Canadian and Spearman Burn the Barn Down

By Chris Doelle
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Updated: October 5, 2021

Spearman’s Challenge to Canadian Comes Up Short in Final Seconds, 38-37

Canadian and Spearman opened their District 3-3ADII schedule with a certified thriller. Not only is District 3-3ADII considered one of the toughest in the state in this class, it includes the Defending State Champion Canadian Wildcats. This game would continue a rivalry that that goes back even farther than the legendary “Mud Bowl” game of 1998 which required Canadian to return to Lynx Stadium on a Saturday to finish the game due to a storm delay, losing to the Lynx 10-0. The Wildcats would go on to play in their school’s first State Semi-Final appearance, but never forgot that one of their only two losses that season were
delivered by the Spearman Lynx. It takes nothing in particular to rekindle those feelings.

Even though the Panhandle area including Spearman experienced rain this weekend, the “Mud Bowl” can never be repeated due to a beautiful new Hellas Turf provided by the Spearman ISD. Lynx Head Coach Aaron Witten, a Spearman native, led his staff and team in a brilliant game plan versus the Wildcats. Certainly, brilliant enough to produce a 23-21 lead at half-time and
a 37-35 lead with less than two minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, the Lynx will be forced to live with the last two minutes of the game.

Witten’s strategy began with deferring the opening kickoff, which obviously has become rather typical with teams opposing the Wildcats. It goes deeper than just getting possession of the ball to start the second half, but coaches like Witten need to know where they stand with the preparation and expectations that they gave their defense against a high-powered offense like Canadian has in the prior week of practice. The results Witten saw was encouraging, which pumped up the same hope they had for their offense to score.

WILDCAT TURNOVERS

The first Wildcat offensive series after the initial kickoff also involved another strategy every defensive coordinator hopes to achieve: a turnover. As the Wildcats worked from the Lynx 31 yard line with a 1st & 10, DL Connor Holton’s tackle on RB Isay Ramirez caused the ball to come loose and Holton recovered on their own 35 yard line. Spearman would drive down to the Canadian 21 yard line before the Wildcats could make a stop. Miguel Zamara hit a 28-yard field goal with 6:11 left in Q1 for the first score of the game.

Canadian would then start on their 31-yard line and work down to the Spearman 35 whenever Spearman’s Zamara picked off a Camren Cavalier pass intended for WR Cree Waite. The very next play Lynx QB Carson Seaman hit Brayden Klafka down the middle for a 79-yard TD pass. The Wildcat defense giving up big plays has been a concern and this Klafka TD pass was no exception. However, the PAT kick by Zamara went wide left, which would in the end come back to haunt the Lynx. Canadian would have to start at their own 17-yard line on the next series, but 9-plays later finally scored on an 11-yard run by Soph. workhorse Luke Flowers. Flowers had been expected to play less minutes in this game due to nursing an injury, but he was needed throughout the game, sometimes hobbling off the field with a noticeable limp.

TRADING ALL TYPES OF TURNOVERS

A good kickoff runback by Klafka put the Lynx on the Canadian 44, but the drive fizzled out quickly and Zamara punted after an incomplete pass on 3 rd & 12. Canadian started from their 27-yard line and labored all the way down to the Lynx 34-yard line in 12-plays. Still out of field goal range, the Wildcats chose to go on 4th down and failed to convert turning the ball over to Spearman on the Lynx 36-yard line. But the next play would yield the first of two of the shortest offensive series of the night for the Lynx when Wildcat DB Jaxtyn Valenzuela intercepted a Carson Seaman pass intended for Brayden Klafka on the Canadian 36-yard line. Canadian took that possession right on down to the red zone in 6-plays, but and open field tackle on RB Isay Ramirez by Shad Whitely jarred the ball loose and into the end zone to be recovered by Spearman’s Jack Pipkin.

Starting on the 20-yard line (touchback) the Lynx would execute the second shortest offensive series of the night, but much more effective, as the first play yielded an 80-yard TD pass from Seaman to Pipkin and with the PAT by Zamara, the Lynx now led 16-7. Canadian would then produce a 10-play, 55-yard drive ending in a 3-yard TD run by Ramirez. After the ensuing kickoff the Lynx lined up on their 30-yard line and once again turned the ball over on the first play by an INT by LB Matt McClanahan of a pass intended for Shad Whitely. Five plays later, the Wildcats would take the lead for the first time in the game when QB Camden Cavalier had to scramble when protection broke down, but managed to navigate his way into the end zone. The 21-16 lead would be short lived, however, as Spearman caught the Canadian defense in position to make yet another big play with a 55-yard TD run by Cade Seaman with 57 seconds left in the half. Spearman was shocking the world going in at
halftime with a 23-21 lead.

