Canadian Wins Opening Round and Sets State Record

By Chris Doelle
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Updated: November 16, 2020

Canadian Handles Coahoma 62-14 for Bi-District Title, Helps Kicker Set New State Record

The Canadian Wildcats never take for granted the opportunity to play another game and when it comes to win-or-go-home playoff season, their focus becomes being focused on each opponent, one game at a time. Actually, just like their entire season is structured. They prepare for a four-seed Bi-District opponent the same way they will a semifinal match. The Wildcats don’t want to go home until they earn the last slot in the bracket and win a Championship. Period.

On this Thursday night at Tulia’s Younger Field, it was time to put a season of preparation on the line and hopefully improve even more before the night was over. The Coahoma Bulldogs came into this game as a much-improved squad themselves. With a 6-4 record and some impressive size and speed, they might have been one of the best four seed teams in this class. But make no mistake that the major issue for Canadian’s opponents lately is trying to prevent the Wildcats from scoring 60 plus points against their defense. Few have had success in doing that this season and the Bulldogs would find out why.

The Wildcat “Blackout D” defense held the Bulldogs to a 3-and-out on the first series of the game, then the “NASCAR” offense wasted no time to find the end zone with a 5-play, 45 yard drive that QB Josh Culwell ended by tossing an 8 yd TD pass to WR Reagan Cochran with only 1:04 off the clock doing it. Kicker Edgar Salazar’s PAT kick got his total within one PAT of tying the Texas State career PAT record. Another 3-and-out by Coahoma allowed the Wildcats to get down to the Coahoma 25 yd line before getting a stop and gave Salazar a shot at a 41 yd FG, well within his range. However, Salazar was just short on the FG try. Another 3-and-out hold by the Canadian defense forced a punt by Coahoma that made it only to their own 46 yd line and on the very next snap from the Canadian offense, Freshman RB Luke Flowers took a counter sweep the 46 yards to paydirt. With the PAT record watch in full force, Salazar’s PAT would have tied the existing PAT career record, but a mishandled snap from usually reliable holder Twister Kelton caused the timing to be off for Salazar to get a good foot into the kick. Everyone would be forced to wait for another try.

Salazar’s attempt to tie the record, then break the record came much sooner due to a tenacious defense and an offense running like a well-oiled machine. With 1:26 left in Q1, Wildcat RB Hayze Hufstedler ripped off a 35 yd TD run, and with that, Salazar, his holder, Twister Kelton, and his long-snapper WR Reagan Cochran, commenced to tie the PAT record. But with only 1:05 into the second quarter, WR Gary Anderson took an end around 34 yds for a TD and Salazar was set to break a record. But there had to be a little drama, right? OL Corbin Throgmorton flinched and caused a false start penalty, halting play and causing Salazar to kick a 25 yd PAT instead of 20. But that extra 5 yds weren’t even noticeable as the well hit record breaking kick sailed through the uprights. No. 305 put Edgar Salazar in the record books as the leader in career PATs in the State of Texas and by the end of the game his total would reach 310 with more playoff games in sight.

As expected, the fans and parents responded with a 3’x40’ banner signifying that this Canadian Wildcat had just broken a state-wide record. Teammates coming off the sideline swarmed Salazar to congratulate him, but only briefly due to his duty to huddle the kickoff team and tee-up the ball to kick off the next series.

The second quarter remained unproductive for the Bulldogs offensively, however, Canadian’s QB Josh Culwell (3-for-24, 173 yds, 4 TDs) was just getting warmed up. Before Coahoma could find points for the scoreboard, Culwell threw for three more TDs, another reception by Reagan Cochran (4-for-36 yds, 2 TDs) for 9 yards and two more TDs caught by Twister Kelton (3-for-73-yds, 2 TDs) for 31 and 37 yards.

Coahoma RB Brysen Kirby got loose for a 76 yard scamper to get the Bulldogs on the board with 2:24 left in the first half, but that was too much time to give the Wildcats, especially when the return on the ensuing kickoff by Kelton was taken down to the one yard line, where the Line Judge called that his foot touched the out-of-bounds line. Two plays later with 1:35 left in the half, RB Hayze Hufstedler (189 yds on 13 carries, 3 TDs) went into the end zone standing up to take Canadian in at the break with a 55-7 lead.

The first score of the third quarter came when DB Billy Starr intercepted a Culwell pass intended for Kelton and returned it to the Coahoma 30 yd line. Two plays later, the speedy Brysen Kirby found room around the right edge and with a helpful block from WR Tony Hagins made it to the pylon for the score. Isaiah Martin’s PAT was good with 8:30 left in the third.

Canadian would answer Kirby’s second TD with the same efficiency they did in the first half. A four-play drive was ended by Hufstedler with a 50 yd TD burst up the middle with 7:44 left in the third, once again reminding everyone the fastest player on the field wasn’t on the bench yet. That also ended the scoring for the night for both teams and winding down the clock became a priority. #1 Canadian will play Bangs in the Area round next Friday at 7:00 P.M. in Vernon along with two other District 3-3AD2 seeds still alive after the Bi-District round. #9 Childress won a nail-biter against Abernathy to play Crane at Shallowater and #5 Spearman toppled Roosevelt 63-34 to earn a trip to play Ballinger at Floydada.

The Canadian v Spearman matchup (forfeited by Spearman in week 6 due to Covid) gets one week closer to being revisited. Folks are already predicting a possible Regional Final with these two exciting teams from the same District.

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

SCORING

CANADIAN 20 35 7 0 - 62
COAHOMA 0 7 7 0 - 14

CHI – Devron Sims 29 yd TD pass from Collin Bishop (Caesar Rojas kick good) 7:42
CAN – Hayze Hufstedler 22 yd run (Salazar kick good) 5:00
CAN – Hayze Hufstedler defensive TD fumble recovery in end zone (Salazar kick good) 1:51

CAN – Gary Anderson 34 yd run (Salazar kick good) 10:55 [PAT Kick: a NEW State career
record]
CAN – Twister Kelton 31 yd pass from Josh Culwell (Salazar kick good) 9:04
CAN – Reagan Cochran 9 yd pass from Josh Culwell (Salazar kick good) 6:27
CAN – Twister Kelton 37 yd pass from Josh Culwell (Salazar kick good) 3:20
COA—Brysen Kerby 76 yd run (Isaiah Martin kick good) 2:24
CAN – Hayze Hufstedler 2 yd run (Salazar kick good) 1:35

COA—Brysen Kerby 25 yd run (Isaiah Martin kick good) 8:30
CAN – Hayze Hufstedler 50 yd run (Salazar kick good) 7:44

NO SCORES

STATISTICS

COA CAN
First Downs 9 20
Yards rushing 100 284
Yards passing 45 204
Total yards 145 488
Comp-Att-Int 6-18-2 16-29-2
Punts 9-35 0-0
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 3-2
Penalties 2-20 7-70

Photos by Alan Hale Photography

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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.