ABILENE — For three quarters, the fourth-ranked Stephenville Yellow Jackets found themselves in a dogfight with a scrappy Hereford squad Thursday at Shotwell Stadium. 

But that changed in a flash in the opening minute of the fourth, when coach Sterling Doty’s squad scored a pair of touchdowns in a 12-second span to open the floodgates for a 35-7 victory in a tougher-than-expected area-round matchup.

After Ryan Gafford hit Tristian Gentry with a 73-yard touchdown pass on the opening play of the fourth quarter to break a 7-all tie, Hudson Butchee picked off a Kalub Ramirez pass on first down and returned it 27 yards for a score to give the Yellow Jackets the momentum they needed to close out the Whitefaces and earn a Region I-4A semifinal date next week with Canyon Randall.

“It was just a great job of battling and cleaning up some things execution-wise,” Doty said. “We need to do a better job of coaching them and explaining exactly what we need them to do, but the credit for that adversity goes to Hereford.

“Their staff did a great job of preparing their kids, and they came out here and they played well. They made it very, very hard on us for three quarters, but we were able to persevere and overcome through just culture and consistency.”

While a 28-point fourth quarter allowed Stephenville to breathe easy in the latter stages of Thursday’s win, the path to that point was anything but a leisurely one.

A heavy underdog to the region favorite Jackets, the Whitefaces came out of the gates swinging and established early that they were there for a fight.

This was evident from the game’s first possession, which saw Hereford drive 78 yards on 11 snaps, scoring on a fourth-and-3 play from the SHS 18-yard line after originally lining up for a field goal. Following a timeout, Hereford decided to go for it, and Ramirez rewarded the decision with a touchdown pass to Tyi Duque, who made a circus catch on the sideline for the game’s opening score.

Following that touchdown, it was the Whiteface defense’s turn to show some fight, which it did with a pair of fourth-down stops on Stephenville’s first two possessions. The second came on a fourth-and-goal play from the 1, allowing Hereford to maintain a 7-0 lead into the early stages of the second quarter.

The Yellow Jackets finally leveled the score on their third possession, forcing a quick three-and-out to secure excellent field position, before Sawyer Wilkerson broke loose for a 31-yard touchdown run to make it a 7-7 game with 10:17 to play before halftime.

After HHS pushed into the red zone on its ensuing possession thanks to a 16-yard scramble by Ramirez on fourth-and-13 from the 33, Stephenville looked poised to take control when Brighton DeVivo intercepted Ramirez on the very next play.

But after leading the Stephenville offense from its own 7 to the Whiteface 34-yard line, Gafford was intercepted in the end zone to continue a series of missed opportunities over the middle two quarters.

The next came before halftime when a Gafford pass to Gentry took the Jackets into field goal range in the waning seconds of the second quarter. But without any timeouts, the clock expired before Cade Whitehead could get a shot at a 38-yard attempt.

The third quarter offered more of the same for SHS, which saw its first drive end inside the Hereford 10 on a fumble by Gafford. And a wild sequence of events on the Jackets’ second possession of the second half ended with Wilkerson being stopped short on a fourth-down play just outside the red zone after Doty had elected to accept an offsides penalty that negated a 46-yad field goal by Whitehead.

That stand by the Hereford defense was followed by a Whiteface punt that sent the game to the fourth quarter still tied at 7. But things flipped in a hurry at the quarter change.

On the first play of the final period, Gafford hit Gentry behind the defense with a long TD to finally give the Jackets their first lead and allow the home sideline to breathe a sigh of relief.

“I think there was so much relief on our team when I scored that,” said Gentry, who finished with 14 catches for 310 yards. “It was fun.”

Butchee then followed immediately with his pick-six — the first of two interceptions by the standout linebacker — to turn the tide for good.

“We just kept playing hard and never gave up,” Butchee said. “That’s what we do. We kept fighting and, finally, it fell in our direction. We got the points, got the touchdowns and got it done.”

Following the defensive score, Gafford hit Gentry again — this time for a 46-yard touchdown — to increase Stephenville’s lead to 28-7 with just over eight minutes to play.

And Butchee picked off Ramirez a second time to set up the Yellow Jackets’ final scoring drive — a short 12-yarder that was capped by Wilkerson’s second TD run of the game. 

Wilkerson finished with 131 yards rushing on 23 carries as Stephenville piled up 509 yards of total offense. 

Gafford did a lot of that damage, passing for 343 yards — with all but 33 of those going to Gentry.

Hereford, which was limited to 227 total yards, got 162 yards passing from Ramirez, but the junior quarterback was sacked twice, hurried many more times and intercepted on four occasions.

“(It was important) to make that quarterback uncomfortable,” Doty said, “because we saw what he was capable of when he had the ability be elusive and keep his eyes downfield.”

With the win, the Yellow Jackets advance to take on 11-1 Randall next week at a time, date and site to be determined.

Doty said it felt good to see his team respond so well to Thursday’s adversity — and feels even better to be preparing for another game.

“That’s what the playoffs are all about,” he said. “It’s not always going to go right, but the team that stays the course and believes in what they’re doing and ultimately executes is going to pull it out.”

REGION I-4A DIV. I AREA ROUND

STEPHENVILLE 35, HEREFORD 7

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th		Final
Hereford	7	0	0	0	—	7
Stephenville	0	7	0	28	—	35

FIRST QUARTER

HER — Tyi Duque 18 pass from Kalub Ramirez (Isaiah Villarreal kick), 7:00

SECOND QUARTER

STE — Sawyer Wilkerson 31 run (Cade Whitehead kick), 10:17

FOURTH QUARTER

STE — Tristian Gentry 73 pass from Ryan Gafford (Whitehead kick), 11:38

STE — Hudson Butchee 27 interception return (Whitehead), 11:26

STE — Gentry 46 pass from Gafford (Whitehead kick), 8:22

STE — Wilkerson 5 run (Whitehead kick), 6:41

	HER	STE
First downs	14	20
Rushes-Yards	26-65	32-166
Passing	162	343
Comp-Att-Int	18-35-4	16-26-1
Punts-Avg.	6-36.7	0-0
Fumbles-Lost	0-0	1-1
Penalties-Yards	3-15	2-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Hereford, Brylyn Lopez 19-50, Kalub Ramirez 6-18, Kobe Goodloe 1-(-3). Stephenville, Sawyer Wilkerson 23-131, Zyler McClendon 4-43, Kolton Dearth 1-1, Ryan Gafford 2-(4), Team 2-(-5).

PASSING — Hereford, Kalub Ramirez 18-35-4—162. Stephenville, Ryan Gafford 16-26-1—343.

RECEIVING — Hereford, Ethan Gonzales 7-65, Tell Bryant 5-44, Lorenzo Lopez 3-16, Tyi Duque 2-23, Brylyn Lopez 1-14. Stephenville, Tristian Gentry 14-310, Bryson Powell 2-33.

RECORDS — Hereford 8-4; Stephenville 11-1.