Mitchell County team's Westbrook, Loraine earn trips to state in six-man football
Mitchell County is going to have quite the celebration Dec. 14 n at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Two of the county's teams – Westbrook and Loraine, separated by just 19 miles – punched tickets to the Class 1A six-man state championship games Friday night.
Westbrook, the defending Class 1A Division I champion, outlasted No. 5 Happy 40-30 in a state semifinal game Slaton.
The No. 2 Wildcats (13-1) will play either No. 1 Abbott (13-0) or No. 7 Mertzon Irion County (12-0) at 2 p.m. Dec. 14 in the title game.
Westbrook outscored May 72-66 last year in its first state game appearance.
“Getting back is hard, man,” Westbrook coach Homer Matlock said. “We ran a gauntlet against some amazing teams. Garden City is one of the better teams in the state. Rankin is one of the better teams in the state. Buena Vista is a great young team. They’re going to be good, and, man, Happy had a game plan for us. They came out and hit us in the mouth. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to stay healthy. We’re pumped to get back.”
No. 6 Loraine earned its first trip to state with an 86-38 victory over Oakwood in a Class 1A Division II state semifinal game in Dublin.
“It just doesn’t feel real yet, to be honest with you,” Loraine coach Jacob Popham said. “It’s a surreal experience. It’s a great opportunity for this community and these kids.”
The Bulldogs (13-1) will play either No. 1 Benjamin (12-0) or No. 7 Whitharral (12-1) for the DII title at 11 a.m. Dec. 14.
Loraine's only loss this season was to Benjamin, 61-30, on Sept. 30 in Loraine.
Regardless of who Loraine or Westbrook play, it’s going to be quite a day for Mitchell County.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Popham said about his team joining Westbrook in Arlington. “We’ve been talking about that for weeks now. Coach Matlock and I have had that conversation about how cool it would be to have a little Mitchell County invasion there at AT&T Stadium.”
Wildcat strike
Matlock said he had trouble sleeping all week, but he slept well after Friday's win.
“It was better, yes sir,” Matlock said. “A little bit better. A sigh of relief.”
Cedric Ware, the offensive and defensive MVP in last year’s state title game, had a big night against the Cowboys (12-2). The senior ran for 174 yards and three TDs on 22 carries, while Grayson Jeffreys added 63 yards and two TDs on seven carries.
Parker Matlock completed 11 of 14 passes for 136 yards, including a 19-yard TD pass to Ware.
The win didn’t come easy. Ware’s 27-yard TD run tied the game late in the second quarter, and the Wildcats didn’t finally go in front until Ware’s 44-yard TD run late in the third quarter.
Happy didn't go away, and the Cowboys closed within four (34-30) with 3:24 left in the game, but Jeffrey got his second TD run of the quarter, a 35-yarder, to seal the victory with 1:37 remaining in the game.
Ware broke his foot earlier this season and missed four games before finally getting a few touches in the district finale against Rotan and the playoff opener against Garden City.
Matlock said the senior still isn’t 100% healthy, after turning his ankle during practice before the region final against Rankin.
“He’s dynamic, and he’s shifty,” Matlock said of Ware. “He does a lot of good stuff. I’m sure hopping his ankle heals 100% before the state game.
“Cedric is a great kid, and he does a lot of our scoring. But he would be the first to tell you, we put him in positions that several other kids could be scoring from, too. He has really good blockers, and that blocking is one of the things that makes him so amazing.”
The Wildcats returned four starters on both sides of the ball from last season but they lost five seniors – three were key contributors.
“Three of them really played a lot for me, and in six-man, that’s quite a big deal,” Matlock said. “Some of my juniors, who played quite a bit as sophomores last year, really stepped up, and I have another good senior class this year.
“Those kids grew during the off-season. They lived in the weight room, and they put the work in. Nobody gave us anything. It wasn’t a fluke, and we didn’t come from a weak error. We ran the gauntlet, and I’m proud of those dudes.”
Bulldogs’ blast
Loraine got the usual big offensive games from junior A.J. Williams and senior Davion Walthall, but several other plays got involved in a big offensive night for the Bulldogs.
“It was kind of different for us,” Popham said. “We have a good team win. Our guys that are typically our offensive and defensive leaders showed up, but pretty much everyone we had offensively touched the ball and had opportunities to score.”
Popham didn’t expect the game to be so one-sided, and he worried about stopping running back Zack Nickerson, who came into the game with 77 touchdowns this season – a six-man record.
“He’s one of the best running backs I’ve seen, and he is a load,” Popham said. “He was just a full-on stud. We were concerned, and it ended up being a valid concern. But we were able to get him on the ground fairly consistently. He got away a few times.”
But not enough to stop Loraine from making its own history and ending Oakwood’s season at 11-3.
“It’s a huge opportunity for our school. I’m proud of these kids for setting this goal and then going out and accomplishing it. We’ve been talking about this for right at a year now. The upper classmen set this goal, and they went out did it.”
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Westbrook, Loraine earn six-man football state title game berths
