The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 9, 2003 Page: 16 of 28
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THURSDAY9 OCTOBER 2003
THE CANADIAN RECORD
ats bulldoze Lynx on road to
showdown with anhandle Anthers
With their 35-7 win over the
Spearman Lynx, the Canadian
Wildcats flattened another bump
in the road to Saturday night's big
showdown with No. 4-ranked
Panhandle. Although the Lynx
have only come up with one win
this season, the Spearman-Cana-
dian rivalry is one of long-stand-
ing and comes with a heavy
hometown bias, so the victory was
a crucial one for the Cats.
The Cats relied primarily on an
air-powered attack to get the job
done. After hanging on for the first
1-yard plunge into the endzone in
the opening quarter, Riley Morris
hooked up with his favorite re-
ceiver—Tony Livingston—for
three more scoring strikes in the
second quarter to stake a 28-0
halftime claim. Morris finished it
off with a 30-yard toss to Camden
Dorris in the third quarter to tuck
the game away and send the Lynx
to bed. Spearman's Vanderburg fi-
nally got the ball across for the
Lynx' only touchdown with under
3 minutes left on the game clock.
Livingston put on a stellar per-
formance Friday, catching five
passes for 165 yards, including
touchdowns of 57,16 and 69 yards.
He also rushed two times for 32
yards. Statistically, the Cats
posted only 14 first downs to
Spearman's 16. That anomaly
could be attributed in large part to
Livingston, who made quick work
of the Cats' possessions in one-
and two-snap scoring drives.
In the course, of the game, the
Cats also managed a little slight of
hand on two fake punts to keep
the Lynx on their toes. On both oc-
casions, Morris made the call
from the field in the kind of
heads-up, cool under fire play that
is becoming his MO. "Our receiv-
ers and our quarterback played
extremely well," said athletic di-
rector Kyle Lynch. "A couple of
their defensive linemen got loose
on us, and Riley got a little bit of
pressure that we felt like he
shouldn't get, but he stood in
there like a champ and took a few
hits. That's been a real positive for
us: he stands in the pocket and
stays real cool."
"Offensively" Lynch said, "we
felt like we threw the ball well.
When you come up against a 5-3
defense, sometimes that's what
you have to do. You have to go
throw the football. We felt like
that loosened them up a lot."
Once loosened, the Lynx were
more vulnerable to the run, and the
Cats were only too happy to exploit
that as well. "We were able to hold
[injured running back] Auston
English out and get him healthy,
and that helped a lot," Lynch said.
"Logan Baker did a real fine job of
running the ball for us."
Canadian racked up 201 yards
rushing and 278 passing overall.
Morris completed 9-of-15 passes
with no interceptions. In fact, the
Cats had a pretty good handle on
the ball all the way around.
Spearman had 5 fumbles—three
of which the Cats recovered—and
Canadian had none.
The Cats struggled on defense
briefly while they scrambled to
make adjustments to the Lynx'
new look. "We knew they would
come out to play, and they did,"
Lynch said. "They were wrapped
up and ready to go, and gave us
some formations that we hadn't
seen much, so it took a little while,
to adjust to some of that."
Kobe Looney keyed the Wild-
cat defense Friday with 10 tackles
and a caused fumble. "Overall, I
felt it was a sound, well-executed
job by our kids," Lynch said, "and
that's what we're looking for—a
little more consistency. Our kids
did an excellent job of staying fo-
cused on the task at hand, not look-
ing past Spearman to this week.
That's a credit to those guys."
The Cats face their biggest
challenge Saturday against the
Panhandle Panthers, who started
out the season in the top 10 of 2A
schools statewide, and have.
Steadily worked their way up
through the rankings to this
week's No. 4 spot. Lynch said the
Wildcat-Panther bout will have a
playoff atmosphere without the
playoff implications, and though
clearly excited about the contest,
cautions his team against losing
perspective.
"Neither team's season ends
here," he said. "If you win it, you'd
better not rest on those laurels.
You've got to keep playing. And if
you lose it, you've got to not be-
come too discouraged.
"That's the approach we've
taken this week. Yes, it's a big
game. Yes, it's a great opportunity.
It's not the whole season. So with
that in mind, just relax and get af-
ter them."
The Panthers are tough. Their
greatest strength is throwing the
ball and having kids out there that
can make the big plays. They have
a corps of receivers that goes 6-7
players deep. "That's unbeliev-
2004 CALENDARS HAVE
ARRIVED AT THE CANADIAN
RECORD! GET YOURS TODAY!
Running back Logan Baker produced over 70 yards rushing Friday night despite 2 touchdown runs
being called back on penalties. PHOTO BY IHURII SHOWN
able for a 2A school," Lynch said.
"They rotate them a lot, and
mercy, there's just not a whole of
difference in any of them."
Quarterback Brock Sherwood
knows how to get them the ball,
too, according to Lynch. "He's ex-
cellent. He puts the ball on the
money, and their receivers catch it
well. And they're very dangerous
once they catch it."
In last week's 41-12 win over
3A River Road, Sherwood com-
pleted 19-of-23 passes for 416
yards and four touchdowns. Four-
teen of his completions went for
first downs, and nine went for 15
or more, yards, according to the
A in <i rill a Globe-News, who
named him Player of the Week for
that performance. Through five
games, Sherwood has completed
71 percent of his passes for 1,236
yards with 15 touchdowns and no
interceptions.
On defense, Panhandle shows
a split-six look. "They have really
good linebackers," Lynch said.
"Sy Slover is an excellent athlete.
He is a hard hitter, and at the
same time, he's got good speed."
In addition to catching eight
passes for 118 yards in last week's
game, Slover made eight tackles
as the Panthers defensive leader.
"They've got the same
skill-type people playing their
secondary," Lynch said. "They
cover quite well. They've got a
solid line. We feel like we've got to
line up and execute against them,
establish the run, and try to ma-
nipulate their defense, with some
passing also."
"They don't have a lot of chinks
Riley Morris stuffs the Lynx pass on fourth and long to turn the
ball over. PHBW BY JIM BMR
in their armor," Lynch concluded,
"but we feel like our strengths
may offset some of the things that
they do in the way of good, hard
runners in our backfield. We've
got guys defensively that are
playing really aggressively, so
we'll see how it goes."
The Cats are healthier than
they've been in weeks, with
Auston English returning at run-
ning back after a one-week layoff,
Cody Helms back in to shore up
the backs after nursing a bruised
kidney for several weeks, and
Brian Gallagher returning at cen-
ter after an injury in the game
against Perryton.
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 9, 2003, newspaper, October 9, 2003; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220599/m1/16/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.