Herd leads Tascosa in game suspended by lightning

The grade for Friday night’s game between Hereford and Tascosa at Dick Bivins Stadium had to be considered incomplete, but it was obvious one team had a much better test.

With seven minutes left in the third quarter, the game was stopped due to a lightning delay with Hereford leading 26-14. While Hereford could consider the game a win, Tascosa didn’t have to take a loss.

However, Tascosa was the team which had more work to do at the end of the night with next week’s District 2-5A Division I opener against crosstown rival Amarillo High looming.

For Hereford (4-0), all the arrows were pointing upward despite not officially finishing the game. Hereford already has three more wins this year than all of last year.

“It’s one of those things where I think both of us benefit from the game being over,” Hereford coach Adam Naron said. “We’re not worried about winning or losing, we’re more worried about getting out of here injury-free. We played really well the first half. We knew the lightning was coming and if (Tascosa) went up 21-20 and it went into a delay we’d be OK with that because we got better.”

Tascosa (1-2), though, was saved from the possibility of three straight losses due to the weather delay.

“I’m more worried with how we’re playing,” said Tascosa coach Ken Plunk in terms of whether or not he’d score the game a loss. “We’re not doing a great job of coaching right now to be honest. We’ve got to do a better job of coaching and out kids have got to take our coaching.”

Hereford took some big gambles in the first half and they paid off, as the Whitefaces completed a pair of long passes for scores on fourth down to take a 20-14 lead over Tascosa at the half.

The Herd set the tone quickly, when on the third play of the game, Kalub Ramirez hit a hitch pass to Nick Torres which Torres took for a 62-yard gain down to the Tascosa 5-yard line. Ramirez then threw the first of his three touchdowns, hitting Tell Bryant on a 4-yard scoring pass and a 6-0 lead.

With just over a minute left in the first quarter, Hereford faced a fourth-and-8 from Tascosa’s 38. The Herd went for it and Ramirez hit Ethan Gonzales in the end zone for the score and a 14-0 lead.

Midway through the second quarter, Ramirez faced a fourth-and-9 at Tascosa’s 28, and this time he hit Torres with a score for a 20-7 lead.

“We were playing to win,” Naron said. “We weren’t playing to try to keep the lead. We said no matter what we were going to go for it and we were going to sling it. That was our mindset coming in to try to score as many points as we could and let the chips fall where they may.”

Tascosa quarterback Coltyn Fulton ran for both of Tascosa’s touchdowns in the first half.

Fulton got the Rebels on the board with dazzling 35-yard scoring run in the first minute of the second quarter, spinning and breaking tackles along the sideline for a touchdown. Then in the final two minutes of the, Fulton kept it up the middle and bulled into the end zone on an 11-yard run to cut it to 20-14.

Tascosa got the second half kickoff and faced a fourth-and-1 at its own 46. Uncharacteristically, the Rebels opted to throw a deep ball and it fell incomplete.

The Herd took advantage, as Brylyn Lopez scored on a 7-yard run to make it 26-14. After the ensuing kickoff, lightning struck and the game was halted, and called for the evening less than an hour later.

Ramirez threw for 202 yards and Lopez ran for 112 yards on 17 carries. Lopez ran for 112 yards on 17 carries with a TD.