STEPHENVILLE – The Richland Springs Coyotes moved within one victory of a 10th six-man state championship, and first since 2019, by advancing to the Class A Division II state final with Saturday’s 66-20 triumph over the Strawn Greyhounds at Art Briles Stadium.
The No. 3 Coyotes (13-1), who own the record for six-man state championships with nine won between 2004-19, will next face No. 1 Jayton (13-0) at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Game will be broadcast live on KOXE 101.3.
“I swore a long time ago I was never going back to the state championship game unless a team took me, so we’re getting to go, and thank God for these young guys,” said Richland Springs head coach Harley Ethridge. “I tell them every week you have to be 10 percent better once the playoffs start and I thought we showed about 10 percent tonight, but we’re going to need about 25 percent to play with Jayton.”
Richland Springs finished the Class A Division II state semifinal game with 292 yards of total offense – 223 rushing yards on 20 carries and 69 passing yards, connecting on 6 of 8 attempts – while limiting Strawn (12-2) to 122 yards, including negative-40 rushing yards on 19 carries and 162 passing yards, completing 7 of 17 tosses.
Cohen Ethridge again stole the show offensively for the Coyotes, amassing 191 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 14 carries, returning a kick 60 yards for another touchdown, and completing 6 of 7 passes for 69 yards with a scoring toss.
“My coaches said if they can’t stop my feet, make them, and if they come up keep throwing,” Ethridge said. “They never did that, so I had all the room to run.”
Ethan Deeds hauled in a 3-yard scoring reception and finished with four grabs for 45 yards, and also rushed for a 19-yard touchdown for the Coyotes, while Billy Perry tacked on 13 yards rushing and caught an 8-yard pass and Eli Hutchins pulled down a 16-yard reception.
Defensively, the Coyotes recorded five sacks and a pair of safeties on balls knocked free in the end zone that rolled out of bounds, including the game ending play that started on the Strawn 4 and ended when Perry ripped the pigskin loose with 5:08 left in the third period.
Coach Ethridge credited the addition of defensive coordinator Jerry Burkhart – the former Richland Springs head coach whose three-year UIL suspension expired during the regular season – with the improved play of the defense since the start of the playoffs.
“Coach always has a great game plan,” Ethridge said. “He likes to feel them out the first half of the first quarter and then make adjustments, and I think we saw a lot of that. The defense was already good, but adding that guy made us so much better. Strawn had an answer for a lot of things, but the pressure is what made the difference.”
The Coyotes jumped out to a 22-0 lead at the 1:36 mark of the first period, as Richland Springs scored on its first three possessions while Strawn to that point had mustered negative-7 yards of total offense.
“That’s always important, especially against a good team, and they are a good, strong team,” Coach Ethridge said of the fast start. “We thought if we could eliminate our turnovers they would eventually crack, and that’s kind of what they did. That’s our philosophy.”
The Coyotes took the opening possession and marched 48 yards in eight plays before Ethridge connected with Deeds on a 3-yard touchdown pass with 5:57 left in the first period, and Evan Deeds added the two-point kick for an 8-0 edge.
“We knew they were going to send three hard, so we tried to dump the ball off because they were covering deep really well,” Cohen Ethridge said.
Strawn then went four-and-out on its first drive, and Richland Springs took over at its own 33. The Coyotes needed just four plays to travel 47 yards as Ethridge’s 28-yard sprint at the 4:21 mark of the opening period boosted the advantage to 14-0.
The Greyhounds again went four-and-out on their second possession, with Evan Deeds recording a sack of Kaison Nunez – who finished with negative-49 rushing yards on six carries – at the Strawn 19.
On the next play, Ethan Deeds sprinted to the end zone from 19 yards out, and the Coyotes were in front 22-0, with 1:26 left in the opening quarter.
“We knew if we could get our offense going there was no way they could stop us, so it was great to get going like that,” Cohen Ethridge said.
Strawn put its first points on the board with a 36-yard scoring toss from Nunez to Michael Barcenas – who finished with four grabs for 102 yards – which closed the gap to 22-8 with 16 seconds go in the first quarter.
But Ethridge returned the ensuing squib kick 60 yards for a touchdown to swing the momentum right back to Richland Springs’ side, as the Coyotes led 30-8 with 7 seconds remaining in the opening stanza.
“It came right to me and I saw the right side of the field and my teammate Ethan Deeds, he just led the way for me,” Cohen Ethridge said.
Leading by 22 points after one quarter, the Coyotes stretched the lead to 56-14 by halftime.
Ethridge’s 59-yard touchdown run made the score 38-8 at the 8:10 mark of the second period, prior to Strawn’s 41-yard touchdown connection from Nunez to Barcenas, which trimmed the deficit to 38-14.
After Strawn’s Yandel Yandez intercepted an Ethan Deeds pass at the goal line, Richland Springs still got points out of the deep penetration as two plays later Perry stripped the ball from Nunez in the end zone, which rolled out the back end for a safety and 40-14 Coyotes’ edge with 3:34 left before halftime.
Richland Springs scored twice more before the break as Ethridge reached the end zone on carries of 1 and 6 yards.
Strawn began the second half with a 1-yard touchdown run by Barcenas, set up by a 34-yard toss from Nunez to Ben Hopkins on a fourth-and-1 play.
Leading 56-20, the Coyotes needed just four plays to venture 40 yards as again Ethridge found the end zone from 6 yards out for a 64-20 advantage at the 7:09 mark of the third quarter.
Strawn’s final drive began on its 22, but a sack by Perry set the Greyhounds up for a fourth-and-33 at their own 4. There, Perry forced another fumble while Strawn was scrambling near the end zone, and the ball rolled out to enforce the 45-point mercy rule.
While Richland Springs has re-written the six-man football state championship record book, none of the current Coyotes have had an opportunity to play for a state title – until now.
“It’s such a blessing, a dream I’ve never got to experience,” Cohen Ethridge said. “I’m so blessed and honored.”
Coach Ethridge added, “This means a lot. They’ve been working so hard, really since April, about the end of track season, and they worked all summer. They love each other and we have good team chemistry, which we haven’t had in some of the past seasons. It’s a great effort, a great accomplishment, God blessed us and we’re headed to AT&T Stadium.”
