HobbsDailyReport.com
POWERFUL PANTHERS
By beating Bandys 56-7 at home on Friday night to open the state playoffs, Hibriten reached 12 wins in a season for the seventh time in school history.
A look at the other six 12-win teams:
Year Head coach Record
2003 Chuck Cannon 13-2
2008 Chuck Cannon 12-2
2009 Chuck Cannon 13-1
2010 Clay Lewis 12-3
2013 Clay Lewis 12-2
2016 Clay Lewis 14-1
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files.
LENOIR – Hibriten High running back McKinley Witherspoon had a huge game against an old rival on Friday night – averaging 40 yards per rush – as the unbeaten Panthers hit another gear.
Second-seeded Hibriten smacked visiting Bandys 56-7 as Witherspoon ran six times for 241 yards and five TDs and added a punt return TD in a first-round state 2AA football playoff game.
No. 2 HIBRITEN 56
No 15 BANDYS 7
Hibriten gained a rematch with No. 10 Patton, its Northwestern Foothills 2A rival, for next Friday in the second round after Patton won 26-10 over No 7 North Surry on the road Friday night.
Hibriten beat Patton to win the league title.
On Friday night, the Panthers had the 15th-seeded Trojans (5-7) down 29-0 after one quarter and 50-0 by halftime.
Hibriten outgained Bandys 442-90 and didn’t even need to complete a pass to subdue the Trojans, who were 6-1 against the Panthers in Lenoir with two always-to-be-remembered postseason wins among those six.
Witherspoon had scoring runs of 40 and 81 yards in less than five minutes after kickoff, and his 80-yard punt return with four minutes, 17 seconds left in the first quarter helped Hibriten lead 21-0.
With 1:23 to go in the first quarter, Witherspoon went 44 yards for a TD and the route was well underway.
Leading 36-0, the Panthers got two 30-yard TD runs by Witherspoon in a span of about five minutes in the second quarter to go up 50-0 at the half.
Marqwone Jones, who had four carries for 75 yards, tacked on a 54-yard TD run in the final 69 seconds of the third quarter.
Bandys’ only score, with 5:53 to play, was a 10-yard run by Travis Russell, who had six carries for 60 yards to lead the Trojans.
Hibriten got 442 rushing yards on 27 plays, averaging 16.3 yards per carry, and held Bandys to 90 yards on 48 plays (1.8 per play).
The Panthers won for the 26th time in 27 games.
Hibriten and Bandys developed a solid rivalry through the years that was highlighted by two high-focus games – a 2003 state 2AA semifinal the Trojans won 20-13 in Lenoir and a second round game in 2AA the next year, also in Lenoir, that Bandys won 16-10.
In the state playoffs for the 15th straight season and eighth time under head coach Clay Lewis, the Panthers improved to 21-7 in state playoff games on their field.
Bandys, in the postseason for the 23rd time, fell to 33-23 in state playoff games and 12-15 in road postseason games.
The Trojans headed into Hibriten up 12-2 in the all-time series.
Bandys finished 5-7 and with a losing record for the third straight year, its longest run of those since 1987-92 when it had five consecutive losing seasons.