Photos Courtesy of Charla Shults
The Pampa Harvesters (1-3) come back home for Homecoming 2025 in a matchup against the Perryton Rangers (2-2). The game is in Pampa at Zach Thomas Stadium at Harvester Field.. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Pampa is coming off a big 56-26 win over the rival Borger Bulldogs to give them 11 straight wins in that series. Perryton is coming off a win against Hereford 38-28.They also beat Dalhart 27-26 for their other win. They lost 29-6 to Canyon and 28-21 to Randall.
As I do each week, I sat down with Head Coach Floyd White to discuss last week’s game as well as preview this week.
First to recap last week’s game, beginning with the offense:
“Our guys, we had a pretty good idea about how they were going to line up and what they were going to do. Our coaches spend a lot of time on Saturdays and Sundays making sure that we have our kids in a great position. Ultimately, it comes down to our kids executing at a high level. It’s hard to score 56 points on air,” White said. “When we get out there, our kids have the confidence that they can get out there and push people around. I have talked about this many times before. They are never worried about the physical aspect of it. For us, most of the time, it is going to be, are we executing? Are we on the right blocks? Are we doing the right thing? Just the other night, our guys from the offensive line perspective got out there and started pushing people around. Then, whenever you turn around and give it to the best back in the state, it makes for a lot of points when you get a chance to do it.”
Defensively, how was the performance against the Bulldogs?:
“That was one of the things we emphasized during the week was making sure we got the takeaways. If we can get takeaways and give the offense more chances with the ball, it improves the chances for us to win the game. Our kids were in great positions. We watched a lot of film and did a lot of things this week going into it so our kids had ample opportunities to create those takeaways. Dase Scott did a great job of jumping in front of one of the quarterback’s balls. Reese (Waldrip) did a great job and got himself in the window where they wanted to throw that ball. It helps that he is kind of able to hide into some of those creases and he popped out and got the pick,” White said. “Ultimately, sometimes the yardage and the down and distances can be deceiving because you think about it, you are putting in second and third string guys who don’t always get to play. The end result isn’t always what you would like it to be. We gave up two scores late. Some of that is attributed to those guys not getting to play as much and because of that, they have a tendency to miss tackles and not do assignments as well as if you had the starters in. That definitely contributes to some of our mishaps on third and fourth downs. When it comes down to it, we got the win. We will take that extra yardage and third and fourth downs as long as we get the win at the end of the day.”
The special teams probably had the most complete game of the season against the Bulldogs.
“That has been a point of emphasis since week one to shore up special teams. We went out and recruited some kickers and made sure our punter was good. We didn’t have to punt Friday night and that is always a strong testament to your offense because they are putting you in a position where you can go for it on fourth down if you need to. If you don’t have to punt, that is just a great thing. They did a study on it. If you get a punt blocked in a game, there is about an 80% chance you are going to lose that game. Those were those things we work on everyday. We spend 20-30 minutes at the start of practice each day working on all things special teams,” White said. “With us going out and recruiting those other kickers, it has allowed our operation to speed up. Our punter used to be our kicker but he just never was really comfortable in doing it. We got some guys who are comfortable doing it. Bryan (Montelongo) and Ismael (Perez) go out there for us. Ismael kicks off for us and Bryan goes out and kicks the extra points and dances on the sideline and does all the other fun stuff. It’s fun when your special teams are clicking on all cylinders because that is one less thing you have to worry about during the course of the game.”
Final thoughts from the Borger game:
“I’m really proud of our guys. They went out there in a situation where they could have been really timid and tense because that’s what you hear all week: we haven’t lost to Borger in 11 years and right now we aren’t playing great. This and that and everything else (noise) they could have played uptight and worrisome. Instead, they came out and did what we’ve done all week and executed on offense and defense. They made the plays when we had to. That ended up being the difference for us. I’m proud of our guys.”
Shifting gears now to talk about this week’s game. How is Perryton’s offense?
