PLAINVIEW – Littlefield entered Friday’s Class 2A Area playoff hoping to wear down River Road with a constant, pounding running game.

Instead, it was River Road that did the pounding – accordingly out of the “Wildcat” formation – then held off a furious Littlefield rally that included a batted pass in the end zone as time expired on a 34-28 River Road win at Greg Sherwood Memorial Bulldog Stadium.

Littlefield quarterback Tracey Huseman reacts to a missed touchdown pass in the endzone during the final seconds of Friday night's game against River Road in Plainview. River Road beat Littlefield 34-28 to advance to the next playoff round. (John A. Bowersmith/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

River road's Chris Perez tries to break free from Littlefield's Zach Johnson during their Class 2A playoff game Friday night in Plainview. (John A. Bowersmith)

“They mauled us,” Littlefield coach Bryan Huseman said. “They were just much better up front than we thought they were, and they manhandled us and we couldn’t do much about it. It was very frustrating.

“We knew they would (run the ball). That’s what they love to do. I don’t know if we gave them enough credit up front. They’re so big and created those seams, and those good backs just ran through those seams. We couldn’t stop them.”

As a result, Littlefield’s season comes to an end at 10-2 while River Road (9-3) advances to face either Brady or Merkel at a time, date and site to be determined.

River Road snapped the ball 68 times in the game, 64 in the “Wildcat.” All of River Road’s 416 total yards came on the ground as tailback Chris Perez, who took the snaps in the vintage single-wing formation, carried 31 times for 226 yards and a touchdown while running back Gavin Jimenez added 115 yards and three touchdowns on 24 carries.

“The ‘Wildcat’ is a good package, and Chris Perez is amazing back there reading it,” River Road coach Bryan Welps said. “We tried to get more guys going one way because a team like Littlefield will wear you out like that. The guys up front blocked it.”

As much as River Road dominated the third three quarters, Littlefield came up with two big defensive stops in the fourth quarter to give itself a chance to win, but failed to capitalize.

Trailing 34-21, Littlefield scored on the final play of the fourth quarter – after a fumble on third-and-goal and offsetting penalties as time expired, resulting in an untimed down – when Tanner Heffington caught a 6-yard touchdown from Tracy Huseman to pull to within 6.

River Road looked as though it would put the game away by driving from its 19 to the Littlefield 16. But on second-and-9, Perez lost two yards on a tackle by Girard Hewlett, and quarterback Sheldyn Van Winkle threw incomplete on third down before being sacked by Zach White on fourth down, giving the ball to Littlefield at its 25.

A personal foul took Littlefield to its 49, but four plays netted just three yards as Tracy Huseman threw two consecutive incompletions, giving it back to River Road. River Road went three-and-out, pinning Littlefield at its 26.

River Road stopped Littlefield on fourth down at the 33, but returned the favor, giving it back on downs at the Littlefield 25, but with just 31.3 seconds left.

A 45-yard pass to Patric Barrio took the ball to the River Road 42, and Barrick Hodge caught a 12-yarder to the 30. On second-and-15, Huseman heaved the ball toward the end zone as time expired, the ball bouncing off White’s hands and to the ground to end the game and Littlefield’s season.

“Our ol’ kids battled and I felt they played their hearts out,” Bryan Huseman said.
“There were so many times in there it didn’t look good for us and they kept coming back. We had the ball with a chance to win the game a couple of times and I felt maybe I made some poor decisions and some bad calls that got us down. I feel bad for the kids because they gave themselves every opportunity to go ahead and win.”

River Road opened the game in the Wildcat, and aside from two snaps when Van Winkle actually took a snap, stayed in it the entire first half. Littlefield struggled to slow it down as Perez ran the offense effectively.

Perez carried 15 times for 122 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and Jimenez added 93 yards and a pair of short touchdown runs as River Road chewed up 270 total yards in the first half, all on the ground. River Road’s only three pass attempts resulted in two incompletions and a Zach Johnson interception that Littlefield turned into a touchdown.

“Our (defensive) line was just getting blown off the ball,” White said. “We just didn’t play as good as we could. They were just bigger than we thought.”

River Road took a 13-0 lead to start the game, but Littlefield recovered to go up 14-3 on a 52-yard run by Thomas “Cheeto” Richardson and an 11-yard pass from Huseman to White, one of two TD catches by White and one of three TD tosses for Huseman.

But River Road came back with two touchdowns in the final 2 1/2 minutes of the first half to go up 28-14 . After Jimenez scored from 3 yards out with 2:26 left in the half, Littlefield turned it over on a fumble by Raymond Sansom. That resulted in a 25-yard TD run by Perez to make it 28-14.

Littlefield, which has averaged more than 400 yards per game on the year, had just 123 at the intermission and 303 total, but just 158 yards on the ground. Barrio, battling a knee injury, rushed for just 63 yards on 18 carries while Littlefield was led by Richardson’s 87 yards. Huseman was 8 of 17 for 145 yards and the three scores.

“Patric just wasn’t the same,” Bryan Huseman said. “It was his first game back and he ran hard and did a great job but he’s got that bad knee and it was tough. They were tougher up front than we thought they were. Watching them on video and being out there today, they were much better.”

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CLASS 2A DIVISION I AREA PLAYOFF
at Greg Sherwood Memorial Bulldog Stadium, Plainview
RIVER ROAD 34, LITTLEFIELD 28
Littlefield 0 14 14 0–28
River Road 7 21 6 0–34
First Quarter
RR—Trent Crich 47 run (Holt Owen kick); 5:36
Second Quarter
RR—Gavin Jimenez 2 run (Owen kick); 10:41
LIT—Cheeto Richardson 52 run (Armando Silvas kick); 9:46
LIT—Zach White 11 pass from Tracy Huseman (Silvas kick); 6:25
RR—Jimenez 3 run (Chris Perez run); 2:26
RR—Perez 25 run (Owen kick); 1:23
Third Quarter
LIT—White 10 pass from Huseman (Silvas kick); 7:00\
RR—Jimenez 1 run (kick failed); 2:23
LIT—Tanner Heffington 6 pass from Huseman (Silvas kick); :00

TEAM STATISTICS
LIT RR
First downs 15 26
Rushes-yards 33-158 64-416
Passing yards 14 50
Comp.-att.-int. 8-17-1 0-4-1
Punts-avg. 2-48.5 2-31.0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 3-20 2-15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Littlefield, Thomas Richardson 7-87, Patric Barrio 18-63, Tracy Huseman 8-8; River Road, Chris Perez 31-226, Gavin Jimenez 24-115, Trent Crich 5-67, Sheldyn Van Winkle 4-8.
PASSING: Littlefield, Huseman 8-17-1—145; River Road, Van Winkle 0-3-1—0, Perez 0-1-0—0.
RECEIVING: Littlefield, Zach White 3-63, Barrick Hodge 2-40, Barrio 1-32, Tanner Heffington 1-6, Raymond Sansom 1-4.