Midland and El Dorado entered Thursday’s bi-district showdown with two high-powered offenses matching up. When the dust had settled, the Bulldogs made enough key defensive stops to win a 73-52 shootout over the El Dorado Aztecs. For Midland, it was their first playoff win since 2010.
“It’s a big win for our program,” head coach Craig Yenzer said following the game, “Our senior class said that this is what they wanted to do. I’m so proud of them. These guys have worked hard all year so it’s great to see them have success.”
The other storyline of this game was the showdown of the two quarterbacks: Jackson Anuszkiewicz of Midland and Cedarious Barfield of El Dorado. Anuszkiewicz continued his remarkable senior season, putting up 306 yards on 15 of 25 attempts and six touchdowns. He also had plenty of help from his receivers, including Juleion Bowers who had four catches for 96 yards and 2 scores. He also added a 7-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
“We knew that coming into the game that El Dorado was going to put up points regardless and I’m so proud that our defense made enough stops so that we could do what we do offensively. That was our whole goal,” Anuszkiewicz said.
The first half went back and forth as expected as Midland and El Dorado traded scores. The pivotal moment of the game arguably came when the Aztecs attempted a fake punt inside their own 10-yard line. Barfield was stopped on the play and the Bulldogs quickly responded with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Anuszkiewicz to McLane Mannix to give the Bulldogs a 10-point lead.
A fumble by Tyquez Hampton and an interception by Barfield to Chris Sims gave the Bulldogs another 10 points as they took a 37-24 halftime lead into the locker room.
After a 3-and- out on El Dorado’s first possession of the second half, Anuszkiewicz would find Julieon Bowers on a screen and Bowers would do the rest to give the Bulldogs a 44-24 lead.
El Dorado would cut the lead to six, thanks to the work of Cedarious Barfield, but the Bulldogs would respond near the end of the third quarter with another touchdown strike from Anuszkiewicz to Courtney McMaryion for a 51-38 lead. Bowers would add his touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to give Midland a 59-38 lead and enough cushion to give the Bulldogs the win.
“We’ve got an explosive bunch,” Yenzer said, “From our receivers to our two tailbacks and our offensive lineman, we’ve gotten so much better and it’s been really exciting to watch them develop.”
Offense was the story of this game as Midland finished with 571 yards of total offense. El Dorado put up another impressive showing in their final game. Barfield finished the night with506 yards of offense, including 251 yards rushing in the loss. Jorge Hernandez and Tyquez Hampton each had big nights in their final high school football game.
The Midland Bulldogs move on to take on the Arlington Bowie Volunteers next Saturday in Abilene in the area round. Yenzer said he hasn’t seen much of them on film yet, but his focus is on the present for now.
“We’ve played them before back in 2010. They’re a great football team with a lot of great athletes and it’ll be a great challenge, but we want to enjoy this victory first.”
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