The concept about it’s not what you have it’s what you do with it was perfectly played out Friday night at Dick Bivins Stadium when Amarillo High and Tascosa renewed their longstanding rivalry.

Statistically, the Sandies and Rebels were pretty even when all was said and done. When it came to making the yards count, though, Amarillo High had the big advantage. The Sandies pulled off five scoring plays of over 25 yards and never trailed in rolling to a 45-20 victory to stay unbeaten in District 2-5A Division I.

It was the second straight dominant win for Amarillo High (4-1, 2-0 in district) over Tascosa (2-3, 1-1), although the Sandies didn’t completely demolish the Rebels, who hurt themselves by committing four fumbles. The Sandies, meanwhile, played a much cleaner game with no turnovers and the cumulative factor in the end was obvious.

“I’m proud of our performance tonight,” AHS coach Chad Dunnam said. “We had some explosive plays tonight which is something I feel was kind of lacking. I think as the game went on we established our run game. Defensively we had four takeaways and two fourth downs stops which I think was huge.”

The scoring came in blocks with both teams getting in their licks early. While Tascosa generally plugged away to move the ball, Amarillo High had a series of big plays to take a 35-13 halftime lead.

In the first two and a half minutes of the game, the Sandies scored two touchdowns 17 seconds apart, both by Deuce Patterson to take the upper hand. On Amarillo High’s first possession, Patterson took a swing pass from Callaway Skipworth 46 yards for a score and a 6-0 lead.

The first play after the ensuing kickoff, the Amarillo High defense tripped up J’Kavien Moore, who fumbled and Gaetan Veazey recovered at the Tascosa 27-yard line. Patterson then took a reverse pitch on the next play for a touchdown and 13-0 lead.

It set a tone for the remainder of the game where the Sandies seemed to be dictating the terms of the contest.

“I think it’s hard to operate when you’re down a couple of scores and it makes you kind of lose your identity,” Dunnam said. “(Tascosa) did some things tonight we didn’t defend very well and it was out of their identity. I felt they found some weaknesses in our coverage.”

The statistics were rather odd at the end of the night. Amarillo High had only nine first downs while Tascosa had 21, and the Rebels barely outgained the Sandies by a 359-357 margin.

In the final 5:19 of the half, the teams combined for five touchdowns. Tascosa got on the board with the longest drive of the night, going 81 yards as Cameron Vallejo scored the first of his two first half touchdowns on a 10-yard run to cut it to 13-7.

The Sandies responded with a big play, this one a gadget play. Fullback Raider Payne completed an option pass to Jeb Grammer for a 68-yard touchdown to make it 21-7, as Payne added the two-point conversion on a run.

It was out of character for Payne, who’s better known as a blocking fullback and linebacker on defense, where he had a fumble recovery.

“We’ve had it for a few weeks, we’ve just been saving it for the right time,” said Payne of his scoring pass. “I think that was perfect. It gets electric when you get a flea flicker double pass going. The nerves were running through me since I’ve never thrown a pass and I let it fly.”

On Tascosa’s next possession, a pitch to Moore bounced off his chest and directly into the hands of Amarillo High’s Abram Chico at the Tascosa 45, and he took the fumble all the way to the Tascosa 4. Kingston Bounsing ran in on the next play to make it 28-7.

That seemed to sum up a night where the Rebels did some good things offensively then would see them offset, either by the Sandies or their own mistakes.

“I still felt at halftime we had a shot,” Tascosa coach Ken Plunk said. “Minus four on turnovers for the night and the one trick play when we had them in third and five hurt us. Then we turned around and fumbled it. I don’t know why we’re making those uncharacteristic mistakes we’re making this year.”

Less than two minutes later, the Rebels struck again as Vallejo scored on a 9-yard run to cut it to 28-13 with 1:21 left in the half. With only 20 seconds left in the half, though, Skipworth burned Tascosa with a perfectly thrown 57-yard bomb to Grammer to make it 35-13 going into the lockerroom.

Grammer provided the biggest big play element for the Amarillo High offense with five catches for 154 yards.

“I was looking forward to it a lot because I hadn’t gotten any deep balls,” Grammer said. “I had a catch and go touchdown earlier. (The catch from Payne) was a special play we’d been working on for a long time and were excited about it because we knew it was going to connect. It feels great beating a crosstown rival and being 2-0 in district.”

Tascosa got the second half kickoff and put together a ground-oriented drive to get past midfield, but the Sandies stopped the Rebels on downs. The worse news for the Rebels was that the drive took up nearly six minutes without producing any points.

Amarillo High took advantage of the stop by putting the game away on the next offensive possession. Skipworth hit a wide open Caden Virden on a 32-yard scoring pass to make it 42-13 and pretty much end the competitive phase of the game.

It was the first game back in the lineup for the sophomore Skipworth after missing three games with an ankle injury. After a slow start, Skipworth finished 8-for-12 for 162 yards and three touchdowns.

“It was nice to see Callaway come back and take over the offense,” Dunnam said. “He’d been out since the season opener. I’m proud of our kids. We have a whole lot of unselfish kids who’ve come in and accepted their roles.”

Sy Richardson ran for 115 yards on 23 carries to lead Amarillo High, with the bulk of those coming in the second half as the Sandies ran down the clock.

The loss spoiled a strong performance by Tascosa quarterback Brayden Lineman, who had over 100 yards both passing and rushing. He completed 8-of-15 passes for 145 yards and ran for a game-high 120 yards on 24 carries, including a 2-yard touchdown run with 37 seconds left to conclude the scoring.

Photos by Roy Wheeler: