HobbsDailyReport.com
LENOIR – Hibriten High left little doubt it has the best football team in the Northwestern Foothills 2A, hammering visiting Patton 35-0 on Friday night in a showdown for the conference title.
HIBRITEN 35
PATTON 0
Running back McKinley Witherspoon boosted Hibriten’s early one-touchdown lead to 28-0 fewer than two minutes into the second half with three straight scores for the Panthers (11-0, 6-0).
Hibriten led 7-0 in the opening quarter after a 5-yard TD run by Skylin Thomas and PAT by Noah Haney.
Witherspoon broke a run of 47 yards for a score less than a minute into the second quarter, and Haney added an extra point to make it 14-0.
About eight minutes later, Witherspoon ran 50 yards for a TD and Hibriten led 21-0 at the half.
Jaylen Scott threw a screen pass to Witherspoon that turned into a 51-yard TD to open the second-half scoring and push the lead to 28-0.
Witherspoon ran for nearly 150 yards on 10 carries as Hibriten outgained Patton 337-76 to improve to 25-1 in its last 26 games.
Patton (9-2, 5-2), which had a six-game win streak snapped, finished second in the conference and one game in front of third-place Fred T. Foard. That’s the best league finish in school history for Patton.
The game was played in an almost constant downpour of rain and there were more than 10 fumbles by the teams with Patton recovering three and Hibriten grabbing two.
The teams combined to try only six passes, four of those by Hibriten.
Both teams will reach the state playoffs with Hibriten advancing there for the 16th straight season.
Hibriten now leads its series against Patton 9-1 after picking up career win No. 68 for head coach Clay Lewis (in 90 games as head coach).