Photos Courtesy of Charla Shults
The Pampa Harvesters (1-5, 0-1) hit the road for a special Thursday Night Edition of Harvester Football against the #2-ranked West Plains Wolves (5-1, 1-0). The game will be played at Happy State Bank Stadium, in Canyon, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. Pampa is looking to get on the win column in district play as they fight each game to stay in the playoff picture. West Plains’ only loss on the season was to Liberty Christian who happens to be coached by former NFL Dallas Cowboys star, Jason Witten. They have beaten Seminole, El Paso Horizon, Estacado, Bushland, and Canyon.
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.
Offense against Hereford
Pampa was held to just 147 rushing yards against Hereford. It was the lowest output of the season and they did not complete a pass. I asked Coach White if he was worried about the offense moving forward.
“I am not overly worried about our offense moving forward. Going into that game, we had two starters out on the line front. As a result, we had to move people. Anytime you have to do that you are going to have a little bit of lag that comes along with it. On top of that, it didn’t help that Max (Neff) has a little bit of a thigh bruise,” White said. “That stuff all kinda played into the fact that we were not able to move the ball as effectively as we could have. Part of it was that they (Hereford) jumped out into some things our kids were not used to. That falls on me to make sure I put us in a position. We have to be ready for all kinds of scenarios moving forward.”
Defense against Hereford
Defensively, Pampa held the Whitefaces under 400 yards. They had two interceptions by Jose Alonzo and two sacks by Boston Botello. Overall, it was a good performance by the defense.
“I feel like we played well in spots all season long but as a total defense, I think that was probably one of our better games. More of it was the fact we were able to get a little bit of pressure on the quarterback and some of those things,” White said. “We had kids doing the assignments we have coached them to do all year. Jose (Alonzo) was in a great spot both times. Once again, those are all things we have been in position to do at times. We knew if we got some pressure on the quarterback, he was going to throw off his back foot and the ball was going to sail. A lot of that played into it. If we can continue to grow from that game, I think it will put us into a better spot moving forward defensively into the rest of the season.”
Special teams against Hereford
Mauro Lopez had five punts for 150 yards. Ismael Perez had three kickoffs and one went for a touchback. Bryan Montelongo had two extra points. The Harvesters had 99 yards of kickoff returns, fueled with a 54-yard return by Reese Waldrip in the game.
“The one thing we pride ourselves on is that we can be pretty decent in the special teams game. With the exception of the first two weeks, I felt like our special teams have been a strength for us from that point on. We missed too many extra points early on and had a few snafus,” White said. “Coach (Jason) Burklow does a great job with those guys every week getting them into position and able to do the things that we do. It’s just like the other night we ran a fake punt, and of course, someone wanted to call holding on that one. It is what it is but we put ourselves in position to get the things we want to get. When we have those opportunities, we have to be able to make the most of it. What that will do (the fake punt) will get people thinking twice before they come out there and start trying to rush the punter. In that alignment, they were fixing to come after that ball and we knew they were going to come after that ball so we went ahead and got them washed and kicked. We just have to be able to pull back the holding, so we don’t pull back a 40-yard gain again.”
Final thoughts on Hereford
“I feel like our kids went out there and played and fought hard. We just have to make sure when we move forward we prepare for all scenarios. Once we started prepping for those other scenarios at halftime, it helped us with some of the stuff we did,” White said. “With our kids, we have to make sure we communicate better and talk before a play, after a play, and in the huddle about the stuff that is going on. As we continue to do that and we continue to grow in our program those are things we have to do. It is just one of those things that happened to jump out on us pretty quick this week.”
West Plains’ offense
“The thing about these guys is they have all been together and playing together since they were freshman. Most of them are now seniors. On offense, they do a lot of shifts, motions, and try to show you a bunch of different things. We gotta get ourselves prepped and ready to go with that. We did a good job on Monday, showing them the shifts out of basic personnel groupings and showing them they are going to bump from this but they are going to line up in this,” White said. “They don’t run a lot play wise, they just give you a lot of different looks at it. You have to be able to look through the forest and be able to see the trees there. They do run up tempo. They get a big play, and turn around and come right back out there. With these guys, we have to make sure we are prepped for this style of what they do. They are physical but not overly physically. They are going to get out there and get in your way and get the ball into those skill kids’ hands. #14 (Reid) Macon is one of the top quarterbacks in the state, there is no getting around it. He does a great job. They got a great running back, #10 (Slade Russell), he’s a junior this year. He can tout the mill for them. They have #3 Kane White-Tinsley, I played with his dad in college. He is a heckuva player. He is going to UTEP and they can throw the ball out to him. He plays both sides of the ball. Then, you have #12 (Kaden Hooker) and #5 (Lawson Betancourt) are both pretty good players. Up front, they are no slouches. They have a big 6’7” tackle who is committed to play somewhere I can’t remember off the top of my head. They have kids all over the place on their offense. We have to make sure we are lined up right and able to take care of those guys.”
West Plains’ defense
“They run a little bit of a 3-3-5 stack defense. They take their midfield backer and move him all over the place. They are able to overload in order to overcome some of the stuff we are going to see. With them, they are going to come off and it will look very similar to what we saw with Lubbock-Cooper Liberty. They are going to pinch those hard fours down inside. They will try to make our five guys block their three guys. Ultimately, we can’t do that so we have to be able to find ways and devise ways to get guys on edges so we can get the ball kicked on the option or get guys washed and kick them out in the counter game,” White said. “With them, it all starts up front with those guys up front. They have some really good players up front. Their back end is all made up of their good skill kids from the offensive side of the ball. They play both ways but they are able to roll a bunch of kids in and out because they have a bunch of them.”
Final thoughts on West Plains
First of all, excuse my forgetfullness, I forgot to ask Coach White in the interview about his keys to the game. This week, there will be no keys to the game due to my error. I apologize!
“I’m so excited about those guys and I just can’t wait to watch our kids get here and compete against somebody who everyone thinks is unbeatable. I think we are going to be able to go out there and give them everything they want,” White said.
Botello
I am also highlighting one player each week to end the interview. This week is Boston Botello is #44 and a Senior Linebacker for the Harvester Football team. He had two big sacks last week against Hereford. He also has 11 tackles on the season so far. Here is what Head Coach/Linebacker Coach Floyd White had to say about Boston:
“Boston’s a great kid. He goes out there and works hard. He’s locked in and ready to go. He is a free spirit. He gets out there and is talkative and excited. He flies around and does so many things that are immeasurable for us at times. When the energy is not always there, he always has the energy for us. He does a great job in that aspect. It was great to have him back last week. He was able to get on the edges and get to those sacks. He got one early and one late. He also did a couple of things that caused pressure and the quarterback to throw those interceptions. He’s great in that respect. He is a great student. We never have to worry about him grade wise. He works real hard. He comes from a great family. His mom and dad do such a great job for him. He’s a great player for us with baseball too. You can’t really put a true number on the things Boston does because he brings so many things that are intangible with what he does week in and week out.”
The article will be in Saturday’s paper as John Lee will have a recap of it.
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 Zac Green 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 Zac Green interviewing him will play at 6:20 p.m. each gameday before Kevin Hunt gets on with his pregame show!
