In the end, however, it came down to one crosstown rival reverting to an old reputation with some new wrinkles for a satisfying result.
Tascosa and Amarillo High fought it out for the No. 3 seed in District 2-5A Division I, and it had the kind of intensity expected from two perennial rivals with a better seed on the line.
It was Tascosa which asserted its will running the ball in the second half with its patented flexbone offense, as the Rebels wore down Amarillo High 34-29 to claim the third seed and leave the Sandies with the No. 4 seed.
The Rebels (5-5, 4-2 in district) have had an up and down season, but in the last few weeks, particularly on offense, they appear to have hit their stride at the right time. They’re carrying some momentum into the postseason and might be a tough out for their opponents.
It confirmed the belief Tascosa coach Ken Plunk may have doubted regarding his team.
“I told the kids walking out the tunnel before the game that I didn’t know if I could keep doing this,” Plunk said. “I didn’t know if I’d lost it with the anxiety of not having one of these wins in awhile. This group bailed me out. It makes me feel a lot better about myself and this football team.”
Plunk has the type of resume in his 16th season at Tascosa which should be immune to any delf-doubt, but that doesn’t eliminate the reality of going through struggles during a season. What matters most is performance when it counts, and in that regard, junior quarterback Coltyn Fulton had a signature game.
Fulton and the Rebels have emerged as a more dangerous passing team lately, particularly when he’s throwing the ball to senior T.J. Tillman. The pair hooked up on two scoring passes in the first half as Tillman became only the second player in school history to go over the 1,000-yard career mark receiving.
“I know that I am a leader on this team and I have to make sure I’m doing things right so the team can follow,” said Fulton, who completed 6-of-10 passes for 147 yards. “I have a great group of guys behind me, and they work their butts off all week and it pays off for us.”
The first half was as wild as anyone would anticipate a crosstown rivalry regular season finale to be with playoff positioning on the line, which was reflected in the 22-22 score when the teams went into the locker room. It was the highest scoring combined first half in the history of the rivalry.
Both teams struck quickly with long touchdown passes in the first 113 seconds of the game. Amarillo High (5-4, 4-2) got on the board first on a 66-yard scoring pass from Jett Lopez to Cooper Manning to strike first, then three plays after the ensuing kickoff, Fulton found Tillman on a 48-yard bomb to tie it 7-7.
That’s not the way most teams expect the Rebels to score but maybe they should be looking out for it now.
“That’s the scary thing about our offense is we can run the ball all night then come out passing and they don’t even know what’s coming,” Fulton said. “We have a great receiver in T.J. Tillman and we got him to his 1,000 yards which is great. Our passing game is scary just like our running. We’ve been pretty balanced passing and running the ball.”
Fulton had the ball in his hands more often than not when the Rebels made plays, and he verified the trust Plunk had in him.
“I talked to him in my office today before the game which I don’t do very often,” Plunk said. “I told him it’s time for you to move into that role of the type of quarterbacks we’ve had in the past and that’s what he did tonight.”
The most concerning moment of the game came when Tascosa’s Derrion Howard scored on a 5-yard run to give the Rebels a 14-7 lead midway through the first quarter. Howard was down in the end zone after the score, as there was a long delay before he was taken off the field in an ambulance after losing feeling in his lower extremities.
Tillman had what’s become a typically big-play game with four catches for 129 yards.
The second half, though, far more resembled the kind of offense the Rebels have come to be known for under Plunk. Tascosa got the second half kickoff and moved down the field, cashing in on Fulton’s 1-yard run, which turned out to give them the lead for good at 28-22.
Amarillo High got a first down on the ensuing possession but was forced to punt. That the Sandies had only 72 yards of offense and two possessions in the second had far more to do with Tascosa wearing them down their defense than any offensive inefficiency.
“In the second half (the Rebels) played a game of keep away,” AHS coach Chad Dunnam said. “We got them in comparable downs and distances and they made big plays through the air of all things. I thought we battled hard but we came up short. They made more plays than we did tonight.”
After forcing an Amarillo High punt, Tascosa went on another clock-draining drive which ended early in the fourth quarter when Fulton took it in from four yards out for a 34-22 lead.
The Sandies showed their offensive firepower a good chunk of the evening and they responded with a drive of their own when Lopez carried it in from a yard out to cut it to 34-29 with 6:27 left in the game. That capped yet another stellar night for Lopez, who completed 16-of-23 passes for 220 yards.
Lopez never got a chance to see if he could lead a game-winning drive. That’s because the Sandies didn’t get the ball back.
“We converted a first down which is not easy to do at the very end of the game,” Plunk said. “We’ve been through some adversity with some games we should have won that we didn’t but now we’re going into the playoffs with a ton of momentum. We didn’t say it but this sure felt like a playoff game. We didn’t win a gold ball tonight, but it sure felt like it.”
The Rebels will have to go on the road next week, most likely on Friday, where they will play El Paso Americas in the bi-district round.
Amarillo High, meanwhile, will go to El Paso as well to face El Paso El Dorado in the first round. The Sandies have shown they can throw the ball particularly well the past two games, as Lopez has thrown nine touchdowns in that span.
Manning had four catches for 118 yards against Tascosa.