This past Friday night in Lockney, the Whiteface Antelopes football team smashed the Booker Kiowas, 98-48, to win the Area Championship.
The win moves the Antelopes to 10-2 this season and advances them to the Regional Round of the playoffs.
“It was a good game. Booker is a really good team, and they’ve had a lot of success since they’ve come down from 11-man,” Whiteface Head Coach Brandon Flores said. “They play hard, at times I thought we were going to put them away, and they never went away. We had a little adversity hit with our guys; Jaxson Hodge and Jose Flores went out, so we lost depth. It was next man up and guys jumped in there and did a good job of staying disciplined. The offense was really good all night, moving the ball on the ground and completing some passes when we had to. Defensively, we played a really good game. We were fast and physical. Booker does some really good things, so if you don’t have your eyes right, they’re going to get you, and they got us a few times. Our guys adjusted well and got it done. It was a really good win for us.”
The story of the game was Whiteface’s ability to rush the ball on offense and shut down Booker’s ground game on defense, which is Antelope football at its core.
They stayed true to that identity, rushing for 348 yards and holding Booker to 62 rushing yards in the game.
Offensively, junior Jaxson Hodge led the team with 14 rushes for 147 yards and two touchdowns, followed closely by sophomore Luke Gresham with nine rushes for 127 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior Cash Crutcher and junior Cesar Chavez also joined in on the fun, as Crutcher had seven rushes for 69 yards and two touchdowns, and Chavez had a 10-yard rushing touchdown.
That success on the ground opened up the passing opportunities for junior quarterback Isaak Soliz, who completed 5/15 passes for 61 yards and three touchdowns.
Leading receivers included junior Ryland Jones with two receptions for 32 yards and a touchdown, sophomore Alex Hernandez with three receptions for 31 yards and Cesar Chavez with two receptions for 17 yards and two touchdowns.
Defensively, Isaak Soliz led the team with seven tackles, while Alex Hernandez and Luke Gresham both had interceptions.
Ryland Jones had two sacks and four tackles, and Alex Hernandez also added a sack. Cesar Chavez had six tackles in the win as well.
The Antelopes were also able to find special teams success with two return touchdowns. Soliz had two returns for 90 yards and a touchdown, and senior Victor Borunda had four returns for 66 yards and a touchdown.
After a complete team performance where they excelled in every aspect, Whiteface hopes to do the same in their next matchup.
They play against the Rankin Red Devils, who are 10-2 this season and coming off a 60-14 win over Nazareth.
“They’re going to play well. They’ve got a majority of the guys back from when we played them last year. They’ve got a really good coaching staff and have gotten better as the season’s gone on,” Coach Flores said. “They like to get in tight and run the football. It’s going to be a game of similar teams; they kind of play like us. It’s going to be a really good matchup, that will come down to who takes care of the ball and is moving the line of scrimmage and getting stops.”
For reference, Whiteface took down Rankin in the first round of the playoffs last season, 85-60.
This year it’s a matchup between two top seven ranked teams as Whiteface is ranked sixth and Rankin is ranked seventh in UIL Six-Man Division I.
Coach Flores did provide an update on the injuries to starters Jaxson and Jose Flores, saying they should be good to go and ready to play against Rankin.
They’ll square off Friday at 6 p.m. at Tornado Stadium in Lamesa. Whiteface is the home team and Rankin is the away team. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for kids. All passes are accepted.