By the end, though, they were on the ropes, but still living to fight another day and holding out hope for their next match.
The Class 5A Sandies hung tough defensively for most of the first half against Class 6A Legacy’s vaunted offense and looked to make a game of it. However, they had nowhere near the offense to withstand the blows, as they lost 35-7.
That result might not be an indictment of the Sandies so much as a credit to what they were facing with the Rebels. They looked like a team which was struggling to find an identity and not looking nearly as good as they expect to be in September.
“I tip my hat to those guys,” said AHS coach Chad Dunnam of the Rebels. “That’s a tough, well-coached football team. I’m proud to take the field with them. I felt like in the first half we did a good job, but ultimately, we gave up 21 points off of deep balls that were just phenomenal throws and catches.”
The Sandies looked capable of hanging with Legacy for much of the first half and benefited from five first downs on offense via penalties. But they didn’t translate into points, as the Rebels scored on their final two possessions of the half to take a 21-7 halftime lead.
Legacy took advantage of ideal field position after a short Amarillo High punt on the first offensive possession of the game. The Rebels went 46 yards for a score and Gilbert Hernandez scored on a 5-yard run to take a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Amarillo High would take advantage of a short field to tie the game 25 seconds into the second quarter on a 15-yard scoring run by Pius Vokes to make it 7-7. That was about the lone offensive highlight of the night for the Sandies, as Legacy held them to 190 yards of total offense.
It didn’t help that Legacy blocked two Amarillo High field goal attempts.
“We had three possessions right down here in the first half which we didn’t get points out of,” Dunnam said. “I was disappointed about that. We went in down 21-7 and honestly I felt like we should have had the lead.”
That last score was set up on a 46-yard throw from Davila to Brex Stephens, who made a diving catch.
Davila completed 16-of-27 for 209 yards and three touchdowns, including a 37-yarder to Aiden Serrano early in the third quarter to make it 28-7 and pretty much end the competitive phase of the game. The Rebels also ran for 235 yards to complete a well-rounded night of 444 yards of total offense.
By contrast, Amarillo High was one-dimensional offensively. Vokes ran for 95 yards on 16 carries but the Sandies struggled to throw the ball, as quarterback Will Flaming, in his first varsity start, threw for only 29 yards, all in the first half, before he got knocked out of the game after a hard hit in the third quarter.
“We’ve got to get better at throwing the football,” Dunnam said. “It was the first game and we had happy feet a couple of times. We threw some decent balls and had some pass interferences. If you look, I think we got a pass interference every time we ran by them.”
This is the second straight year Legacy will open with a pair of Amarillo ISD schools, as the Rebels will host Tascosa next week. Last year in Canyon, Tascosa beat Legacy 48-27.
“We’ve played (Tascosa) for eight years and we’ve played (Amarillo) for six, so we get it,” Legacy coach Clint Hartman said. “We know that every one of them is a dogfight. I respect their staffs and how hard those kids play. They’re going to teach you some things you’ve got to get working on.”