No. 2-ranked and unbeaten Canadian continued its playoff dominance Friday afternoon cranking out 36 points on five of its opening seven possessions of the game overwhelming Idalou 57-14 in a Class 3A Division II regional semifinal game at Dick Bivins Stadium in Amarillo.
Canadian continues to open eyes on a weekly basis having scored 56, 77 and 57 points in its three playoff wins with the average margin of victory at 52 points.
The Wildcats continue one of the great dynasty stories in the Texas Panhandle moving into the state quarterfinals for the astonishing ninth time over the past 10 years.
Canadian head coach Andy Cavalier, in his first year as head coach but with the Wildcats as the defensive coordinator the previous nine years, saw his usually quick-strike offense roll up 50 points by the end of the third quarter showing the ability to sustain drives. Canadian’s longest yardage of those seven touchdowns through three quarters was a 21-yard pass from senior quarterback Camren Cavalier to senior wide receiver Preston Neumeier for a 29-7 lead early in the second quarter.
“Idalou is a good football team over there with good coaches and good players,” Coach Cavalier said. “Nothing was easy I felt like. But I did feel like we had our guys step up and make big plays right when we needed them. … it’s that time of the year where nothing is going to be easy and we need our very best all the time. I thought Idalou did a great job and I’m proud of the way our guys competed.”
Canadian moves to 13-0 and will meet Wall (11-2) in the state quarterfinals at 6 p.m. next Friday at Lubbock Cooper. These two met last year in the state quarterfinals with Canadian winning 45-10.
Idalou ends its season 8-5 still owning a good story under coach Clay White having started the season 1-4 and rebounding to win seven straight games.
“That’s a great ball team over there,” White said of Canadian. “I thought we fought tooth and nail and came up short. It doesn’t indicate what we were able to accomplish this year.”
As a result, Canadian rolled to 535 yards of offense going to its ground game with 375 of those yards by runs. The leader of that rushing attack was elusive quarterback Cavalier who beat up Idalou for 168 yards on 21 carries and twice scoring TDs on runs of 13 and 9.
Cavalier was at his best when forced to convert a third down or make a play when things weren’t perfect. For instance, on Canadian’s first drive it faced a third-and-2 and third-and-10, it was Cavalier converting both on runs.
Cavalier also completed 14-of-19 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns, his play a big reason Canadian led a comfy 36-7 by halftime.
“You pick your poison with those guys,” White said. “You create too much space underneath and then take your chances. The ultimate X factor to me is No. 4, coach Cavalier’s son. He is able to just tuck the ball and make a positive play out of nothing. I thought our guys executed the game plan. You can try to take away certain things but that opens up other things. That’s a great ball team over there and I’m anxious to see what they can accomplish.”
By the end of the first quarter Flowers had built an impressive resume by intercepting a pass, running in a 5-yard touchdown, catching a 17-yard touchdown pass from Cavalier, and snagging a two-point conversion on a busted play.
When Flowers scored his fourth TD of the game on a 7-yard run with 2:03 to play in the third quarter, it put Canadian up 50-7 and opened floodgates for subs to replace starters.
“I tell you what when the ball ends up in Luke Flower’s hands good things happen,” Coach Cavalier said. “I’m thankful Luke is on our team. As good as a football player as he is, he’s a better person.”
Flowers said it’s always Canadian’s mission to start fast in a game.
“That’s what we were able to do today,” Flowers said. “Idalou is as physical a team and as a good of a team as we have played all year.”
Idalou finished with 269 yards of offense with running back Blake Dyas leading the rushing with 84 yards, while Gentry Pounds bulled his way to 44 yards on 13 carries and scored late in the game on a 1-yard plunge.
A big portion of Idalou’s 206 yards rushing arrived on Dyas’ 73-yard run in the first quarter that eventually resulted in QB Kutter Houchin’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Lucas Jarnigan.
Dyas ran the ball down the 2-yard line and was tackled by Flowers on the hustle play of the game chasing him down from behind. Houchin’s TD pass arrived on third down and cut the Canadian lead to 15-7 with 2:26 to play in the first quarter.
But like it would the remainder of the game, Canadian shut down Idalou’s momentum quickly answering Idalou’s TD with 52-yard drive ending in a Cavalier 13-yard run with four seconds to play in the first quarter and a 22-7 lead.
Canadian scored 42 unanswered points after Idalou’s first quarter TD and finished the game with nine different players earning carries (including sophomore Slayden Dickinson who scored Canadian’s lone 4th quarter TD on a 59-yard run) and three turnovers on two interceptions and a fumble recovery by junior linebacker Wyatt Davis.
“If I have it figured right, we came out with 47 turnovers on the year after this game,” Cavalier said. “We are always trying to get 50 in a year, and it takes a lot of work to get that 50 because you have to play in a lot of games and get a lot of them. Everyone of them is huge and I don’t know a bigger momentum changer than those and the fourth-down stops.”
Momentum? Hard to imagine a team in the state of Texas riding Ol’ Mo into the state quarterfinals quite like the Canadian Wildcats.