The Estacado football program is starting to make homecoming meaningful again.

Estacado's Alton White takes a kick off return down the sidelines Friday night against Pampa at Lowrey Field. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

The 2009 Matadors gave fans and alumni plenty to cheer about and something to look forward to the rest of the season, showing vast improvement from their season-opening loss by hanging almost 400 yards of total offense on Pampa and scoring 34 unanswered points en route to a 41-14 runaway in front of a good-sized homecoming crowd at Lowrey Field.

Estacado quarterback Deverick Stubblefield threw for a career-high 227 yards and four touchdowns, and the Mats (1-1) held Pampa to just 208 yards total offense and 14 points a week after the Harvesters (0-2) hung 43 points on Borger.

“We just came out and played hard,” said Estacado defensive tackle Abraham Cleaver, who was in on one of five sacks of Pampa quarterback Alex Clendening. “We just watched the snap count and really had everything down, to tell you the truth. That was about it.”

As it turned out, it was a little more. Clendening torched Borger for 366 yards and five touchdowns last week, but against Estacado felt little more than frustration, completing 14 of 26 for just 177 yards and no touchdowns.

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Coupled with just 31 yards on the ground, it was a dominant effort by the Mats from the 10:37 mark of the second quarter on, when Estacado took control and quickly erased a 14-7 deficit. The Matadors finished with 384 yards of total offense and had 286 of that by the end of the first half.

“It was a total team effort by both sides of the football,” Estacado coach Danny Servance said. “It was important for us to not let them have the football for a long time, and I think the guys did a great job of that tonight. We had a misfire here and a misfire there and we continued to talk about being consistent and not shooting ourselves in the foot, and I think we finally just got to the point where we put some complete drives together.”

The Matadors took the first lead of the game on a 2-yard Alton White touchdown run set up by a bad punt snap over Clendening’s head. But the Harvesters recovered and came back to take the lead on touchdown runs of 7 yards by Clendening and 3 yards by Nathan Webb, the last one coming 1:23 into the second quarter.

Estacado's Deverick Stubblefield runs with the ball Friday night against Pampa at Lowrey Field. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Estacado answered on its next drive by going 63 yards in just five plays, with Stubblefield hitting a pair of 28-yard completions to Brylon Bradford and Clarence Willard to put Estacado at the Pampa 7. On the next play, Stubblefield hit Willard on a fade in the back right corner of the end zone, and Xavier Luna added the PAT to tie the game at 14.

Pampa’s Ryan Jimenez coughed up the ball on the ensuing kickoff, and Willard fell on it at the Pampa 36. Estacado then caught the Harvesters overpursuing as Bradford took a pitch on an end-around, found the left sideline and raced untouched for the touchdown, putting the Mats up 20-14.

The Harvesters’ next possession ended in a punt, and White returned it to the Pampa 31 before a penalty pushed the ball back to midfield. Augustine Abigide ripped off a pair of runs to the Pampa 9, and two plays later Stubblefield hit Bradford on a slant for a 5-yard touchdown, pushing the lead to 27-14.

Another Pampa possession ended in another punt, but this one pinned the Mats at their 33. A holding penalty pushed the ball back 10 yards before Stubblefield found Cody Cortez on the bubble screen. Cortez crossed to the right sideline and outraced three Pampa defenders – aided by an Abigide block inside the 5 – for a 77-yard touchdown with just less than three minutes left in the first half, giving Estacado a 33-14 lead that held up to intermission.

“That was a big momentum shift there, and we didn’t play well in the second quarter,” Pampa head coach Heath Parker said. “They hit a couple of big plays on us and we (struggled) offensively and had some special-teams miscues. The next thing we knew they had all the momentum in the world.”

Estacado's Cody Cortez makes his way to the endzone on a 77-yard touchdown-pass reception against Pampa Friday night at Lowrey Field. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Estacado added one last touchdown early in the fourth quarter after the defense had stopped the Harvesters at the 3-yard line on downs. Estacado turned that into a nine-play, 97-yard scoring drive capped by sophomore Ti Russell’s 18-yard touchdown catch with 10:58 left in the game.

Clendening did most of his damage after halftime as the Matadors limited him to just 75 yards in the first half, and three of Estacado’s five sacks came in the second half after Pampa’s running game was rendered ineffective

“Our kids have really bought into the scheme of things and understand everything we want out of them,” Servance said. “We put them in the right positions and I can’t say enough about their effort tonight. It was an amazing job by our defense and a total team effort.”

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george.watson@lubbockonline.com l 766-2166

ESTACADO 41, PAMPA 14

Pampa 7 7 0 0 – 14

Estacado 7 27 0 7 – 41

First Quarter

EST-Alton White 2 run (Xavier Luna kick); 8:56

PAM-Alex Clendening 7 run (Colten Adams kick); 1:34

Second Quarter

PAM-Nathan Webb 3 run (Adams kick); 10:37

EST-Clarence Willard 7 pass from Deverick Stubblefield (Luna kick); 9:23

EST-Brylon Bradford 36 run (kick failed); 9:07

EST-Bradford 5 pass from Stubblefield (Luna kick); 5:01

EST-Cody Cortez 77 pass from Stubblefield (Luna kick); 2:55

Fourth Quarter

EST-Ti Russell 18 pass from Stubblefield (Luna kick); 10:58

TEAM STATISTICS

PAM EST

First downs 17 17

Rushes-yards 27-31 26-157

Passing yards 177 227

Comp.-att.-int. 14-26-0 10-19-1

Punts-avg. 6-27.3 4-25.2

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 6-36 7-61

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Pampa, Nathan Webb 7-20, Kendrick Alexander 10-13, Alex Clendening 10-(-4); Estacado, Augustine Abigide 6-61, Alton White 11-58, Brylon Bradford 1-36, Quentin Patterson 2-12, Deverick Stubblefield 6-(-10).

PASSING: Pampa, Clendening 14-26-0-177; Estacado, Stubblefield 10-19-1-227.

RECEIVING: Pampa, Garrett Ericson 2-36, Corbin Clifton 3-29, Webb 2-27, Alexander 3-25, Anthony Allen 2-20, Michael Fisher 2-18; Estacado, Cody Cortez 1-77, Clarence Willard 3-52, Latarus Robinson 3-47, Bradford 2-33, Ti Russell 1-18.

HIGH SCHOOLS/Estacado shows huge improvement, pours it on Harvesters