MIDLAND The Monahans Loboes needed to play a perfect game to defeat Snyder for the second time this season.
It wasn’t in the cards Friday, though.
Snyder rolled past Monahans 40-14 in the Class 3A Division II area playoff game at Grande Communications Stadium.
The Tigers, who lost to the Loboes 41-32 in the season opener on the same field, rushed for 429 yards and had three long touchdown runs.
“Our offensive line played a lot better than in the opener,” Snyder head coach Chad Rogers said. “We challenged them and the defense to play better than in the opener and they responded.”
Snyder (10-2) will face either Graham or Argyle at Abilene’s Shotwell Stadium at a time and date to be determined next weekend in a regional game.
Against the Loboes (6-5), Snyder scored three touchdowns off of turnovers, capitalizing on an inexperienced backfield for Monahans.
The Loboes started sophomore Quincy Titus at quarterback and Tyson Childress at running back. Snyder picked off two Titus passes and recovered two Childress fumbles, one inside the 15-yard line that hurt the Loboes.
“Against a good team like that you can’t make mistakes,” Monahans head coach Mickey Owens said. “We knew we were overmatched, but we thought if we played a mistake-free game we would have a chance.”
It wasn’t just offensive mistakes that hurt the Loboes.
Leading 21-6 with 3 seconds left in the first half, Snyder was looking to just run out the clock on an inside handoff to Chase Arrendale.
The junior fullback, however, had other ideas as a swarm of Loboes players failed to take him down. Arrendale ripped off a 72-yard scoring run with no time left and a 28-6 halftime lead.
The score seemed to take the air out of Monahans.
“That was big,” Owens said. “We could’ve gone to half down 21-6, but that cut our hearts out right there.”
The third quarter wasn’t much better, as Will Clay scored on a 78-yard run and Arrendale added a 63-yard score to put the game away.
“We were excited to play and we played real well” Rogers said. “That is a good football team (Monahans) and they are well-coached. We felt really good about how we played.”
Clay Anthony scored Monahans’ first touchdown on a 1-yard run and Childress scored the final touchdown for Monahans on a 4-yard run.
Anthony led the Loboes with 75 yards on 16 carries. Childress added 68 yards on 12 carries.
Clay finished with 221 yards on 25 carries and Arrendale had 158 on eight carries.
Snyder 40, Monahans 14
Snyder 8 19 13 0 — 40
Monahans 6 0 0 8 — 14
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
Snyder — Will Clay 3 run (Will Clay run), 8:28 remaining.
Monahans — Clay Anthony 1 run (run failed), 1:29.
Second Quarter
Snyder — Will Clay 4 run (run failed), 6:43.
Snyder — Chase Arrendale 4 run (Lance Day kick), 3:08.
Snyder — Chase Arrendale 72 run (pass failed), :00.
Third Quarter
Snyder — Will Clay 75 run (Lance Day kick), 10:14.
Snyder — Chase Arrendale 63 run (kick failed), 4:29.
Fourth Quarter
Monahans — Tyson Childress 4 run (Fabian Flores pass from Steven Valles), 2:18.
TEAM STATISTICS
Sny Mon
First downs 13 18
Total yards 432 227
Rushes-yards 41-429 48-155
Passing 3 72
Comp.-att.-int. 1-5-0 6-14-2
Punts-avg. 2-32.5 3-35.6
Fumbles-lost 2-0 6-2
Penalties-yards 5-30 3-15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Snyder
Will Clay 25-221, Chase Arrendale 8-158, Lance Day 3-25, Brent Bollinger 2-17, Johnathan Kerr 3-8.
Monahans
Clay Anthony 16-75, Tyson Childress 12-68, Stephen Neel 9-44, Matthew Montoya 1-0, Quincy Titus 7-(-3), team 3-(-19).
PASSING
Snyder
Lance Day 1-4-0—3; Ryan Claxton 0-1-0—0.
Monahans
Quincy Titus 4-12-2—37; Steven Valles 2-2-0—35.
RECEIVING
Snyder
Brent Bollinger 1-3.
Monahans
Tanner Owens 3-33, Julian Hernandez 1-24, Fabian Flores 1-12, Matthew Montoya 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS
Snyder
Stephen Bryant 1-2, Brent Bollinger 1-19.
FUMBLE RECOVERIES
Snyder
Ryan Claxton 1-0, Aaron Deloera 1-0.