SECOND HALF: SPEARMAN KEEPS THE PRESSURE ON WITH A CANADIAN WIN STREAK ON THE LINE

The Lynx came out with effort equal to their first half performance and drove down to the Canadian 21 before choosing to have Zamara attempt a 38-yard FG on 4th down. The call to kick the FG turned more golden than was even expected when the Wildcats were called for roughing the kicker, giving Spearman a new set of downs, which led to a 12-yard TD pass from Seaman to Klafka increasing their lead on the defending State Champs. Canadian would go on to put points on the board despite the pressure applied by the Lynx regaining the lead. The Wildcat’s Luke Flowers scored on 22-yard and a 2-yard TD runs giving Canadian 14 unanswered points with 8:24 left in the game. As much as Spearman would not go away, neither did Canadian. That 5-point lead was vulnerable, and with 5:31 left in the game Seaman hit Pipkin on a sideline route that Pipkin just barely made it inside the end zone pylon for the TD before being shoved out of bounds. With Zamara’s PAT kick good, Spearman had stung the Wildcats again from the air, but had to find a way to stop Canadian for another long 5:34 minutes before the 37-35 score would become a Lynx victory.

Both teams obviously knew that the prize of the first District win was on the line, but there was also another backstory that had moved from being a backstory to a real front-story. Canadian had a 43 District game win streak on the line to boot. A streak that goes all the way back to 2012, less the forfeit by Spearman last season due to Covid protocols. Could the Lynx snap that streak?

A HISTORY OF MISSED PATs

Although Miguel Zamara had proven all night that he was a reliable place kicker, the score also proved that he had missed one PAT in the 1st quarter. Miguel, like a lot of Spearman fans were not thinking about last season’s Championship game Canadian played versus Franklin, nor how Franklin’s kicker, Seth Shamblin, missed a PAT late in the game allowing Canadian’s career PAT record-setting Edgar Salazar to kick a PAT for the lead with less than 40 seconds left in the game. The miss by Franklin’s Shamblin essentially denied them the right to play an overtime versus Canadian and without a Lions Hail Mary score in the last 40 seconds, Canadian had won a State Championship with a stroke from Salazar’s leg to produce a ‘good’ PAT.

Given that Spearman knew the Wildcats have fielded another better than average kicker this season, making a stop within the last two minutes of the game before the Wildcats could get around the 30-yard line was crucial. But the stop Spearman desperately needed didn’t happen and Wildcats fought their way down to the 2-yard line. Another run by Flowers to the 1-yard line but the Wildcats faced a 4th down & 1, and the field goal team was called out with 17 seconds left in the game. K Emiliano Hernandez, was looking at a chip shot of a field goal to take the lead, however, it wouldn’t be as easy as a typical PAT because he would kick it from the right hash mark, rather than a straight shot through the uprights. Hernandez, the Sophomore chosen to carry on a recently built kicking tradition, could also be referred to as Wildcat Kicker 3.0, stepped into the kick without hesitation and secured the last lead of the game by Canadian.

There’s hardly any doubt that Zamara couldn’t get the missed PAT in the first quarter out of his head as the scoreboard updated to 38-37 in Canadian’s favor. Spearman had 12 seconds to work with. Seaman threw an out-route to Klafka, then an incomplete pass, and with 3 seconds left threw a Hail Mary to Klafka that was intercepted by Angel Garcia. Canadian had secured their first District win of 2021 and kept their District win streak intact.

In a Canadian Sports Network post-game interview Russell Gadbois, Head Coach Chris Koetting said: “There was a lot of twists and turns in that game for sure, you know. We where far from perfect, but in the end… I told the kids at halftime that this is going to be a test… how you respond in the second half. And if we’re tough enough to get it done and win this football game. And they passed the test. You know… they never gave up, we had a lot of chances to get down on ourselves, but we just kept hangin’ in there… it was just a wild game.”

Canadian will host Amarillo Highland Park next week as District 3-3ADII conference play continues.

Jerry Brunson for Lone Star Gridiron
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Photos courtesy Alan Hale Photography
Stats courtesy of Ron Shrader, CISD

SCORING

  
          1ST 2ND 3rd 4th - Total
CANADIAN    7  14   7  10  - 38
SPEARMAN    9  14   7   7  - 37

SPN – Miguel Zamara 28-yd FG – 6:11
SPN – Brayden Klafka 79-yd pass from Carson Seaman (Zamara PAT kick failed) 2:47
CAN – Luke Flowers 11-yd run (Emiliano Hernandez kick)

SPN – Jack Pipkin 80-yd pass from Seaman (Zamara kick) 7:13
CAN – Isay Ramirez 3 yd run (Hernandez kick) 4:18
CAN – Camren Cavalier 11 yd run (Hernandez kick) 2:41
SPN – Cade Seaman 55-yd run (Zamara kick) 0:57

SPN – Jack Pipkin 12-yd pass from Seaman (Zamara kick) 7:30
CAN – Luke Flowers 22-yd run (Emiliano Hernandez kick) 4:57

CAN – Luke Flowers 2-yd run (Emiliano Hernandez kick) 8:24
SPN – Jack Pipkin 30-yd pass from Seaman (Zamara kick) 5:34
CAN – Emiliano Hernandez FG – 0:12

SPN - CAN
FIRST DOWNS 15 - 35
YARDS RUSHING 62 - 392
YARDS PASSING 408 - 240
TOTAL YARDS 470 - 632
COMP-ATT-INT 16-35-3 - 22-38-1
PUNTS-AVG 3-24 - 2-47
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 - 2-2
PENALTIES 5-42 - 12-110

Passing – Camren Cavalier: 22-38-0, 240 yards
Rushing – Luke Flowers: 28 carries, 189 yards, 3 TDs

Photos by Alan Hale Photography

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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.