Dalhart beats Perryton in shootout
In one of the more entertaining games of the first Friday, Dalhart took a second half lead and held on in beating Perryton 33-30 at Perryton.
It was a tight game as expected in the first half, as Dalhart clung to a 19-17 halftime lead. But the Golden Wolves scored twice in the second half, and quarterback Kyler Read’s 8-yard scoring run gave Dalhart a 33-17 cushion early in the fourth quarter.
Perryton fought back, and cut the deficit to 33-30, but never caught up.
Both quarterbacks had solid dual threat games to lead their respective teams. Read threw for 105 yards and a touchdown and ran for 107 yards and three touchdowns. Perryton’s Julian Cervantes threw for 125 yards and a touchdown and ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
Hereford outlasts Caprock
Hereford scored 27 unanswered points in the second half to take control and cruise to a 34-20 win over 5A school and former district rival Caprock in the season opener at home, spoiling the debut of Caprock coach Rowdy Freeman.
Caprock led 13-7 at halftime as Lleyton Brown threw two touchdown passes. Hereford dominated in the second half, though.
Kalub Ramirez hit Brylyn Lopez for a 21-yard touchdown pass to give the Whitefaces a 14-13 lead in the third quarter which they never relinquished. Ramirez, a sophomore, threw three touchdown passes in the second half and threw for 210 yards.
Lopez also ran for 159 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries. Brown threw three touchdown passes for the Longhorns.
Pampa withstands Big Spring
Pampa appeared right at home offensively even without injured running back Max Neff, as the Harvesters successfully aired it out to beat Big Spring 35-25 at Harvester Field.
The Harvesters compensated without Neff, a 2,000-yard rusher last season who was out with an arm injury, by throwing the ball well. Brant Hill completed 13-of-20 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns. Three of those scores went to Bryce Lynn, who had four catches for 166 yards, including a 95-yarder for a touchdown.
Cooper Smith and Pedro Hernandez both had 14 tackles for Pampa, while Elijah Torres had 13 and Aaron Diaz made 10.
Randall can’t catch up to Andrews
Another coach with Caprock connections also had a tough debut, as Dan Sherwood, who formerly coached the Longhorns, lost in his debut at Randall, as the Raiders couldn’t contain the prolific rushing attack of Andrews in a 32-21 loss.
Andrews took a 13-0 lead in the first quarter as JaeSean DeBouse opened the scoring with a 38-yard touchdown run, DeBouse was a thorn in the side of Randall all night, running for 236 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries.
Randall quarterback Trystin Sanchez had some good moments in his first start, throwing for 217 yards and three touchdowns as the Raiders fought back in the second half. However, Sanchez also threw three interceptions.
The Raiders didn’t give up any yards passing but surrendered 391 yards rushing.
Lubbock-Cooper handles Dumas
The road’s got to get easier for Dumas the rest of the way because it can’t get tougher than what it was at 5A Lubbock-Cooper, as the Demons traveled south and got manhandled at Cooper 42-0.
It was a particularly rough game defensively for Dumas, as Cooper rolled up 360 yards rushing on the Demons and had four runners go for at least 70 yards. By contrast, Dumas had only 143 yards of total offense.