“Offensively, they are a very tough outfit. They are led by their quarterback #2 Cooper Schilling. He is a heckuva ball player. He is one of the best quarterbacks we are going to see all year. Everything runs through him. We are going to have to do a number on trying to take the ball out of his hands if at all possible or make sure we put 11 bodies on him so he doesn’t get out running up field. If you have watched any of the film going into these last couple of weeks, he is a heckuva operator with the ball in his hands but he can also throw. The Randall game wasn’t exceptionally close until he hit two deep balls down the sideline. All of the sudden it went from 28-7 to 28-21 and it all happened within about 5 minutes because he is able to throw the ball really well. He does a great job for them,” White said. “They have a receiver #3 Gordo Estrada and he and Schilling gave us all kinds of problems last year. Up front, they are tough. They are scrappy and fight. They are going to try to push you around and do some of those things to create creases to be able to run the ball. We have to make sure we eliminate a lot of that stuff. We’re doing a lot of gameplanning over the weekend and during the week to make sure we are set up and ready to go to try and eliminate some of that stuff.”
Perryton Defense
“They like to run a lot of man and cover one. They will have a man free and they will have a lot of zero coverage where they bring in stuff. They do a great job with it. It is really impressive to watch them run around. They are rarely out of position and they do a really good job of just being pesky. They get in there. They aren’t always real big but they fly around. They don’t get blocked really well. We have to make sure we put hats on all those guys,” White said. “They are really good up front but they are led by their linebacker core. Those linebackers inside do a really good job of not getting blocked and getting into those creases and making a lot of havoc. We have to make sure we take care of them there. In the secondary, they sit there and play straight up man coverage and that puts them in position to play a lot of balls so you don’t see a lot of people complete a lot of stuff against them.”
Keys to the game
No early turnovers: “We have to make sure once again we don’t have any early turnovers on offense,” White said.
Tackle #2: “We have to make sure we tackle #2 and get him on the ground. We gotta make sure we do the things we can do to either get the ball out of his hands or make sure we get him on the ground if he keeps the ball. We saw what happened last year if you don’t take the ball out of his hands. He gave us all kinds of issues all night long,” White said.
Capitalize on their mistakes: “If we put them into situations with third-and-long, we feel real confident in the things we’re looking at and where our eyes are at. We just gotta make sure we make those plays in that open space. They will get guys in open space and we have to make sure we make plays when they do get those guys in open space,” White said.
Final thoughts Perryton
“The one thing I can say is homecoming is always one of those fun deals. It is one of those fun activities we get to do year in and year out. We want our kids to see it as another game. We want them to enjoy the festivities beforehand and after. During the game, we are going to get out there and play our tails off and try to give our crowd something to really, really cheer for,” White said.
I am also highlighting one player each week to end the interview. This week was Senior Quarterback Jarren Hill.
“Last year, there had to be a tremendous growth curve for him. Last year was his first full year as a starter last year. With some of the struggles we had last year, he would start seeing ghosts and pull down balls and not throw balls when he needed to. But, at the same time, we didn’t do a lot of things to really help him. Now, having gone through an offseason, he’s gotten stronger, gotten faster, and gotten to do everything we do with our quarterbacks in the offseason, it has made a tremendous difference for him. Now, he can read all the things we need him to read. He can get up to the line and make checks. He can throw a ball when we need to throw a ball, fortunately for us, we haven’t really had to throw the last couple of games because we have been able to move it on the ground which is what we primarily are going to do. We may throw the ball 10 times a game if we need to,” White said. “He’s the unquestioned leader on the offense. Max (Neff) gets all the accolades but no one bats an eye when Jarren gets out there and starts talking, everyone is going to listen to him. He’s earned that right because he comes in and works his tail off. He is one of the first ones there. He’s constantly in there with coach Miller and Langhenning trying to make sure that he can put us in the best possible position week in and week out. It is a testament to his mom and dad and the type of kid they raised. He is one of the best kids around.”
You can find HSN on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@HarvesterSportsNetwork/.. You can also follow them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarvesterSportsNetwork. Lastly, there is a Twitter/X page: www.x.com/PampaHSN. Kevin Hunt and myself will be calling the game. The game will also be broadcast locally on 101.3 Legends Classic Country. That station will be piped through the YouTube feed. Live stats can be found here: https://www.turbostatslive.com/football/webcast/08002511465744. Season stats can be found on the team page: https://www.turbostats.team/site/2/team/football/pampahighschool/pampa%20good%20file%202025. The pre-game show will begin on YouTube and 101.3 at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff is set for 7 p.m. A weekly radio show with Coach White called “Whiteboard Wisdom” with yours truly interviewing him will play at 6:20 p.m. each gameday before Kevin Hunt gets on with his pregame show!