Two football players in blue jerseys leap mid‑air as they clash above the field during a game, with a blurred crowd in the stands behind them. — Palo Duro’s Bentley Smith (55) and teammate Keimaure Rayford celebrate during a win against Lubbock-Cooper to wrap up the outright District 2-5A Division II title for a second year in a row Thursday night at Dick Bivins Stadium.

The Palo Duro Dons showed that they’ll be ready to get started with their second season at Dick Bivins Stadium next Thursday night by finishing strong at Bivins this past Thursday night.

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Despite already knowing their playoff destiny as the No. 1 seed from District 2-5A Division II, the Dons still had some things to prove in closing out their regular season against Lubbock-Cooper, such as notching their second straight unbeaten district championship season.

Mission accomplished. Palo Duro gave up the first points of each half to Cooper but closed out both halves strong, finishing the game with 28 unanswered points to roll to a 49-13 victory.

That gave Palo Duro (9-1, 6-0 in district) a second straight unbeaten district championship season and a 12th straight league win. It’s also nine regular season straight victories after opening the season at Bivins with a loss to fellow playoff-bound Amarillo ISD rival Amarillo High. The Dons will host an El Paso school in the first round of the playoffs next Thursday at Bivins.

Palo Duro gave something of a greatest hits package against Cooper (1-9, 1-5) as to why it could be alive for awhile in the postseason. When it counted the most on both sides of the ball, the Dons made plays.

“We had some ups and some downs,” said Palo Duro coach Eric Mims, showing yet again the high standard to which he holds his team. “We didn’t play consistent every single drive. Defensively (Cooper) got a couple of stops on us but we kept playing snap after snap.”

Football player in blue jersey reaches up to catch a pass as a football sails overhead, with blurred spectators in the stands behind him. — University of Texas commit Kyron Brown had 148 yards receiving against Lubbock-Cooper on Thursday.

It may have been the combination of a bit of rust after an open week and the malaise of knowing that a No. 1 playoff seed and a home game next was sewn up, but the Dons got off to a slow start. However, they bounced back with 21 unanswered points to close the first half for a 21-6 halftime lead.

After a scoreless first quarter, Cooper got on the scoreboard first, as Jayden Ramirez hit Noah Clark with a 26-yard scoring pass for a 6-0 lead.

That put the Dons in a rare position of being behind the eight-ball, as they’ve taken the lead early in most games and rolled with it. Mims thinks what happened against Cooper will help when the postseason gets started.

“In the playoffs it doesn’t matter where you get the points, you just have to get them,” Mims said. “You have to get in a playoff mindset. It would be great to score every drive, but the reality is you take a win where you can get it. I’m happy about the win.

“We don’t like starting each half down a score, but there are going to come times in the playoffs where we’re going to be in that situation.”

The initial deficit seemed to wake up Palo Duro offensively, as the Dons scored three touchdowns in just over six minutes. They took the lead on the ensuing possession on a 9-yard scoring run by Raymond Johnson for a 7-6 lead.

Palo Duro football player in blue jersey runs with the ball on a green turf field during a game. — Palo Duro quarterback Julian Reese II runs for a first down against Lubbock-Cooper on Thursday.

The Dons then took advantage of good field position after a good punt return by Kyron Brown to put the Dons at Cooper’s 48-yard line. Quarterback Julian Reese II cashed in with a 3-yard run to put Palo Duro up 14-6.

On the next possession, the Pirates faced a fourth-and-two at their own 37 and elected to go for it. That decision failed spectacularly when the Dons threw Zayden Echols for a 1-yard loss on the first play after the two-minute warning.

Two plays later, Reese hit Brown for a spectacular 34-yard scoring pass to make it 21-6 with 1:21 left in the half. If the Pirates hadn’t gotten the message before, they surely did by halftime.

“It made us angry because it’s been a long time since a team scored first on us,” said Reese, who threw a pair of scoring passes to Brown and ran for two more. “We just kept trying to execute. It definitely woke us up because it’s win or go home now. If we come out slow after this we won’t go as far as we want to.”

Palo Duro had a chance to put a big stamp on the game with the second half kickoff, but the Dons instead had a three-and-out. Cooper seemed inspired by this and marched down the field for another 26-yard scoring pass from Ramirez to Clark to cut it to 21-13 with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

It appeared that the Pirates could have been on the verge of pulling off a huge upset and ruin Palo Duro’s gold ball celebration after the game, but it was destiny for the Dons instead.

“Ultimately it’s about the plays you don’t make and against a team like (Palo Duro) you know they’re going to make them,” Cooper coach Chip Darden said. “When it got to 21-13 when we needed to really make some plays we just didn’t and we had way too many penalties. We just didn’t do things like make a tackle when we needed to.”

Football players in white and blue jerseys grapple for a high pass as a ball is contested in midair during a game. — Palo Duro Linebacker Keanan Posey and the defense held Lubbock-Cooper to 209 total yards.

The Pirates definitely hurt themselves with 12 penalties for 120 yards, with the two biggest coming right after they cut into PD’s lead. They were flagged for a defensive holding and an unsportsmanlike conduct on the first play after the ensuing kickoff, adding up to 25 free yards for the Dons, putting them at the Cooper 37.

On the next play, which almost looked like an accident, Reese bobbled the shotgun snap and had to run just to escape losing yardage. He cut back toward the middle of the field and outmaneuvered Cooper defenders all the way to the end zone for a score and a 28-13 lead which seized back momentum for the Dons.

Reese says the root of the play was an official mistake.

“They gave us the kicking ball,” said Reese. “It’s very slick. Once I finally got a hold of the ball I knew I was going to score.”

That seemed to demoralize Cooper. The Dons stopped the Pirates on downs on the second possession, leading to another short field and another scoring drive, this one coming on Johnson’s second scoring run of the night from 3 yards to make it 35-13.

Palo Duro put an exclamation point on the night early in the fourth quarter when Reese hit Brown for a 59-yard scoring pass and a 42-13 lead, allowing the starters to sit the rest of the game.

“We just wanted to go out with a bang,” said Brown, the University of Texas commit who had five catches for 148 yards. “Everybody came together and understood that this was the biggest time to do what it takes to win. (Going unbeaten in district) we looked forward to doing again before this season and to accomplish that is amazing.”

While the scoring pass was a flashy way to end the evening it was the running game in the second half which did the most damage for the Dons, as they ran for 153 of their 239 yards after halftime.

Johnson, a senior like Reese and Brown, had a game-high 98 yards on 14 carries. Sophomore Caddyn Toombs-Jackson also got involved in the act with 88 yards on 10 carries in the fourth quarter, including a 16-yard touchdown run with 4:11 left in the game to conclude the scoring.

The Dons showed up defensively like they have all season, giving up only 209 yards to the Pirates.