With a playoff berth all but guaranteed out of District 2-5A Division I, the Sandies seemed ready to celebrate in their final home game of the season. There was plenty for the seniors and their fans to enjoy, as they seemed unstoppable offensively in a 61-28 win over Lubbock Monterey to clinch the district’s No. 3 playoff seed against an opponent from El Paso next week.
Amarillo High (5-5, 4-2 in district) didn’t ever appear to be in that much trouble against Monterey (4-6, 2-4), which needed to beat the Sandies and get some help to make the playoffs.
“Obviously there were some moments which weren’t real clean and a little bit of sloppiness, and a lot of that had to do with losing our focus a little bit,” AHS coach Chad Dunnam said. “I felt like we played a really good ball game and put ourselves in a good position early. I felt like it was a pretty good tune-up going into the playoffs.”
Amarillo High didn’t have to punt once and ran a balanced offensive attack with 516 total yards. The Sandies answered two long scoring bombs by the Plainsmen, most importantly scoring 21 unanswered points after the first one to end the first half and take a 38-7 halftime lead.
Amarillo High took a 17-0 lead on a 9-yard run by Rylan Leathers, the first of his two touchdowns.
However, the Plainsmen tempted fate one too many times through the air. Arrington, who completed his first five passes for 118 yards, threw another deep ball over the middle, but this time it was intercepted by Amarillo High’s JQ Ervin, and all the momentum Monterey had seemed to vanish.
“We were down by 10 and we were keeping up with the other guys so we had to take our shot,” Monterey coach Judd Thrash said. “We had to be very aggressive tonight. When you’ve got to win by more than 10 you’ve got to do something.”
The Sandies drove down the field and scored on quarterback Will Flaming’s 10-yard run to make it 24-7.
Senior Pius Vokes later scored on a 39-yard run and Flaming hit Leathers for a 6-yard scoring pass to make it 38-7. Vokes had a career game with 195 yards on 20 carries.
“We mentioned (running the ball) a little more in practice so I was expecting it and it was fun to do it,” Vokes said. “It was our last time in Dick Bivins and we had to show out and have fun and have memories for a lifetime. It’s a good feeling. I think it went better than I was expecting and I’m glad everybody came out healthy for next week.”
If there was one weakness for the Sandies, it was that their pass defense looked highly vulnerable. On the first play of scrimmage in the second half, Arrington hit Lewis for a 72-yard score to make it 38-14.
The flip side of that is that Amarillo High picked off Arrington four times, the biggest of which was a 77-yard touchdown return by Jaylend Brashears in the third quarter to make it 52-14.
Flaming, on the other hand, threw for 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his final game at Bivins. He ended the night with a 61-yard scoring pass to Bryson Brown 28 seconds into the fourth quarter.
“We talked about equity and what we put into the program and just came out here and showed what we could do,” Flaming said. “We just had to step on the gas. We weren’t looking at the scoreboard, we were just playing Sandstorm football. We scored 61 points so I can’t complain too much.”
Tascosa pummels Lubbock Coronado to clinch 5A DI playoff berth
LUBBOCK- With every reason to be disinterested and detached in the regular-season finale on Thursday, Coronado could have been one of those teams that took the field at PlainsCapital Park against Tascosa with a collective glazed look and was content on just going through the emotions.
And when back-to-back special-teams disasters dropped the Mustangs into an early hole against the locked-in Rebels, well, surely that would be all the motivation needed for the white flags to come out, right?
Quite the contrary as it turned out, and as a result, an important Coronado offseason begins with optimism.
Tascosa took care of the business it needed to with a 56-34 triumph to secure the No. 4 seed from District 2-5A Division I for the upcoming playoffs with a grind-it-out rushing attack clicking when it mattered and quarterback Coltyn Fulton taking another step on his learning curve with an effective night passing with 68 yards and two touchdown tosses.
The Rebels pounced in front 21-0 in the first quarter, aided greatly by back-to-back air-mailed punt snaps by Coronado that each resulted in 30-yard losses and gave Tascosa the ball on the doorstep of the goal line.
Balance was a huge component of the Rebels’ game plan with 10 players getting their hands on the ball for an offense that churned out 374 yards, and six players reached the end zone. Zaq Edwards produced three touchdowns, while Andrew Merrell was the workhorse in the running game with 21 carries for 105 yards – divided evenly between the first and fourth quarters when the Rebels methodically worked on the clock.
“We’ll play so many kids on offense,” longtime Rebels’ coach Ken Plunk said. “We trust them that they can get it done. We rep a lot of kids in practice, and I think by the end of the year our kids are fresh.”
Fresh or not, the Mustangs didn’t show an ounce of quit despite the early cavern in a game that they entered with a chance at the postseason if they beat Tascosa by 10 points or more.
Instead of lunging for the panic button after giving up the three quick touchdowns, the embattled Coronado offense found a nice rhythm once it went back on the field for a third series.
With quarterback Isaiah Vazquez settling in and bulldozer back De’Marion Finch carving out yards, the Mustangs constructed a pair of nice, long scoring drives with each of those juniors crossing the goal line for TDs. Vazquez lost a fumble on the series between those to set up another short-field drive for the Rebels, but Coronado got to halftime down just 28-13 and with a flicker of hope still pulsing.
“We struggled with special teams early and sputtered some on offense, but we started creating some confidence and that’s something we can build on,” said third-year Mustangs’ coach D.J. Mann, whose team finished the season with its season-high scoring output. “And man did those kids freaking play hard and they finished, and I’m proud of that.”
On offense, that was particulary true of Vazquez, Finch and a young offensive line that delivered its best performance of the season.
Vazquez was an effective weapon with his legs, rushing for a team-best 82 yards, while Finch bulled his way to 61 yards. After a rugged start when he missed his first eight passes, Vazquez also threw for 135 yards.
“We have to go into this offseason and work like we’ve got something to prove,” said Vazquez, also a standout in the Coronado baseball program. “We definitely feel like we can play a lot better than we did this season. We have the talent and now we just have to put the pieces together.”
That talent isn’t limited to the offensive side of the ball.
Coronado loses some key players on defense, most notably ball-hawking linebacker Willie Parker. But Zae Washington is poised to return and he supplied a glimpse of the future when he swiped the ball from Merrell early in the final frame and rumbled 64 yards to the house for a defensive score.
With the outcome settled after Merrell plowed into the end zone from the 2-yard-line with 4:18 to go, Coronado had one final salvo and made sure another senior got a chance for a curtain call.
The Mustangs pieced together their final series of the season and capped it when Vazquez rifled a 5-yard TD pass to Surreal Garrett with 35 seconds to go. Those two also connected on the two-point conversion, a fitting ending to a career when Garrett was both a go-to receiver and an emotional touchstone.
“Throughout the whole year, if anything was going bad, I tried to tell the young guys ‘Just keep your heads up,’ ” Garrett said. “This season didn’t go our way, but I knew I had to keep being the best leader I could be.”
That torch gets passed to Vazquez, Finch, Washington and Abe Ragland, who figure to be four important cornerstones for a team that could return as many as 19 starters next season.
Vazquez, in particular, will be counted on as he enters Year 2 as the starter behind the center.
“He’s got to build his confidence and work on his ability to get information to his players,” Mann said. “He’s a good player; he just has to work on a few things.
“It was good to see him run with the ball and come out healthy (Thursday). I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do on the baseball field, and I can promise you he will come back in our offseason with a great attitude.”