Amarillo High’s defense shines in victory against crosstown rival Palo Duro

As crosstown rivalry games go, Friday night’s season opener between Amarillo High and Palo Duro at Dick Bivins Stadium generally didn’t produce the kind of edge of your seat excitement often associated with such grudge matches.

That didn’t matter in the end for Amarillo High, though, in a game which produced lots of surprises, questions and maybe a few answers.

In a tough defensive struggle in which the two teams produced only a touchdown apiece through three quarters, it was the Sandies who got particularly tough in the end. Amarillo High went exclusively to the ground game for two short drives to decide the game, which was the difference in a 21-7 victory, giving the Sandies early season Amarillo ISD supremacy.

A work of art it wasn’t, but Amarillo High coach Chad Dunnam will nonetheless be happy to hang it on his wall for at least the next week.

“We’ll take a win any way we can get it,” Dunnam said. “In this day and age we call that an ugly win if you’re going into the fourth quarter tied 7-7. It wasn’t like offenses were playing poorly because both teams were playing hard and trading punches and had opportunities where they came up short. Our goal was to get to the fourth quarter with a chance to win and our kids finished the thing off. I could not be prouder of a group of kids or a group of coaches.”

What figured to be a competitive game was exactly that, even if the final result might have raised some eyebrows. In the last four and a half minutes, though, it was the Sandies who got down and dirty in a game which should have been played on the old grass surface at Bivins.

Amarillo High got the ball in ideal field position midway through the fourth quarter, and drove 55 yards to take the lead for good with quarterback Hunter Randles lining up exclusively under center. Junior Raider Payne did most of the running on that drive, although Randles, who started the game on the bench, cashed in with the go-ahead score on a 5-yard run to give the Sandies a 14-7 lead with 4:30 remaining in the game.

That still left a lot of time for Palo Duro’s speedy offense to come back and tie it. However, the Dons didn’t seem in sync offensively all night, as they managed only 40 yards in the second half and had touchdowns called back in each half.

With 2:39 to go and facing fourth and long, the Dons lined up in punt formation and appeared to be asking their defense to hold for one last stand, but they decided to run a fake punt and Noah Faragoza was tackled for a 10-yard loss, giving the Sandies the ball at the PD 24-yard line.

Payne, who also starts at linebacker, then scored his second touchdown of the night on a 6-yard run with 1:09 remaining to clinch it. It capped a big night for Payne, who ran for a game-high 73 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, including 67 in the second half.

“I was looking forward to it heavily,” Payne said. “I like running downhill and I couldn’t do it without my o-line. It means a lot because I don’t think anybody but the guys in the locker room believed in us. It’s a good start and we need to get better week by week.”

Like most other high school teams, the Sandies prefer to run the spread offense. However, sophomore Callaway Skipworth, making his varsity debut at quarterback, suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter which sidelined him for the remainder of the game. Randles entered and the offense was hit and miss for most of the first three quarters.

That’s when the Sandies opted to go old school and run everything from under center in the fourth quarter.

“Regardless of which quarterback played our goal was to run the ball,” Dunnam said. “Hunter went out and did what we needed to do to win the ball game. We prepared for that. The guy who really deserves credit for that is Kameron Mathis, our offensive coordinator.”

The first half was a pastiche of big plays and self-inflicted wounds for both teams which resulted in lots of action and little scoring, as it was tied 7-7 at halftime.

Both teams made initial drives deep into the other’s territory on their respective opening offensive possessions. However, Amarillo High missed a field goal and Palo Duro lost a fumble to result in zero points.

That changed early in the second quarter after Palo Duro’s Raymond Johnson V lost a fumble after a catch and Amarillo High recovered at the PD 24. That set up a 2-yard scoring run by Payne which gave the Sandies a 7-0 lead.

The Dons answered immediately on the next possession with two big completions by Julian Reese II, who earlier in the day committed to play college football at Delaware. Reese completed a 56-yard pass to Tayv’on Cantly which set up a 21-yard scoring throw to Kyron Brown to tie it 7-7.

Cantly then made the most electrifying play of the game the next possession, when he fielded an Amarillo High punt 73 yards to the Amarillo High 4. Johnson carried it in for a score on the next play, but it was erased by an illegal motion penalty. The Dons couldn’t convert, as Yandell Barron-Sandoval missed a 32-yard field goal attempt.

“We talked about not beating ourselves before the snap,” said PD coach Eric Mims, whose team had an unsightly 13 penalties for 116 yards and committed four turnovers. “We struggled transitioning in getting our punt team on the field. The defense was very gritty but the offense didn’t produce.”

Perhaps Palo Duro’s worst self-inflicted wound came in the third quarter with the game still tied, when Reese hit Eric Mims Jr. for a 30-yard scoring pass which appeared to give the Dons, the lead, but it was called back due to an illegal motion penalty. Palo Duro never came close to scoring again. 

Photo gallery by Carter Pirtle: