Rise of the Pack: West Plains wins second straight with takedown of Estacado

CANYON — The West Plains Wolves are are out to prove the doubters wrong.

Following a winless first three weeks of their inaugural season, the Wolf Pack are winners of back-to-back games after a 35-14 drubbing of Lubbock Estacado on Thursday night at Happy State Bank Stadium.

It was the first home victory in school history and the second straight for an up-and-coming squad that is making history each week and Friday night. Add the program’s first homecoming game along with festivities throughout the week.

"It finally feels like we're starting to figure it out and be the team that we're capable of being," West Plains coach Adam Cummings said.

The Wolves second straight stellar performance began with the play of freshman quarterback Reid Macon. The young gunslinger extended plays with his impressive footwork in the pocket and was able to progress through his reads to find the open man throughout the contest.

Macon.

Macon, who finished the game completing 18-of-28 passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns with one interception, was able to drive his team down the field all-night long with the help of a stout offensive line and a plethora of playmakers that made life difficult on the Matador defense.

"He keeps growing," Cummings said. "We're going to continue to see that because of his work ethic. From a leadership standpoint, but from an X's and O's and mechanical standpoint, he's putting in the time and the effort every week to improve his craft. He's never satisfied and that's what we love about him."

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West Plains junior running back Jordi Hernandez carried the ball 36 times for 160 yards and a score. The junior had more than 100 yards by halftime and the balanced offensive game plan kept the Estacado defense on its heels.

The young Matador team also struggled to move down the field.

Estacado coach William Blaylock relied on a heavy dose of sophomore running back Bobby Ross (83 yards on 21 attempts) when the passing game was not working due to the Wolves' defense flying to the ball all four quarters.

"We overthought it up front," Blaylock said. "Some of it may have been the atmosphere. We talked about it at halftime and how if we want to be in the playoffs and want to play big-time football, this is what you're going to see. We still have to go out there and man up and play. I thought Bobby ran hard, it just wasn't his night tonight. We have some things to tweak up front and the good news is it wasn't a district ballgame. I never doubted my team's fight but we have to learn how to play all four quarters together."

West Plains' defense forced one crucial turnover on a strip sack late in the second quarter.

Junior defensive lineman Dawson Hall pulled the ball free before it was recovered by junior Jarrett Diggs that set up the Wolves third touchdown of the night. Diggs wreaked havoc in the Estacado backfield all-night long alongside outside linebacker Quentin Elam. The junior two-way lineman also came up with a sack for a big loss in the second half and was satisfied with the team effort his defense displayed on Thursday night.

"We were really aggressive," Diggs said. "Our coach told us at halftime not to let our foot off their throats and that's what I did. I didn't let my foot off the pedal and playing both ways, you're going to get tired. I just had to mentally power through that. The past two weeks have been really great. We've been working our butts off for this, so it feels great to come out with a win. We deserve this."

West Plains is now just one game below .500 and showing its District 2-4A Division II competition that it will not be an easy victory. Cummings feels his team is playing with confidence in all three phases of the game and that belief in themselves is continuing to grow each time out.

The Wolves may hear the outside noise, but everyone knows that a wolf never concerns itself with the opinion of sheep.

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"The reality is that it was never in our cards to be a first-year 0-10 team," Cummings said. "That was never our plan. Our plan was to be successful immediately. There's a lot of people that maybe doubted that but we didn't as coaches, we sure didn't as players, and we didn't as a community. We expected to be good year one and I think our kids are really starting to buy-in to that and believe in it."

Up Next: West Plains (2-3) will hit the road to take on the Hereford Whitefaces next Friday night while the Matadors (2-3) are set to host Sweetwater.

WEST PLAINS 35, LUBBOCK ESTACADO 14

Lubbock Estacado     0       0      7     7    --     14

West Plains   7      14     0      14    --     35

Scoring summary

First Quarter

WP – Reid Macon 7 pass to Crockett Henry (Joseph Estrada kick); 8:57

Second Quarter

WP – Jordi Hernandez 6 rush (Estrada kick); 7:49

WP – Reid Macon 9 pass to Trae Ferril (Estrada kick); 0:18

Third Quarter

EST – Cedric Ross 22 rush (Joseph Mata kick); 9:48

Fourth Quarter

WP – Reid Macon 46 pass to King Tallant (Estrada kick); 11:39

WP – Reid Macon 12 pass to Trae Ferril (Estrada kick); 2:56

EST – DJ Johnson 10 pass to Devoryea Boyd (Mata kick); 0:21

Individual Statistics

Rushing – West Plains: Jordi Hernandez 36-160, Gabriel Alvarado 3-12, Reid Macon 4-9, , Breland Franklin 1-(-11). Lubbock Estacado: Bobby Ross 21-83, Cedric Ross 2-23, Donivan Torrez 1-0, DJ Johnson 8-(-47).

Passing – West Plains: Reid Macon 18-28-1-211. Lubbock Estacado: DJ Johnson 12-28-0-198.

Receiving – West Plains: Trae Ferril 7-87, King Tallant 4-78, Crockett Henry 3-18, Jensen Phillips 2-13, Jordi Hernandez 1-8, Jedd Phillips 1-7. Lubbock Estacado: Devoryea Boyd 6-115, Cedric Ross 3-70, Joshua Cubit 2-1, Dee'Ondric Green 1-12.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Rise of the Pack: West Plains wins second straight with takedown of Estacado