Amarillo High repeated the formula from the first two games of the season Friday night against Midland High at Dick Bivins Stadium, as the Sandies started slow and closed strong. This time, it wasn’t strong enough.
Despite a nonexistent offense in the first half, the Sandies were never out of it against Midland, but they started too late to avoid a 32-27 loss. Amarillo High is now 1-2 on the season after rallying past Cleveland, N.M. in overtime last week and falling to Midland Legacy in the season opener.
After a first half in which the Sandies got next to nothing going against Midland (3-0), they got to within one possession three times in the second half, but it didn’t add up in the end.
“I was proud of the fact the kids didn’t quit,” AHS coach Chad Dunnam said. “We came out and started really slow on both sides of the ball. The speed of their offense was just faster than what we were accustomed to and it took us awhile to adjust. Offensively we were not able to get anything going and we’ve got to be able to produce more offense in the first half.”
The Bulldogs used their typical ground-oriented offense in the first half to control the clock, and it seemed as if Amarillo High was fortunate to be trailing only by 19-7 at halftime.
Midland scored on the first three possessions, as Elijah McCoy scored on a pair of long runs in the first quarter of 29 and 32 yards to give the Bulldogs a 13-0 lead. Amarillo High (1-2) answered after McCoy’s second score on an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Bryson Brown to cut it to 13-7.
That was it for first half highlights for the Sandies, though. They managed only 25 yards of total offense and one first down in the first half.
Midland ended two Amarillo High drives on interceptions of AHS sophomore quarterback Jett Lopez. Julian Williams picked off a pass on Amarillo High’s first drive of the game to set up the Bulldogs with a short field on their first scoring possession, and defensive lineman Darrion Mitchell ended another potential Amarillo High drive with an interception at midfield.
“The first interception the kid made a great play, goes up and bats the ball and makes a great play,” Dunnam said. “Jett was throwing it to the right guy. On the other interception we ran a slow screen and the defensive end just read it. Great job by them on that. I like to see guys make plays like that, just not against us.”
However, McCoy scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard run and a 3-yard pass from Tristan Love which made it 32-20. McCoy ran for 210 yards on 28 carries.
The second score was especially painful for the Sandies, as a pair of 15-yard penalties led to first downs for Midland on that drive, putting the Bulldogs in optimum field position for an insurance score.
“We let our emotions get out in front of us at one point in time, we got a personal foul by disagreeing with a call,” Dunnam said. “We can’t do that. We’ve got to be smarter and be better than that. I was proud of the way we finished but not the way we started.”
The Sandies came back on a 3-yard run by Lopez to cut it to 32-27 with 1:38 left. However, the ensuing onside kick didn’t even go 10 yards, and the Bulldogs ran for a first down and extinguished the clock.