Nothing much seemed to go right for Tascosa against Lubbock Monterey on either side of the ball from the opening minutes. The Rebels were unable to stop just about anything Monterey tried offensively and never could catch up in falling 56-28 for their first district loss of the season.
Tascosa (3-4, 2-1 in district) dropped from sole possession of second place in the district into a tie for third. Monterey (4-4, 3-1) flashed the offensive potential which has been evident during district with a balanced offense that had to punt only once against the Rebels.
Coach Ken Plunk made so excuses for his team.
“We were just really, really bad tonight,” Plunk said. “We tackled extremely poorly and didn’t hold on to the ball. It was just one of those nights and it counts as one loss. You get beat by 28 or you get beat by one it counts as one.”
Tascosa had two scoring plays of over 45 yards in the first half in showing some diversity on offense. However, Monterey had two for over 70 yards which was the difference as the Rebels trailed 28-14 at halftime and never seemed to seriously threaten after that.
Monterey scored on its first two possessions, taking a 14-0 lead on two scores within a 68-second span. After forcing the Rebels to punt on the first possession after the opening kickoff following a drive into their territory, the Plainsmen took a 7-0 lead when Dez Williams appeared to be stonewalled running up the middle, but somehow squirted out between blockers and defenders to race 73 yards for a touchdown.
“We should have scored on the first drive, but we jumped offsides,” Plunk said. “It changes it significantly if we can get up on them. We were playing pretty good defense when that guy slipped out of there for a touchdown.”
Baxter scored on a 26-yard run early in the second quarter to stretch Monterey’s lead to 21-0. The Rebels answered back by getting on the board on a 60-yard run by Derrion Howard to cut it to 21-7.
The Plainsmen then appeared to catch the right side of Tascosa’s defense napping, as Luke Arrington hit a wide open, uncovered Baxter for a 74-yard touchdown to make it 28-7. Tascosa did answer 35 seconds later when Charlie McKinney threw a 49-yard scoring pass to T.J. Tillman to make it 28-14.
It was an odd first half statistically for the Rebels, who threw for 113 yards, a total they sometimes might take four games to reach. Also, McKinney replaced Coltyn Fulton at quarterback in the second quarter, although Fulton returned to play the entire second half.
“We just felt we needed a little bit of a change in the first half,” said Plunk of the quarterback decision. “Both of them can play and we’re going to have to use both of them to a certain degree.”
It seemed just about everybody on Monterey’s offense could play, from the linemen to the backs to the receivers. The Plainsmen were extremely balanced, racking up 569 total yards of offense via 343 yards rushing and 226 passing.
They had two 100-yard rushers, as Williams had 200 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries and Baxter had 108 yards on 16 carries. Monterey shredded the Rebels through the air as well, with Arrington completing 12-of-15 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns, and Cam Taylor catching five passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.
“They kind of did whatever they wanted,” Plunk said.
The second half was just about a carbon copy of the first half. Monterey got the second half kickoff and finished the drive with a 25-yard run by Baxter to make it 35-14. Tascosa answered back with a 2-yard run by Traeson Elliott to make it 35-21, but that’s as close as the Rebels got the rest of the way.
It was an especially gratifying win for the Plainsmen, as they returned to Bivins after losing their final game of the regular season last year to Amarillo High 61-28, which eliminated them from making the playoffs. Now they’re in a solid position, sitting alone in second place, a game behind district leader Abilene High.
If there was a silver lining for the Rebels, it was that they showed a more diversified attack than usual against Monterey. They threw for 139 yards and Tillman had four catches for 100 yards, also catching a 26-yard scoring pass from Fulton in the fourth quarter.
With those two scoring catches, Tillman moved into second place in touchdown receptions in Tascosa history with 13.
The big challenge for the Rebels now is bouncing back to play at district leader Abilene next week. While they’re not in bad shape, their margin of error for making the playoffs has been reduced.
“We need to tackle better and execute the offense better,” Plunk said. “We just played poorly. There’s no excuses for it but we’ll move on to the next week and there’s nothing we can can do about this one.”
Lubbock Coronado rallies to stun Caprock
Caprock saw a double-digit lead slip away in the final 24 minutes as Lubbock Coronado reeled off 21 unanswered second half points to rally for a 34-29 win over the Longhorns during a District 2-5A Division I contest at PlainsCapital Park at Lowrey Field on Friday night.
Caprock got off to a tremendous start taking a commanding 22-0 lead after the first quarter highlighted on a pair of touchdown tosses from Juan De La Cruz to Jayden Acosta-Lewis of 43 yards and Andrew Apodaca of 34 yards.
The Mustangs never batted an eye. Coronado cut that deficit at 29-13 by halftime. In the second half, Coronado scored on its opening two drives of the third quarter to trail 29-28 heading into the fourth.
In that final frame, Coronado took its only lead that secured the comeback on a seven-yard scoring toss from quarterback Isaiah Vasquez to Demarion Finch with 7:55 remaining.
Vargas led the Longhorns carrying the ball 25 times for 175 yards with a touchdown. De La Cruz threw for 153 yards with two scoring passes and rushed for a score.
Vazquez threw for 232 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Finch rushed for 124 yards and a pair of scores.
Caprock falls to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in District 2-5A Division I. Coronado is now 2-6 overall and 1-3 in the league.
