The Amarillo High Sandies seemed primed to put a heavy imprint on the district standings at Abilene High, but couldn’t fully put their foot down.

Amarillo High jumped out to a big early lead against district favorite Abilene but couldn’t hold on at Shotwell Stadium. The Sandies turned the ball over in the final two minutes with a chance to at least tie it and fell 24-21 for their first district loss of the season.

Offensively, Amarillo High (4-2, 1-1) clicked as expected early. Jett Lopez threw touchdown passes to Austin Sluder and Tate Blackwell and Jude Dunavin ran for a 30-yard score to give the Sandies a 21-0 lead, and they led 21-7 at halftime.

Abilene (4-2, 2-0) rallied to tie it with a pair of touchdowns late in the third quarter. The Eagles went up 24-21 on Elisha Batendji’s 40-yard field goal with 5:10 left in the game.

Amarillo High got the ball back and drove into Abilene territory, but Symanni Strahan intercepted Lopez inside the 30 with 1:30 left to preserve the win for the Eagles.

Dunavin ran for 126 yards on 16 carries. Lopez threw for 235 yards.

Tascosa goes over 65 again in rout of Lubbock High

Through two games of district play against schools from Lubbock ISD, the Tascosa Rebels have definitely hit an offensive groove.

Tascosa has made an early statement and after Friday night the Rebels were tied for the district lead. They had their second straight huge offensive performance, running over Lubbock High 69-6 in their Homecoming game at Dick Bivins Stadium.

Coupled with the previous week’s 65-28 win at Lubbock Coronado, Tascosa has shown what kind of firepower it has offensively, especially running the ball. The Rebels (4-2, 2-0 in district) ran for 398 yards against Lubbock (1-4, 0-1) after running for over 500 against Coronado.

While Tascosa didn’t have a single 100-yard rusher, the Rebels had five runners go for at least 48 yards. Traeson Elliott led the way with 75 yards on seven carries.

Tendrick Sargent ran for two touchdowns for Tascosa. Amidst the ground assault, Coltyn Fulton threw three touchdowns, two of them to Chet Creery.