Canadian Handles Idalou 56-6

By Chris Doelle
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: November 30, 2020

Wildcats to Face District Foe Childress in Region I Final

This week of the playoff season produced “the game that never was” in terms of the hopes and wishes of Spearman Lynx fans and a growing number of state-wide Class 3A fans, hoping to see Spearman reach the Region I Final against the Canadian Wildcats. For those not paying attention, Spearman, one of Canadian’s District 3-3A rivals had to forfeit the week 6 conference game due to Covid issues. The Lynx have been ranked #6 in the Lone Star Gridiron rankings while the Wildcats have had the #1 spot most of the season.

The possibility of an upset on the #1 Wildcats seemed to be viable until the rematch of #10 Childress versus Spearman in the other Regional Semifinal (which played out just hours later in the same venue where Canadian played Idalou) proved to be the upset of the playoff season with Childress getting payback for the District 43-36 loss to the Lynx in week 5 with a 27-21 win over the Lynx to claim their own Regional Semifinal victory. The old cliché “so much for the rankings” comes to mind.

None of the District 3-3A playoff drama meant beans to the 10-0 District 4-3ADII Champion Idalou Wildcats. Idalou has had a score to settle with Canadian for years and they would not be intimidated. When Idalou won the toss of the official’s coin, they were more that ready to execute their plan and chose to receive. That plan, as many would suspect, was to run the ball through Canadian’s defense, run the clock, keep moving the chains, and score leaving Canadian’s high octane, fast tempo NASCAR offense off the field for as much of the game as possible.

Canadian’s newly crowned record holding kicker put the kickoff in the end zone for a touchback and Idalou began an epic drive of 54 yards with 14-plays that chewed up over seven and one-half minutes of the first quarter. Idalou QB Jared Jack used his big linemen and his running backs, Kelly Koch, Landin Fulcher, and William Wall to hammer away at the Canadian defense using counter plays and options down to the Canadian 21 yd line. But when faced with fourth down and 4-and-to-go, TE Riley Hall ran a pass route into the end zone having gained a step on Canadian DB Gary Anderson only to see the overthrown ball from Jack that could have been a TD sail over Hall’s head. Canadian would take over on downs and the fast tempo of the NASCAR offense would sooner than later have the Idalou defense winded and confused; not to mention the adjustments made by the Canadian defense that resulted in multiple 3-and-out stands against the Idalou offense that had robbed more than half of the first quarter clock.

Canadian the went on a 9-play drive down to the Idalou 44 where they were forced to punt, however, the Wildcats of Idalou, starting on their own 9 yd line went 3-and-out and the punt return was taken to the Idalou 22 yd line by Canadian’s Twister Kelton. That gave RB Hayze Hufstedler a chance to move the line of scrimmage down to the 9 yd line, then Kelton took a reverse toss from Hufstedler from his receiver position and followed blocks from QB Josh Culwell and OL Jorge Dominguez to weave his way into the end zone for the first Canadian score with 1:06 left in Q1.

As the game clock shifted to the second quarter, Canadian held Idalou to another 3-and-out and commenced to mount their own epic drive of 87 yards with 15-plays, ending with another TD run by Kelton with blocks from Hufstedler and OL Colton Cooper with 7:58 left in Q2. By this time the Canadian defense had already adjusted to Idalou’s ground-and-pound attack and forced another 3-and-out, however, Culwell threw to WR Reagan Cochran and the tipped ball was intercepted by Idalou DB Landin Fulcher. But Idalou suffered yet another 3-and-out at the hands of the Canadian defense and Canadian’s offense continued to out-pace the Idalou defense to the point of being so discombobulated that Idalou was forced to take a timeout before a 12-men on the field call could be made. That 7-play drive ended with a Hufstedler TD from 4 yds out with 2:37 left in the half. Idalou was beginning to have problems enough whenever Jared Jack took a keeper to the weak side on the first play of their next drive and fumbled to be recovered by Canadian’s George Abraham on the Canadian 45 yd line. 6-plays later, Hufstedler would burn Idalou with 1:20 left in the half on a 24 yd TD run. Canadian’s “operation separation” launched in the second quarter had been a success going in at halftime with a 28-0 lead.

The fans that paid to watch one of the best-in-class running backs, Hayze Hufstedler, was not disappointed when Canadian opened the second half with a 3-play drive which Hufstedler ended by ripping off a 73 yd run with only 36 seconds off the clock. Idalou would then make their only score of the day on a 5-play drive that was capped off with a William Wall to Brock Leatherwood pass that was fumbled by Leatherwood into the end zone at the 2 yd line and recovered for a TD by Cooper Hill. The Mark Phillips kick was no good. Canadian would continue to distance themselves on the scoreboard with two more TDs by Twister Kelton, a 53 yd jailbreak pass from Culwell and a 35 yd run that came just moments after a shanked Landin Fulcher punt. The scoring would end for the day after Canadian Freshman DB Camren Cavalier intercepted a William Wall pass and returned it for the defensive TD from 55 yards out. Edgar Salazar went 8-for-8 on PAT kicks adding to his Texas High School career record, now totaling 327.

The aforementioned 27-21 upset of the Spearman Lynx by the Childress Bobcats sets up the unexpected rematch of Canadian and Childress for the Class 3A Region 1 Final (State Quarterfinal) Championship, scheduled to be played at the same venue, Happy State Bank Field in Canyon on December 4, 2020, with a 7:00 P.M. kickoff. Just one month after Canadian traveled to Childress, they will meet again next week. Childress has improved and is playing their best ball in the last four weeks and hope to avenge the 63-13 loss to Canadian at home this season.

by Jerry Brunson
@CHSWildcatNews – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Stats and scoring courtesy of Ron Shader, Canadian ISD

SCORING

CAN 7 21 28 0 - 56
IDA 0 0 6 0 - 6

CAN – Twister Kelton 9 yd run (Salazar kick good) 1:06

CAN – Twister Kelton 6 yd run (Salazar kick good) 7:58
CAN – Hayze Hufstedler 4 yd run (Salazar kick good) 2:37
CAN – Hayze Hufstedler 24 yd run (Salazar kick good) 1:20

CAN – Hayze Hufstedler 73 yd run (Salazar kick good) 11:24
IDL – Cooper Hill fumble recovery TD, William Wall 13 yd pass to Brock Leatherwood (Mark
Phillips kick no good)
CAN – Twister Kelton 53 yd pass from Josh Culwell (Salazar kick good) 8:51
CAN – Twister Kelton 35 yd run (Salazar kick good) 6:26
CAN – Camren Cavalier 55 yd TD return of INT (Salazar kick good) 4:44

NO SCORES

Photos by Alan Hale Photography

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.