Devils drop Dusters, 62-30; improve to 3-0

September 22, 2012

Beaver’s Jacob Hobgood tackles Texhoma’s Will Gaillard Friday night at Beaver. Courtesy photo/Herald-Democrat/Brent Lansden

By JASON EPP
Leader & Times

BEAVER—Big plays were the name of the game, as the Texhoma Red Devils racked up five touchdowns of over 40 yards on their way to a 62-30 defeat of the Beaver Dusters.
“We just played one of the top teams in the state, and they proved it,” Dusters coach Mike McVay said. “They are a better team, and speed running out the wazoo, and they’re hard to bring down.”
After a scoreless first half of the first quarter, Texhoma exploded scoring three touchdowns on their next three offensive plays.
First Will Gaillard scored on a 21 yard run with 6:16 left in the first quarter. Texhoma then recovered the ensuing onside kick at Beaver’s 48-yard line.
One play later, Bryson Beattie was in the endzone, and Texhoma led 13-0.
Beaver caught a break when Texhoma fumbled a punt and the Dusters recovered. Moments later Ryan Nash scored on a two-yard run, and Dylan Cain hit Hadley Skaggs for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to just 13-8 with less than a minute left in the first quarter.
But Texhoma’s quick-strike offense struck again. Once again they only needed one play as Beattie went 63 yards for the touchdown. Jack Powers hit Chance Meyer for the two-point conversion that made the score 21-8 in favor of the Red Devils at the end of the first quarter.
“Came out a little slow; probably a little too amped up for the first district game,” Red Devils coach Aaron Witten said. “Once we got rolling, I thought the key was how we beat them up front.”
Four more big-play touchdowns for the Red Devils in the second quarter including a 58-yard touchdown pass from Powers to Beattie, 41-yards from Powers to Meyer, a 29-yard interception return for a TD by Nate Knitig, and a 30-yard TD run by Powers made the score 48-8 at the half.
Beaver struck for long touchdowns in the second half as well. Ryan Nash had a 72-yard TD run, Hadley Skaggs a 54-yard TD run, and Cain hit Skaggs for a 23-yard TD pass.
Texhoma backup QB Dylan Koehn found Knitig for a 58-yard TD completion as well.
“I’m proud of the way our guy stayed in it, and kept playing hard,” McVay said. “I know we weren’t playing against their first team defense, but we needed any kind of momentum they way things were going. Hopefully we’ll have a little springboard for next week.”
Texhoma dominated all the statistical categories, starting with 501 yards of total offense (332 rush, 169 pass) compared to 224 (224 rush, 38 pass) for Beaver. Texhoma had 17 first downs to Beaver’s 8.
Texhoma will be at home for a big district matchup of undefeateds when Mooreland comes to town Friday. Beaver will try to rebound at home against Oklahoma Bible Academy.