. It was their first loss of the season. The only game they won close was Plainview 26-26. They blew out Lubbock High, Lubbock Estacado, and Perryton. It is the first game of the District 2-4A slate. West Plains, Canyon, Randall, and Dumas are the other teams in the district.
On Perryton
Pampa lost 49-7 two Fridays ago on the road at Perryton. The Harvesters were without several starting players on both sides of the ball in that game.
“Going into the Perryton game we knew we were going to be a couple of guys short. You don’t really know how your guys are going to respond in that situation. We did the best we could with what we had. We had to use that as learning moments. No matter what happens, at the end of the day, football goes on with or without people. The games still go on,” head coach Floyd White said. “For a lot of our kids it was a learning moment on how to face that adversity head on when all the chips are out there on the table. Those guys are really resilient. They have learned you can’t give up, you can’t quit. A lot of kids when things get tough, they quit or say ‘oh well’ and take the loss and blame it on this or that. Our guys got out there and competed and kept fighting. That is what I am really proud of.”
On bye week
Pampa was able to have a week off from having games last week. This allowed the Harvesters to get healthy. White mentioned this will be the first week Pampa is close to 100% full strength.
“The good thing is we had the bye week after the Perryton game. We spent all last week working on getting healthy. It is a bye week. It is not a week off to do whatever we want. We practiced and worked on some of the basic things we needed to work on. We retooled a couple of things to make sure we can put a better product out on the field,” White said. “We had to work on who we were. What kind of choices are we making? What kind of things are we doing? We did a lot of character development over the course of last week. We talked about those types of things and how you respond in those adverse situations. It was very helpful for us. Going into this week, getting ready for Hereford, it is a blessing to wipe the slate clean. Everyone is 0-0 right now. You control your own destiny. Going into it, we believe we can compete with everyone in this district. Now, we just gotta get out there and go prove it.”
On Hereford
Hereford could be right up there with Plainview as one of the biggest sized teams Pampa has faced thus far on the slate. The Whiteface are a very physical team.
“Offensively, they are really good. They will get out there in two back sets and like to pound the ball. They get behind the big lineman and tight ends and get downhill and run the ball really hard. #21 Brylyn Lopez is a really good running back. #44 Tell Bryant is the big tight end.They run behind him and the lineman. The quarterback is a good operator. He does a lot of things. He doesn’t necessarily like to run, but when he has to, he can get out there and make things happen. Then, they get out of the running sets and into 10- and 11- personnel. They throw the ball out to #6 Ethan Gonzales , #11 Tyi Duque and #44 Bryant. They put those guys in a lot of advantageous situations,” White said. “Defensively, they sit in their 4-2 box and because of how tough they are inside, they try to constrict running lanes. They get you to throw the ball in the air and then they have people swarming all over the place. They have given a lot of people fits defensively. They still have stuff just like anyone else you can take advantage of if you get them in the right situations.”
Key Players
Who are some of the key players to watch for on the Whitefaces?
“Offensively, the running game runs through #21 Brylyn Lopez. He is a heckuva running back. A lot of it runs through #44 Tell Bryant, their tight end. He does a really good job as a blocker and receiver. They also throw a lot of balls to #6 Ethan Gonzales and put a lot of stock into him. And then, of course the quarterback #1 Kalub Ramirez. He is a University of Texas baseball commit. He is a good operator and does a really good job. Those guys are tremendous,” White said. “Defensively, all four of those guys up front are pretty good and get after the ball. #78 Jeremiah Martinez is the big defensive tackle. In the secondary, they have a lot of guys who do a good job and can run with everyone. They do a pretty good job breaking on balls. They are a formidable outfit. They also have a couple of backers who are really good also.”
Keys to the game
• Start fast
• Do our job
• Move people - bodies on bodies.
• Stay healthy
“We have to start fast. We have to jump on them early if we start with the ball. Defensively, we have to get after them and get early stops. That is what kind of got us at Perryton. We got out there and got going, with a stop right off the bat. Then, we sputtered on offense. Then, they got going,” White said. “We have to make sure we are doing our job. We have to ID the things that are each of our jobs. We have things we have to stop. We have to take advantage of those things. We knew two weeks ago, going after the quarterback was priority one. We had a lack of focus. Instead of taking the QB, we were taking the running backs and letting our eyes be wrong. We have to continue to work on being disciplined in those things.”
“Another thing is we have to get bodies moving. We have to put bodies on bodies on offense and move people. When we get down there and start moving people, we are as good as anyone else around,” White said. “We have to stay healthy. That is always one of those keys to the game. You have to try to stay healthy. Some of that you cannot control. But, we have to continue to keep our guys clean by staying up front and blocking people all over the place. We have to take advantage of situations when they present themselves. We cannot have an untimely penalty. It will always be close to the same thing. We can move the ball on them if we can do the right things. We can put pressure on them if we continue to do our jobs well.”
How to watch
Of course you can attend by making the trip to Hereford and Whiteface Stadium. 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/0LLoSLQrYnY.
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. It will be the same link every week. The stats may or may not be going for this game. I just had knee surgery on Thursday last week and I am not sure if I will be going yet.
