Tigers bounce back with 38-27 District win

By Melissa McCaghren

Slatonite GM

It may have taken a bit of changes in plays, but the Slaton High School Tiger football team came back after a two game losing streak to defeat the River Road Wildcats 38-27 Friday (Oct. 18) at Tiger Stadium.

“After the past couple of games we kind of had to relearn how to win again,” said Head Football Coach Jeff Caffey. “When you’re not in that scenario, you’ve got to figure out how it’s done. And we did that with a lot of different ways.

“We made some changes on both sides of the ball, we thought would make us more effective and the kids went out and executed that.”

Slaton’s scoring started in the first quarter, with Kevondrick Gober’s two touchdowns, both on a one yard run.

In the second, River Road scored on a one-yard run before Gober scored again on a 61 yard punt return. River Road would then add on to their score by scoring twice, on a one yard run and 75-yard interception run.

In the third, Gober scored on a 36-yard run before River Road returned the favor with a 75-yard run.

The fourth had Matt Vigil score on a 75-yard pass from Laz Galindo and Jacob Guerra score on a 32-yard pass from Galindo. Overall, the team rushed 31 times for 183 yards.

Caffey praised Galindo’s passing, where he completed 13 of 24 pass attempts for 283 yards. “We came out, threw the ball more Friday, then we had in any other game, and we had some great successes,” he said. “Matt Vigil had a great game receiving. Quevon McDaniel had a great game receiving.”

Defense was also on key. “You know, when you’re able to stretch the defense sideline to sideline, great things can happen and we did a few things different. Got the ball in the hands of those kids out on the perimeter,” he added. “We did some things receiving and throwing the ball that we had not shown in previous games and it paid off.”

This week the team will play the Littlefield Wildcats, who Caffey is “traditional Littlefield.”

“They are ground and pound, kind of like what we saw with River Road, so  that’s a plus for us. We’re conditioned for that going into this ball game,” he said. “They play the same defense River Road did with a few differences to it. And I think they’re improved from last year, so we’re gonna have to step up our efforts again this week which is good because we saw some similar things so we should get better as the week goes because it’s not a drastic change in philosophy like we’ve had a few times in the year. I look forward to it.”

The Tigers will play Friday evening (Oct. 25) in Littlefield at 7 p.m.