Medina Valley rushing duo powers Panthers over MacArthur

CASTROVILLE – Kourtney Bratcher and Kevin Straughter combined for 278 yards rushing and four scores Friday as Medina Valley continued its romp through District 14-5A-I with a 63-10 win over MacArthur at Panther Stadium.

Both Panther runners rushed for at least 100 yards and two scores as Medina Valley (8-0, 5-0) took one more step towards winning its second straight district title, while MacArthur (4-4, 2-3) lost its third in a row after a 2-0 district start.

Bratcher rushed for 173 yards, with one of his two scores an explosive 61-yard touchdown run in third quarter, while Straughter chipped in 105 yards rushing, as they combined for more than half of Medina Valley’s 458 yards on the ground.

Bratcher said the mindset of Medina Valley’s offense is to never let off the pedal.

“Stay on the gas, stay locked in and that’s pretty much it,” Bratcher said.

In addition, quarterback Hunter Hurtado, who is the maestro of the Panthers’ Flexbone offense, ran for 67 yards and three touchdowns as Medina Valley scored at least 50 points for the seventh time this season and marked the third game this season the Panthers have reached the 60-point plateau.

“It’s very fun, but it’s also a very explosive offense,” Straughter said. “I feel like we can all enjoy together the success that we’re getting. I feel like you can’t predict what we’re going to do. We may motion one way, fake the run, pass. I feel like you can’t just setup for us, it’s kind of like a game time adjustments.”

Medina Valley coach Andrew Britt said his squad is going to continue to do what it has been doing effectively throughout season – mixing it up on the field.

“Honestly, we’re just going to stay doing what we do,” Britt said. “We’re going to run the football and we’re going to take some shots. We’re going to throw the football. Honestly, we stay the course, never too high, never too low. Just trying to figure it out and take one play at a time.”

Medina Valley took the opening drive and scored in just five plays, capped off by Straughter’s 19-yard touchdown three minutes into a game for a 7-0 lead.

MacArthur scored on its opening possession as well, as Afton Royal drilled a 47-yard field goal to cap off a 10-play drive at 4:48 in the first quarter.

That would be the closet MacArthur would get, as Medina Valley stepped on the gas in scoring 34 unanswered points, all in the second quarter, to go up 41-10 at halftime.

Hurtado started the second quarter scoring explosion with a 14-yard touchdown run. A punt block by defensive lineman Rhys Wheeler set up the Panthers’ next score, a 5-yard Bratcher run. Straughter followed with a 42-yard scoring run and Hurtado registered his second touchdown on a 22-yard scoring run. Mason Kennedy capped off the big quarter for Medina Valley with a 24-yard scoop and score fumble recovery.

MacArthur was able to break through for its only touchdown, a 38-yard scoring pass from Turner Schwartz to Kellen Polansky on the last play of the first half.

Although Britt wasn’t happy his team gave up the long touchdown pass to MacArthur before the half, otherwise he was pleased with the way the Medina Valley defense played even though MacArthur’s top rusher, Matthew Rodriguez, ran for 136 yards.

“We did a pretty good job (defensively) for the most part,” Britt said. “We let one slip away right before the half. That’s really frustrating, honestly. You never want to do that in the last four minutes of a half. We let one go and that’s on us and we’ll get it fixed, and the kids responded. I thought we played great in second half after doing that.”

Medina Valley hopes to close in on another district crown when it hosts Jay next Friday, while MacArthur, which is still in the playoff picture, hopes to end its three-game slide when it takes on second place Southside Thursday at Heroes Stadium.

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This article originally published at Medina Valley rushing duo powers Panthers over MacArthur.