The Whiteface Antelopes football team played host to Meadow this past Friday night, obliterating them 56-0, to earn their fourth win in a row.
Whiteface now moves to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in district this season after a performance that Whiteface Football Head Coach Brandon Flores was proud of.
“It was a good team win. We controlled that game from start to finish,” Coach Flores said. “The boys came out, and they were fired up. It’s always fun to play on your home field. They were trying to prove something from last week after giving up two scores and they just came out ready to play. We were firing on all cylinders from the get-go.”
The defense wanted to make a statement and they did, as the Meadow offense had –27 total yards and Whiteface kept them from converting a single first down the entire game.
The Antelopes’ defense was also able to come down with two interceptions, one from junior Cesar Chavez and one from junior Isaak Soliz.
“We knew we had to get pressure on the quarterback and make it hard for that quarterback to see down field and find his open receivers,” Coach Flores said. “We tried to get our matchups right. We always try to personnel our matchups to our advantage when we can and send pressure. That’s exactly what we did. We take pride in our run defense, and I’ve felt like all year people have had a hard time running the ball against us, so they’re putting it in the air. That’s been our big emphasis to stop the passing game, it’s been the weaker spot of our defense. We tried to harp on that, and the biggest thing is getting pressure and forcing them to put the ball in the air quickly.”
Whiteface’s passing defensive plan worked as Meadow only had one passing yard while they also maintained their stifling run defense, forcing them to rush for –28 yards.
Isaak Soliz led Whiteface with six tackles, followed by senior Cash Crutcher with three and junior Ryland Jones with two.
On the offensive side of the ball, junior Jaxon Hodge led the way rushing the ball six times for 117 yards and three touchdowns, and two of those touchdowns went 40 plus yards.
Cash Crutcher was just as effective with two rushes for 80 yards and two touchdowns, and sophomore Luke Gresham also added two carries for 14 yards and a touchdown.
“We always talk about how you have to establish the run game and with as physical as we are, we feel like we can most of the time,” Coach Flores said. “We like to run the ball and give everybody touches, Luke, Jaxon and Cash had touches. We like to keep the ball and try to ground and pound, to hopefully get defenses sucked up and playing aggressive up front. Then once we get you sucked up, we try to put the ball in the air and soften you up a little bit. Then, go back to running the ball and keep the defense guessing. We love to run the ball and play smash mouth football, and so far, it’s been good to us.”
That ground and pound game plan did open the passing game up like they wanted as quarterback Isaak Soliz completed three passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns.
On the receiving end of those touchdown passes were Cesar Chavez and Ryland Jones, as Chavez had two receptions for 71 yards and Jones had one reception for 18 yards.
Following the stellar offensive effort, Whiteface is now averaging 54 points per game, so it’s safe to say their strategy is working.
Whiteface is playing complimentary football, and the team is in a groove, and they’re well alive in the district championship race.
It will likely come down to their final game of the regular season against eighth ranked Borden County, but Coach Flores isn’t looking that far ahead.
His program is taking it one day at a time and focusing on their opponent each week, and this week it’s O’Donnell.
O’Donnell is 3-5 overall and 1-1 in district this season with all their losses coming to really good teams.
The Antelopes also face them on the road, so they’ll need to keep their recent level of intensity come this Friday at 7:30 p.m.