Mustangs win, claim third seed from district

BOVINA — After Thursday’s 38-26 District 3-2A Division II victory over Lockney, it was wait-and-see time for Bovina.

The result of Friday’s district clash between Sudan and Ralls would determine who the Mustangs would face in first round of the playoffs this week.

As it turned out, Ralls won 27-13, leaving the Jackrabbits (7-2, 4-1 district) tied with the Hornets (8-2, 4-1) for the district title but giving them the tiebreaker. That dropped Bovina (4-5, 3-2) into third place and secured a 4 p.m. bi-district date against Seagraves at 6 p.m. (CST) at Slaton.

Now the trick is to win some games — the Mustangs are going to the postseason for the seventh year in a row, including the last five under coach Coby Emery, but they’ve advanced as far as the second round only twice in that span.

Mustangs senior running back/linebacker Darian DeLaRosa was hoping the Ralls/Sudan game might go the other way.

“It’ll be a tough road in the playoffs,” he said after Thursday’s victory. “Hopefully, Sudan wins tomorrow; we’ll be rooting for them.”

Both teams scored quickly in Thursday’s tilt, but the Mustangs kept the Longhorns (2-7, 1-4) in check most of the remaining time.

DeLaRosa had a big night, rushing for 98 yards and a touchdown and catching two passes for 56 yards and another score. He also dropped two of his three punts inside the Lockney 10, and recovered two fumbles on defense.

“They came out and played tough,” DeLaRosa said of the Longhorns. “They gave us some good competition.”

Meantime, junior wide receiver Miguel Lopez caught seven passes for 89 yards, including a 38-yard TD pass from junior quarterback Daniel Herrera which gave the Mustangs a 14-7 halftime lead.

After forcing a 3-and-out and a short punt following the opening kickoff, DeLaRosa sprinted 32 yards around right end for a score on Bovina’s first play from scrimmage. Lockney countered almost immediately on a 65-yard pass play from sophomore QB Dyllan Thiebaud to junior wide-out Jeremiah Rosales for a 7-6 advantage.

The Longhorns tied it 14-14 early in the third quarter on a 27-yard run by sophomore running back Xavier Jimenez, but the Mustangs scored twice — a 1-yard run by Herrera and a 45-yard pass to DeLaRosa — and added a pair of 2-point conversions to lead 30-14 after three.

Thiebaud, the son of Longhorns coach Jonathan Thiebaud, threw for two touchdowns and ran for one but was intercepted twice, by juniors Andrew Garcia and Gage Casas. Meantime, Jimenez rushed for 157 yards on 27 carries.

Herrera finished 13-for-24 for the game for 223 yards and three touchdowns, including a 26-yard strike to junior Michael Nieto to make it 38-20 with less than four minutes left and all but put the game out of reach.

“Offensively, we played well,” Emery said. “I thought Daniel Herrera threw the ball well tonight.”

The game was moved up a night because of lack of available officials, something which DeLaRosa said he didn’t mind.

“We were a little banged up from last game (a 25-23 loss at Sudan),” he said. “It was a tough loss at Sudan, but tonight we played our hearts out and got a win.”

Bovina other district loss was a 27-20 decision to Ralls in which the Mustangs led 27-20 at the half.

“We’ve been kind of snakebit this year,” Emery said. “We’ve let a couple of games slip away, but tonight we played hard because of how we fought last week.”

In Friday area Texas regular-season finales:

Muleshoe 27, Dalhart 23 — At Muleshoe, the Mules claimed the No. 3 playoff seed in District 2-3A Division I with a last-minute win over the Wolves.

Senior Irvin Torres caught scoring passes of 15 and 29 yards from sophomore quarterback Nathan Martens, the latter coming with 47 seconds left to lift the Mules (7-3, 2-2 district) from a 23-21 deficit. Muleshoe then recovered a squib kick on the ensuing kickoff and ran out the clock.

Muleshoe faces Brownfield, a team it beat 39-37 during the regular season, in a 7 p.m. (CST) bi-district game on Thursday in Levelland.

Dalhart (4-5, 1-3) scored three times in the second quarter to lead 20-7 at halftime. Junior Sebastian Kirven’s 1-yard run and a 17-yard scoring pass from Martens to senior Eliasar Cisneros in the third quarter sent the Mules in front before Dalhart grabbed the lead back on a field goal early in the final segment.

The seven wins are the most for the Mules since they went 8-5 in 2016.

Panhandle 47, Farwell 25 — Farwell led 13-6 at the quarter, but the host Panthers outscored the Steers 27-6 in the second half to pull away to claim the No. 2 seed from District 1-2A Division I.

Panhandle (8-2, 4-1 district) piled up a 529-350 advantage in total yards in the contest. Junior running back Corey Stancell finished with 163 yards rushing, scoring on runs of 2, 2 and 53 yards, while senior QB Alec Actkinson added 130 yards on the ground and tallied the game’s first TD on a 16-yard run.

Farwell faces Olton in the bi-district round, with the game set for 7 p.m. (CST) on Thursday at Littlefield, while Panhandle’s first-round foe will be Floydada.