The No. 1 Aledo Bearcats had the chance to entertain their home fans at Tim Buchanan Stadium one more time during the 2025 season as the Bearcats opened their postseason quest Friday night as host to the Saginaw Roughriders in the teams’ bi-district clash. Aledo started the game out fast, posted their highest point total, and the defense remained stingy in the Bearcats’ 80-12 victory to secure the bi-district championship.
“We would have liked to have played a little bit better early on in the first half, but our of responded, came back and played a lot better,” Bearcats head coach Robby Jones said. “We got some younger guys some good reps there towards the end, so that was good to see some of those guys get in, make some plays, and do some things pretty well. Overall, it was just a good effort by our kids.
Aledo started the game out strong with scoring drives on each of their opening offensive possessions – the first coming off the legs of senior running back Kaden Winkfield with 8:25 left and the second a 14-yarder by Winkfield with 4:25 to go. Although a 14-0 deficit to Aledo might have overwhelmed most, Saginaw seemed unfazed as it found the scoreboard earlier than some might have expected. Roughriders 6-foot-6 senior quarterback Joshua Greek connected with junior Kaiden Stewart deep down the field for a 98-yard catch-and-run touchdown that trimmed the deficit to 14-6 with 3:35 left, the eight-point margin coming courtesy of a blocked PAT by Aledo.
Then, the Bearcats started seeing red instead of orange.
After Saginaw’s long touchdown pass, Aledo outscored the Roughriders 35-0 to close out the half. Senior running back Brady Powell reignited Aledo’s offense with a 15-yard touchdown run 12 seconds into the second quarter and followed that up with a nine-yarder following a 51-yard run by senior quarterback Lincoln Tubbs with 3:10 left. On the next possession, Aledo needed just one play – a 67-yard scoring connection between Tubbs and star senior receiver Kaydon Finley before Winkfield beat the halftime horn with another short rushing score to push the lead to 49-6 at intermission. The defense impressed with two turnovers as well – an interception by Cooper Hull and a fumble recovery by Cole Cox that prevented Saginaw scores.
“We didn’t play perfect, which is the ultimate goal – we strive for perfection,” Jones said. “We’re never going to achieve it, but when we don’t have things go our way, then it’s going to come eventually. We made a few mistakes, had a few things not work for us, but other than that we are pleased.”
Tubbs found Finley again from 11 yards out to push Aledo’s point total to 56 points while Rudy Moya found paydirt from three yards out at the 5:27 mark of the third quarter to make it a 63-6 advantage. Saginaw found the end zone again to cut the deficit to 63-12 on another Greek-Stewart connection, but Aledo responded with three more scores – two rushing touchdowns by Jeremiah Johnson and a 43-yard field goal by Payton Shaffer – for the final total of 80 points, which is Aledo’s highest output across its 11 games thus far.
As they advance each round, though, the Bearcats will continue to seek improvement, and Jones is focused on sharpening some things on the defensive side of the ball as Aledo prepares to face tougher competition week in and week out.
“We need to do a better job of reading some coverages. We had some receivers bust some routes that the quarterback didn’t see a coverage there a couple of times,” Jones said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re doing a better job of seeing the coverage and reading the coverage while doing the proper things.”
Aledo (11-0, 8-0) will take the field again at 7 p.m. Friday at Memorial Stadium in Big Spring where it will face the Tascosa Rebels (7-4, 4-2), who defeated Parkland 84-13 in their bi-district outing.
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