Tascosa was able to move the ball and generate some offense early and, while Aledo’s defense bent, it did not break or budge on the scoreboard. Additionally, the offense scored efficiently in its limited first-half reps before asserting its will in the second half on both sides of the ball. In the end, Aledo emerged victorious with a 42-0 win to secure the area round crown.
“They were doing some things a little bit different than what they had shown on video, as far as their blocking on the back end, which was allowing them to get some first downs,” Bearcats head coach Robby Jones said. “Luckily, we didn’t break – we did a little bending, but we didn’t break. We were able to come up with stops when we needed to. It was one of those deals where it was just an adjustment we had to make. In the second half, once we were able to have enough time to talk to the kids, the adjustments and how they happened in the second half – it wasn’t the same.”
In its first two possessions, Tascosa ran 23 plays and generated five first downs. Despite that, though, the drives ended with punts. In between those two drives, Aledo used its legs to move the ball down the field. The Bearcats’ initial scoring drive was fueled by big runs of 46 yards and 19 yards by seniors Lincoln Tubbs and Brady Powell, respectively, while the scoring drive was capped off by senior running back Kaden Winkfield, who found paydirt from two yards out with 1:59 left in the opening frame.
Following another defensive stand, Tubbs called his own number from 63 yards out as he weaved through and raced past several Rebel defenders on his way to the end zone. The explosive run, one in which Tubbs showcased his 4.4 40-yard-dash-level speed, grew Aledo’s lead to 14-0 with 10:28 to go before halftime.
Tascosa marched the ball inside the Aledo 10 on 10 plays, but star defensive tackle Tymon Meeks stymied the drive with a fumble recovery that put the Bearcat offense back on the field with 5:27 left. From there, Tubbs engineered another Aledo scoring drive as he found star senior wideout Kaydon Finley from 21 yards out to push the lead to 1:31 left, and the 21-0 margin held up as the halftime score.
Then, Aledo kept on running away with the game thanks to its three-headed monster in the backfield. The trio of Tubbs, Powell, and Winkfield unofficially combined for 279 rushing yards and five of the team’s six touchdowns – Tubbs tallied 166 of those rushing yards all in the first half.
“In big games, you’re going to need the run game, and you’re going to need all three of those guys turning out yards,” Jones said. “That was good to see that we were able to do that and we felt like, coming in, we would have a chance to run the football on these guys. And then, they were playing their safety over the top of Kaydon Finley to try to take him away a little bit, and that just opened up the run game – we took what they were giving us.”
While Aledo was able to produce a shutout and saw two second-half scores by Powell along with one from Winkfield, Jones was pleased with the short drives his defense limited Tascosa to in the final two quarters, including two more fumble recoveries and several three-and-outs forced.
“I really liked the second half a lot better than the first half,” Jones said of his defense. “The great thing about the first half was we didn’t give up any points, but they were able to turn out first downs and keep the ball away from our offense. They were playing keep away which only gave us three possessions, but we scored on all three of them. It was a great job all around adjusting to what they were doing and stopping it in the second half.”
With another dominant win under their belts, Aledo moves onto the regional semifinals at a site much closer to home. If they win this upcoming contest, then the Bearcats would face a familiar foe either way – the winner of Richland and Denton Ryan in the regional final.
“It’s another opportunity to go out and get better for games down the road, because we plan on winning the game,” Jones said. “They’re going to come in on a high since it’s the first time they’ve been this far in the playoffs since 1973 – I was three years old when that happened – so it’s going to be a big game right here in Crowley. I’m expecting them to have a big crowd and I’m expecting the Aledo people to show up since it’s going to be so close to home, and we’re going to have more family members in town for Thanksgiving. It ought to be a good crowd on both sides, and they (Arlington Heights) run the heck out of the football, so we’ve got to make sure we’re doing a good job of stopping the run.”
Aledo (12-0, 10-0) will face off against Arlington Heights (11-1, 7-1) at 1 p.m. Friday at the Crowley ISD Multipurpose Stadium in the Class 5A Division I, Region I regional semifinal.
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