Canadian Roughs-up River Road in Home Opener 42-14

By Chris Doelle
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: September 7, 2019

Photos courtesy Alan Hale Photography

Canadian Delights Home Fans

The (#1 3A DII) Canadian Wildcats 2019 schedule only allows them four home stands this season and if their performance in the home opener is any indication, the motto “Protect This House” is taken very seriously. Pregame predictions gave (#75 3A DII) Amarillo River Road a much better chance at the Wildcats than in previous years.

Wildcat Head Coach Chris Koetting, in his 10th season at Canadian, made sure his team would be prepared for any new challenges River Road might present. And speaking of previous years and Coach Koetting, this game chalked up 100 more wins than losses with a 116-16 record as head coach at Canadian. An impressive win-loss record obviously built on the result of multiple
State Semi-final and State Championship wins and appearances since 2009.

River Road (also the Wildcats), could never find an answer defensively for the fast pace offense Canadian has made famous. Not only was that a great frustration, but Canadian’s fly-to-the-ball defense made it impossible for the RR Wildcats to score until the 4th quarter.

Canadian produced an almost perfectly balanced attack of run/pass offense with 147 yards rushing and 152 yards passing, most of which came in the first half. QB Grant McCook threw 1 TD pass and was 11-19-1 passing 96 yards.

Canadian took the first offensive drive to pay-dirt from their own 34 yard-line in ten plays scoring with a 3-yard TD run by sophomore RB Jake Krehbiel with 10:11 left in the first quarter. After Canadian held RR to a 3-and-out on the RR 34 yard-line, a blocked punt gave Canadian a very short field from the 19; They scored again quickly with a keeper play by QB Grant McCook from the 2 yard-line with 8:29 left in the first. Krehbiel scored again from the 7 yard-line with 5:25 left in Q1.

Grant McCook started the 2nd quarter scoring with a 1-yard QB keeper at the 7:05 mark. The Road started the next drive deep in their own territory but was forced to punt. Punter Dylan Frye had the high long snap go into the end zone and kicked the ball just before Canadian scored the safety. However, the result was even worse for RR whenever Canadian defensive lineman Saul Escamilla received the punt on the half-yard line and went in for the TD with 4:35 remaining in the half.

Canadian held again and after Krehbiel went 41-yards on a stretch play that took 3 RR defenders to
bring him down on the 3-yard line, WR Bill Koetting caught a TD pass from McCook in the back of the end zone on a 4th down conversion to end the first half score-fest up 42-0.

CANADIAN’S KICKING GAME
Kicker Edgar Salazar was 6-for-6 PATs. He was given two opportunities at field goals, one from 49 yards and another from 45 yards. Both attempts were long enough, however both went right close to the uprights. These kicks, although not producing points, indicated Salazar’s capabilities. Expect him to once again be an asset to Canadian’s offense when needing every point available.

Th RR offense finally found the end zone with 11:03 left in Q4 as a RB Brandon Belcher run scored from the 25-yard line. QB Lance Welps, operating from a swinging gate formation, ran in the 2-point conversion. With only a few seconds left in the game, Welp found TE Jason Quintanilla for a 22-yard TD. The 2-point conversion pass from Welps to Quintanilla was knocked down by Canadian’s Everett Hadaway.

Canadian will hit the road again next Friday to Perryton. Expect the rivalry of the Battle on Highway 83 to ensue against a confident Perryton Rangers team that has a lot of payback stashed up from the last several meetings with Canadian.

by Jerry Brunson

@CHSWildcatNews (Facebook & Twitter)
chswildcatnews (Instagram)

Stats courtesy of Ron Shrader, CISD

	1Q	2Q	3Q	4Q	Final
Canadian	21	21	0	0	42
River Road	0	0	0	14	14

1st Quarter

C – Jake Krehbiel 3 yd run, (Edgar Salazar kick) 10:11
C – Grant McCook 2 yd run, (Edgar Salazar kick) 8:29
C – Jake Krehbiel 7 yd run, (Edgar Salazar kick) 5:25

2nd Quarter

C – Grant McCook 2 yd run, (Edgar Salazar kick) 7:08
C – Saul Escamilla 1 yd punt return, (Edgar Salazar kick) 4:35
C – Bill Koetting 5 yd pass from McCook, (Edgar Salazar kick) 2:16

3rd Quarter

NO SCORES

4th Quarter

RR – Brandon Belcher 25 yd run, (Lance Welps run)
RR – Jason Quintanilla 22 yd pass from Welps, (2-point conv. failed)

FIRST DOWNS: RR – 6, C – 14 ~~ YDS RUSHING: RR – 107, C – 147
YDS PASSING: RR – 52, C – 152 ~~ TOTAL YDS: RR – 159, C – 299
COMP-ATT-INT: RR – 2-10-0, C – 16-28-1 ~~ PUNTS-AVG: RR – 8-28, C – 2-37
FUMBLES-LOST: RR – 1-0, C – 1-1 ~~ PENALTIES: RR – 6-40, C- 6-50

Friday Night Legends Historic Teams
For Friday Night Legends Board Game

Want to see how the Canadian teams stack up against some of the best all time?

We have the 2015 Championship and 2017 teams already created and football fans and game board players around the world are coaching the Canadian Wildcats against some of the greatest teams in history.

2015 Canadian - The Wildcats won the Class 2A Division I State Championship with a convincing 41 point win over Gulf Coast power Refugio. This was Canadian's 4th Championship win in 5 Championship games since 2007.

2017 Canadian - The Wildcats extended their winning streak to 16 years. All 16 years they have had 8+ wins. This team made it to the Semifinals with a high scoring offense and great defense.