However, there was no question that West Plains went home with the better grade by any standard.
Using an efficient offense that kept the ball away from Hereford’s high-octane passing attack, the Wolves dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball to cruise to a 42-21 victory. In just its second season playing varsity football, West Plains (5-1) has established itself as a contender once District 2-4A Division II play starts next week.
The Wolves did commit 71 yards in penalties and had three turnovers against previously unbeaten Hereford (5-1). Those were really the only things they could complain about, though.
“We got four full quarters,” West Plains coach Adam Cummings said. “The way our kids executed in the run game I felt we controlled the line of scrimmage. Turnovers and penalties are things we’ve got to get better at. We’re still shooting ourselves in the foot too much. If we ever get our mistakes cleaned up we’ve got a chance to be pretty good.”
The Wolves used time consuming drives featuring mostly short passes to drive to three touchdowns and a 21-7 halftime lead. Reid Macon threw three touchdown passes in the first drive, starting with an 18-yarder to Jordi Hernandez to conclude the first drive of the game for a 7-0 lead.
In a matchup between sophomore quarterbacks, Macon and Hereford’s Kalub Ramirez played pretty much to a draw, as both threw for exactly 206 yards. But a three-play sequence early in the second quarter explained the difference in the two.
Hereford had the ball on second-and-seven at the West Plains 9-yard line with a chance to tie the score. However, Dawson Hall and Jarrett Diggs sacked Ramirez on back-to-back plays to give the Wolves the ball on downs at their own 28.
“It takes all three of us to get a pass rush,” said Hall, who helped anchor a strong defensive effort to also limit Hereford’s running game. “We’re all just jelling as a D-line to get pressure on them. Once I started getting it then Jarrett was getting free and Damian (Benavidez) so it all works out. We keep it high-energy in practice and make it feel like a game.”
“We missed a chance early to score and that really hurt us,” Hereford coach Adam Naron said. “It could have been a 7-7 ballgame. It was just a huge momentum shift. It was a great defense we went up against.”
After taking over on downs, Macon hit King Tallant with a short pass and Tallant took it 72 yards up the sideline, breaking tackles and outrunning the Herd to give West Plains a 14-0 lead.
That was the biggest offensive play of the game for Tallant, who’s emerged as multithread talent for the Wolves. He had six catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 52 yards and a touchdown.
“I really feel like my teammates do a great job of blocking and just letting me do what I do,” Tallant said. “Reid was an eighth grader two years ago and we’ve really built the chemistry with team dinners and just hanging out and it’s really helped us on the football field.”
On their next possession, the Wolves made a huge gamble pay off with a fourth-and-11 at the Hereford 27-yard line. Macon fired a perfectly-thrown ball over the Hereford secondary to Kyron Wooten in the end zone to make it 21-0 with 1:21 left in the first half.
It was another efficient game for Macon, who completed 19-of-21 passes.
Hereford drove the ball to the West Plains 35 before halftime. Ramirez scrambled out of the pocket and threw toward the goal line where the ball was deflected, but Nick Torrez came up with it in the end zone to cut it to 21-7 with five seconds left in the first half.
The teams exchanged touchdowns in the third quarter, but Tallant’s 5-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter made it 35-14 and put the game away for good.