A pair of Amarillo ISD teams came into a non-district game at Dick Bivins Stadium looking for something Thursday night, and while one left the field with it, the other was still desperately searching.
Palo Duro and Caprock were both coming off season-opening shutout losses last week, so there was far more on the line than eastside pride. Generating any kind of momentum was the theme to build on over the next eight weeks.
It was all on Palo Duro’s side in a hurry, as the Dons scored quickly and with all three units in the first half, as they crushed Caprock 48-0 for their first win of the season to even their record at 1-1. Caprock fell to 0-2, and the Longhorns aren’t only looking for their first win of the season, but their first points as well.
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After last week’s 10-0 loss to fellow AISD school Tascosa in which their defense kept them in the game but the offense went missing, goals for this week were extremely simple for Palo Duro coach Eric Mims and his team.
“We scored points this week,” said Mims, his voice reflecting the tone of a kid opening a Christmas gift. “That’s the only way you can win games. We did it with offense, we did it with defense and we ran a punt back. I think that it is what we want from our team. We’ve got a lot of talent in a lot of places, we just need all three phases to contribute to us being successful all year long.”
Both teams were desperately looking to get on the scoreboard for the first time this season, and Palo Duro did it quickly. The Dons didn’t let up the rest of the half in taking a 35-0 lead.
Defense got Palo Duro on the board only 93 seconds into the game. On third down, Caprock’s Juan DeLaCruz tried to hit a receiver over the middle, but PD’s Julian Reese II got in the way instead. Reese, who’s better known as Palo Duro’s starting quarterback, returned the pick 45 yards for a score to give the Dons their first points of the season and a 7-0 lead.
“I’ve been working on it since the summer,” said Reese of playing defensive back. “I could have played there more last year but things didn’t go as planned. This year I’m going to play a lot more defense. I think that gave a lot of energy for the whole team.”
Mims was just happy to finally get on the scoreboard, even if the method was unexpected.
“How ironic, right?,” said Mims of Reese’s score. “The quarterback didn’t throw the pick six, he caught the pick six and went and scored. He’s a very talented kid and we have packages where we allow him to go play safety from time to time because of his athletic ability. He did a good job of driving on the route, picking it off and putting it in the end zone.”
Neither offense distinguished itself much early on, but the Dons were able to take advantage of field position. They took a chance on fourth-and-nine from the Caprock 28-yard line, and it paid off when Reese hit Daniel Moses in the end zone to make it 14-0 late in the first quarter.
It was the first of three scoring passes for Reese, who completed 14-of-23 passes for 241 yards. Reese also led the Dons in rushing with 52 yards and a touchdown on only four carries.
“The pass blocking was so good, and I didn’t get sacked al all,” Reese said. “I had a lot of time in the pocket. I love running when I have to.”
Later in the quarter, the Dons got their second interception of the half, when Keimaure Rayford picked off DeLaCruz, setting up an 8-yard touchdown run by Darien Lewis less than a minute into the second quarter for a 21-0 lead.
Reese got his second touchdown later in the quarter on a 5-yard run, then Lewis concluded the scoring in the half with a 62-yard punt return for a score to make it 35-0 with 1:41 left in the half.
Lewis was probably Palo Duro’s most potent overall weapon on the night, as he finished with five catches for 125 yards. The North Carolina commit appropriately ended the scoring with a 57-yard scoring pass from Reese early in the fourth quarter.
Caprock showed some offensive life in the second half, but the Longhorns still managed only 190 yards of total offense. A bright spot is that they actually outrushed Palo Duro by a 124-115 margin, as Xavier Vargas had a game-high 71 yards on 16 carries.
“I think we’ve just got to keep working,” Caprock coach Rowdy Freeman said. “We’ve got to go through the bad days before you get to the good. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot and not putting the defense in a very comfortable position. We did some good things, but we’d take two steps forward and three steps back.”