HICO – After yielding 34 first-half points, Richland Springs allowed just one touchdown in the second half while the Coyotes scored on every offensive possession in Friday night’s 86-41 victory over the Oakwood Panthers in the Class A Division II Region IV championship game.
“We played pretty well,” said Richland Springs head coach Jerry Burkhart, who owns a 229-12 record and nine state championships with the Coyotes. “We got pounded on a little bit, they had some big guys up front. We had to mix up our fronts a little bit, they did a good job scouting us, but we saw some weaknesses and made some adjustments for the second half and came out and gave them a little bit of a fit. I’m proud of our kids. They come out and they play and they get after it. Most of all we give God the glory. Every week is not given, you have to earn it and take advantage of the opportunity.”
With the victory, No. 3 Richland Springs (10-1) will face No. 2 Strawn (13-0) – a 66-16 winner over Gordon (10-3) Friday night in the Region III final – in the Class A Division II state semifinals next weekend. The Coyotes edged Strawn, 59-56, in the same round a year ago to reach the state championship game.
“It’s going to be tough any time you play Strawn,” Burkhart said. “Coach (Dewaine) Lee does a great job with them. It’s going to be a battle. We have to prepare this week and practice really hard this week and get things ready to go. It’s all going to come down to blocking and tackling. Every year it’s always a tough game with them, it’s like playing a state championship game when you play them.”
Against Oakwood (8-4), Richland Springs racked up 488 yards of total offense, with 473 coming on the ground, as Jadeyn Bryant amassed 345 yards and seven touchdowns on 22 carries, while Zane Capps chipped in 126 yards and four scores on a dozen totes. Bryant also completed the Coyotes’ lone pass attempt to Nick Nilson for 15 yards, and Keston Lusty tacked on a 2-yard carry.
“Our blocking was pretty dang good tonight,” Burkhart said. “Our kids were making holes for Jadeyn and Zane and whenever you have kids up front blocking like that and creating the holes, they’re the ones that need to get the credit. Jadeyn hits the hole so quick and so does Zane, but it was a team effort tonight. It was all kids, all hands on deck, being a family and playing hard.”
The Coyotes stopped the Oakwood offense – which finished with 363 yards, led by 167 rushing yards and three touchdowns from Ja’Lee Mathis and 161 rushing yards and three scores from Zack Nickerson – twice in the first half, which led to Richland Springs’ 56-34 halftime cushion.
The first stop came immediately after Bryant’s 27-yard touchdown run that put the Coyotes on top, 14-6. Oakwood’s Ryder Perry fumbled the shotgun snap on the Panthers’ next play, which Jeremiah Beam scooped up and returned 14 yards for a Richland Springs touchdown and a 20-6 lead with 4:10 left in the first quarter.
The next stop occurred with 36 seconds left before halftime as Oakwood – trailing 48-34 and receiving the second-half kickoff -– came up 2 yards short on a fourth-and-6 pass at the Coyote 20. Two plays later, Bryant galloped 59 yards to the end zone to boost the lead to 22 points with seven seconds left before halftime.
Oakwood then failed to score on its first three possessions of the second half, while Richland Springs responded with scoring sprints of 3 and 28 yards by Bryant and 5 yards by Capps to pad the cushion to 78-34 with 9:51 left in the contest.
“We tried to hold some things until the second half,” Burkhart said regarding the defensive effort after halftime. “Sometimes when you show all your cards in the first half good coaches are going to counter what you did then you have to come up with something else. We were going to try and make them think on the fly. It all comes down to tackling and we had a lot of missed tackles early, and we didn’t get off our blocks very well, but they have a lot of team speed and my hat’s off to Coach Johnson. They do a good job over there.”
The Panthers’ lone second-half touchdown came on 65-yard sprint to the end zone by Mathis with 8:22 left, which trimmed the deficit to 78-41 after a one-point pass following a botched snap on the extra point.
But at the 6:44 mark of the fourth, Capps again scored from 5 yards out and Cody Martin converted the two-point kick to enforce the 45-point mercy rule.
Defensive standouts for the Coyotes included Lusty with 9.5 tackles, Bryant with 9 and a sack, Nilson with 8.5, Brandon Stewart with 6.5, and Capps with 6.5 tackles and a fumble recovery.
