Aledo starts the run for its 11th state title with the dismantling of Killeen Shoemaker

The Aledo football team doesn’t care who’s on the other side of the line of scrimmage.

The Bearcats enter the playoffs in search of their 11th state title...this time in Class 5A Division 1 after moving up a division from a year ago.

So far so good for Aledo.

The Bearcats started slowly, but turned it on in the second quarter to help pull away from Killeen Shoemaker 37-0 on Thursday in a bi-district game at Bearcat Stadium.

“Our goal is to get better week by week and teach our kids how to work hard, that’s our goal,” said Aledo coach Tim Buchanan. “If you take care of the little things the big things like winning games and winning state championships kind of take care of themselves.”

“Like they said in the Dave Campbell’s magazine, our expectations are still the same,” said Aledo defensive end Lawson Moore. “That’s the mindset of everyone in that locker room and nothing really changes.”

Aledo (9-2) advances to next week’s area round and will face Lubbock-Cooper (9-2) at 7 p.m. next Friday at Sweetwater.

Shoemaker’s season ends at 8-3.

The Bearcats were without the services of Hauss Hejny, who was nursing a groin injury, but senior Brant Hayden was solid in running the offense and protecting the ball. Aledo had no penalties and no turnovers in the game while Hayden was at the helm.

“You never want to see one of your teammates go down, especially Hauss,” said Hayden who wound up completing 7 of 14 passes for 51 yards. “He’s having a great season and I’m so proud of him for that, but I just wanted to step in and get after it.

“I’ve been on varsity since my sophomore season so I’m pretty comfortable with the system. Throughout the week I was just trying to make the right reads, fix anything that I’ve had a problem with in the past and, honestly, get a win by any means.”

Hank Patrick-Daniels took the second snap of the Bearcats’ second possession 72 yards right up the middle to give Aledo a 7-0 lead with 7:48 left in the first quarter. Patrick-Daniels, who led Aledo with 108 rushing yards on 12 carries, added another touchdown when he darted in from 10 yards out late in the second quarter.

Caleb Pope had two second quarter scores as well. The first followed an interception by Aledo defensive back Aven Lawrence who picked off a pass by the Grey Wolves at the Shoemaker 45 and returned it to the five yard line.

“I don’t know it just happened in the moment and I don’t really even remember it,” said Lawrence. “I just got hyped when I saw it in the air and I had to take my opportunity to go get it.”

From there Pope bulled into the line, but just wouldn’t go down. The Aledo offensive line finished the run off pushing Pope into the end zone to give Aledo a 14-0 lead with 11:08 left before the half.

The second Pope score came with just 36 seconds left before the intermission. A Shoemaker punt gave the Bearcats the ball back at the Grey Wolves 47 and Aledo did a great job of managing the clock to score. Pope, who finished with 13 carries for 62 yards, had runs of 3 and 8 yards to start the drive and caught an 11-yard pass just before running off right tackle from 6 yards out to give Aledo a 28-0 lead at the break.

The Bearcats were more that happy to pound the ball in the second half to take time off the clock.

“Just run the ball down their throats play after play after play,” said Hayden whose team pick up 354 yards of total offense with 277 coming on the ground. “Get that o-line to push them and get the ball in the end zone.

“These guys work their tails off every week. Practice in the morning, late after school and it makes us just want to win the game even more.”

Aledo scored on a 2-yard TD run by Davhon Keys to cap a 13-play, 55-yard drive on the Bearcats first possession of the second half. The drive took over six minutes off the clock and upped the lead to 35-0.

The Aledo defense was more than solid against Shoemaker’s explosive quarterback Malachi Jerome. The Bearcats held the Grey Wolves to 68 total yards of offense with 18 rushes netting minus-22 yards and Jerome throwing 27 times, completing 12, for 90 yards with two interceptions.

“Well, that’s kind of what we hang our hats on around here, defensive football,” said Buchanan. “The fact that we contained them and did not give up the big play for a touchdown was very impressive. Coach (Brad) McCone, our defensive coordinator, had a good plan and our kids followed the plan.”

Moore and a couple of his defensive buddies capped the scoring by tackling a Shoemaker running back in the end zone for a safety with 4:45 left in the game.

“We were looking at them on film all week and we usually have a game plan for when they run that kind of stretch look and it worked out perfectly for us,” said Moore. “They ran it a couple of times, but the quarterback pulled it so we didn’t get to run it so finally the running back kept it and it worked out perfectly.”

Aledo reserves took over early in the fourth quarter on offense and running back Ryan Cox carried 12 times for 59 yards. Freshman quarterback Gavin Beard completed three of four passes for 26 yards including a nifty forward flick to Jalen Pope for 11 yards and a first down as he was scrambling out of trouble.

“I’m just proud of the kids,” said Buchanan. “I don’t know how many years it is, but since we started making the playoffs in 1996 we have won our first-round playoff game every year and that’s a very impressive thing for these kids.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2022 at 9:58 PM.