By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton football traveled to the unfamiliar territory of the Texas Panhandle Friday night, September 22 to tangle with the Pampa Harvesters in Dalhart where there is no mercy rule or running clock to lessen the blow of a 69-0 blowout.
It took Pampa two plays to strike the first blow with a 3-yard TD rush by Keshaun Stewart with only 30 seconds off the clock. The play was setup up by a kickoff return to the Raton 35 followed by a facemask penalty to place the ball on the 20-yardline. Raton followed with a three and out with Pampa doing the same on their next series.
The laundry on the field became almost constant with each play, as Raton would make 10 yards only to lose most of it on procedure penalties. Pampa’s next scoring drive ended with a 2-yard pass play for six followed by a takeaway by Tucker Bridwell on the kickoff return and scrambling 35 yards for another Harvester TD.
Pampa took the ball into the second quarter with so many yellow flags on both teams and incomplete passes that it’s a wonder they scored on an 11-yard pass from Brandon Steward to Kaleb Caldwell for six, the PAT was good and it was a 28-0 game at 11:53 in the second quarter.
Pampa then scores on a 21-yard pass to Derrius Williams. Joey Hill intercepts a Dustin Segura pass and takes it to the 13-yard line. Pampa moves it down the field and a pass interference call puts the ball on the Raton 2-yardline where Kaleb Caldwell once again punches it through for six. Raton ends the half with a knee.
Second half action begins with Raton kicking off and Pampa taking five plays to go the 41 yards for another six on a pass play from Steward to Michael Villareal for six. The PAT makes it a 48-0 game.
Brenden Baker picks off a Segura pass and takes the ball to the 2-yardline where Braxton Floyd takes it in for six more. The next Pampa score comes on a 14-yard pass play to Villareal. Pampa ends the next Raton series with a pass interception by Bryan Rodriguez then three plays later Raton’s Tristen Gallegos puts a stop to the Harvester drive with a midair grab, but a chop block penalty returns the ball to the Raton 9-yardline. A face mask penalty then gets the ball out of the red zone where another personal foul gets Raton down the field farther than they had been all game. However, the drive ends on downs.
Six plays later Pampa is once again in the end zone on a 6-yard run by Keshawn Stewart with 3:01 left on the 4th quarter clock. It was now a 69-0 game. A fumble recovery by Brenden Baker ended the final Raton series after two plays. Pampa then took a couple of knees to end the game.
Raton will now travel to Albuquerque to take on Albuquerque Academy for a Saturday afternoon game on September 30, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on FM 93.9 and streamed on Network1Sports.com
