STANTON – It was a great night to be a Buffalo as Stanton opened the season with a crushing 33-7 victory over Grape Creek at Buffalo Stadium on Friday. Stanton’s offense looked nothing like it did in the first two scrimmages of the season. The normally run heavy Buf-falo offense received a complete overhaul as Stanton was very balanced with 18 passes and 19 rushes resulting in 273 yards of total offense.
“The offense looked different because we're running plays to work on specific things in scrimmages, not to take advantage of a weakness in the defense,” said Stanton coach Cody Hogan. “In games we run plays based on what coaches saw in film study or on the field that night.” “We also brought the kids in after the Lamesa scrimmage and went through stuff to make sure they understood ex-actly what their job was and what we expect from them. Their execution of plays that were called was much better than the Lamesa scrimmage and it's because of the hard work the kids put in over the past week to make sure it's right. There are still plenty of things for us to clean up and you'll see the offense improve every week,” Hogan add-ed. Sophomore quarterback Jake Benedict had a strong varsity debut for the Buffs going 10 of 18 passing for 126 yards and three touchdowns, rushed for 42 yards and a touchdown, and added four solo tackles, seven assisted tackles, one tackle for loss and three quarterback hurries on defense. The ground game was led by Ryan Ander with 67 yards on 12 carries followed by Benedict with 36 yards, Kameron Isemann with 26 yards and a touchdown, and Adrian Scott had 12 yards.
The normally quiet Buffalo receivers made plenty of noise with 10 receptions and three touchdowns. Cody Hancock led the group with 38 yards and a touchdown followed by Landry Cantu with 37 yards and a touch-down. Alex Flores totaled 17 yards and a touchdown while Aiden Hinojosa added a 16-- yard reception. Bret Davis and Isemann accounted for 14 and 4 yards respectively. Also scoring points were Riley Mabry with two extra point conversions and Hancock with one extra point conver-sion. The Buff’s defense was as good as anticipated and was led by Isemann with 14 tackles, one sack, one hurry, and one forced fumble.
Also racking up double digit tackles were Hinojosa with 12, Ethan Anaya with 11, Benedict with 11, Tyler Waggoner with 10, and Landon McDaniel with 10.
Davis brought down eight Eagles while Scott and Andler had seven tackles each.
Gilbert Flores tallied one sack and five tackles followed Israel Tarin with four tackles, Raphel Rivera four tackles, and Adam Booth three tackles.
Hancock, Tycen Jones, Cantu, Lanc Cazares, and Joshua Flores had one tackle apiece.
Flores and Isemann also recorded one sack each.
“Defensively, all of our kidshaveagreatunderstanding of our expectations because we didn't change much from last year. They're using the same techniques and calls, so they're doing a great job of not having to think as much and they know how to react to what the offense shows us. Outside of the one Grape Creek drive that ended the first half, I was very happy with how we played defensively,” said Hogan.
Stanton will be on the road this week in Merkel looking to avenge a narrow defeat last season. Merkel lost its sea-son opener to Clifton 20-12.