Steers keep rolling

FARWELL — It has become routine. A Friday-night Farwell football game, a Friday-night Farwell football victory.

The Steers won their seventh straight this past Friday, routing Texas 2A Region I District 2 rival Plains 48-0 at Farwell High School. Their Labor Day weekend loss to Friona seems like eons ago. Farwell has been cruising along every since.

But don’t tell head coach Danny Brittain. Though happy that his team has won seven in a row, Brittain looks at the Steers with concern, as a coach usually does.

“I’m going to be honest with you, we’ve had some struggles, actually,” Brittain said. “I know this sounds weird, but one game we’ll run the ball good and the next game we’ll throw the ball good. Like tonight, I think we threw the ball better.”

A good deal better than last week against Springlake-Earth. Just like the way they opened up their passing game against Seagraves on Oct. 12, as opposed to prior contests.

“Seagraves and this team, too, they really crashed us down,” Farwell quarterback Leefe Actkinson said. “So we had to open up and throw the ball a little bit more, and we did.”

Actkinson passed for 189 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions against Plains. And taking to the air helped loosen things up below.

As a result, there were plenty of good running lanes for the Steers. Ricardo Ortega, for one, rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown, putting him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season. He needed 66 coming in and finished Friday’s game with 1,006.

Actkinson led Farwell in rushing with 73 yards. Patrick Pena added 62 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns. Pena also caught a touchdown pass, finding the end zone three times in all.

The Steers, though, were locked in a close one early. After the first quarter, Farwell led just 7-0 on Patrick Pena’s 26-yard touchdown run and Jose Rodriguez’s extra point.

Two-thirds of the way into the second quarter, Farwell’s lead was still 7-0. And then the floodgates opened.

With 4:13 left in the half, Ortega bolted 38 yards for a touchdown. And with Rodriguez’s second extra point, the Steers led 14-0.

Pena added a nine-yard touchdown run with just 1:02 left in the second quarter, and the score remained 20-0 after the extra point was no good.

Actkinson tossed his first touchdown pass of the game — a 52-yarder to Pena — with just 24 seconds left before halftime. Rodriguez added the extra point to give Farwell a 27-0 advantage.

20 unanswered points in three minutes and 49 seconds.

“We raised our intensity,” Brittain said. “We came out kind of flat and kind of let ’em get through a couple of times, didn’t do our assignments. And after we picked up the intensity in the second quarter, it showed that we were a better football team.”

“The second quarter, we got our blocking together,” Actkinson said. “Our linemen got it together, they figured out who they were supposed to be blocking and they got it together. And that allowed me to throw the ball a little bit more efficiently.”

Farwell’s dominance spilled over into the second half. On Plains’ first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Farwell nose guard Trace Stancell crashed into Cowboys quarterback Austin Ward not far past the line of scrimmage, as the latter attempted a keeper. At first it appeared that Stancell was just driving Ward back, but it soon became evident that Stancell had stripped the ball from Ward and was rumbling in the other direction. Farwell had first-and-10 at Plains’ 18 with just 15 seconds gone by in the new half.

Stancell’s thievery didn’t lead to any points, however, as a Rodriguez field goal six plays later was blocked. But Stancell’s play did set the tone for hard-nosed defense over the final two quarters.

After Plains took over at its own 35, Ward threw a pass to Cole Reynolds, who headed down the left sideline with some good yards-after-the-catch. It took Rodriguez chasing him down for the tackle at the Farwell 7 to save a touchdown.

Good thing for the Steers because their defense wound up forcing a turnover on downs at the Farwell 10.

The Steers then marched 90 yards for a score in six plays, the final one coming on a 35-yard fade left from Actkinson to Sterling Henderson, who reached up and hauled it in near the Plains 2-yard line, then turned and trotted into the end zone.

Plains’ last possession of the third quarter was ended with a fourth-down stop by Farwell’s defense. And the Steers’ ensuing possession, which continued into the fourth quarter, included a fourth-down conversion pass from Actkinson to Henderson. It kept alive a series that ended with Actkinson throwing a five-yard slant pass to Ramon Reyes in the end zone.

An Aaron Meza fumble recovery helped set up Farwell’s last touchdown — a 20-yard Leo Ruiz run.

Soon it was over. Farwell had pasted another opponent and improved to 3-0 in district play, 7-1 overall. They notched this one by passing to open up the run, running to set up some key passing strikes.

“I think we’re pretty versatile,” Brittain said. “We’re able to adjust to what they’re trying to stop.”