High School Football Area Playoff Outlook & Bi-District Recap
The area playoff round is approaching this week, as nine El Paso teams remain in the Texas state playoffs for high school football.
Check out the last episode of Football Friday Night with Beau Bagley and Paul MacKinnon. See photos online by Prep 1 for sights across town.
Area round schedule:
Thursday, November 18
- Parkland (4-7) vs. Lubbock Cooper (10-1) - Fort Stockton
- Clint (6-5) vs. Wichita Falls Hirschi (9-2) - Midland Grande Communications Stadium
Friday, November 19
- Eastlake (10-1) vs. Byron Nelson (8-3) - Wolfforth
- Eastwood (7-4) vs. Saginaw Boswell (6-4) - Lubbock
- Chapin (9-2) vs. Mansfield Summit (8-3) - Grande Communications Stadium
- Horizon (6-5) vs. Grapevine (9-3) - Grande Communications Stadium
- Riverside (10-1) vs. Lake Worth (9-2) - Odessa Ratliff
- Canutillo (10-1) vs. Canyon Randall (6-5) - Andrews
- Andress (9-2) vs. Wichita Falls Rider (10-1) - Denver City
Chapin 29 - Caprock 28: Huskies' 2-point conversion wins bi-district title
By Adrian Broaddus
The Chapin Huskies were up 21-7 to Amarillo Caprock going into the second half and looked crisp on offense. Backup quarterback Adrian Garcia threw a touchdown pass to Anthony Rivera from 24 yards out on their opening drive. Senior quarterback Mason Standerfer threw for a touchdown and rushed for a touchdown, totaling 248 passing yards on the game.
However, Amarillo Caprock was able to march back into the game after their running back Damon Carrasco started getting the ground game working for the Longhorns. He helped lead Caprock with 21 unanswered points in the second half to take their first lead in the fourth quarter, 28-21. Carrasco ended the game with a whopping 42 carries for 336 yards and three touchdowns.
Things looked grim for Chapin when Standerfer threw an interception late in the game. Caprock was able to march the ball downfield with ease. A touchdown late in the game would put the game away and the Longhorns had it all the way down to the Chapin 2-yard line, trying to extend their 28-21 lead. However, Carrasco fumbled a bad snap and Chapin fell on it.
Standerfer was able to hook up with wide receiver Rivera for a 76-yard bomb. That helped set up an easy Gio Aguilar 2-yard rushing touchdown to make it 28-27. Instead of kicking the tying extra point, Chapin elected to go for two points and converted on a pass from Standerfer to running back Jacob Williamson. Chapin will now advance to play Mansfield Summit in the area round of the playoffs.
Horizon 57 - Burges 56: Scorpions Sting Mustangs to win Bi-District Championship in epic battle
By Brandon Cohn
In one of the memorable high school football games in years, Horizon came into Mustang Stadium and held off a red-hot Burges squad en route to an epic 57-56 win for a Bi-District championship.
The back-and-forth seesaw battle included numerous lead changes throughout and performances to remember for a lifetime from Scorpions’ RB Ernie Garcia and Burges’ RB (Mizzou commit) Tavorus Jones.
Horizon looked like they were pulling away in the first half as the Scorpions held a 21-6 advantage work 7:32 remaining. Burges narrowed the margin to 21-14 with 1:39 left in the half when QB Routledge found WR Ray Campos for a 30-YD TD. The teams traded scores before halftime as the Scorpions took a 28-20 advantage into the intermission.
The Mustangs tied up the contest at 28-28 with 7:32 left in the 3rd quarter when QB Routledge found RB Jones for a 13-TD reception. The teams continued to trade scores the remainder of the third quarter until they were nodded at 42-42 with 1:24 left in the period with the Routledge keeper.
Horizon would retake the lead at 49-42 at the 11:19 mark of the 4th quarter when RB Ernie Garcia scored on a 3-YD TD. Burges would then take a 50-49 lead with 7:52 left in the game as RB Ayden Watts scored on a 14-YD YD, and they successfully converted the 2-PT attempt.
Horizon would then retake the lead again with 5:48 left as QB Quijas scored on a 3-YD keeper to give the Scorpions a 57-50 edge as they also converted the 2-PT conversion. Then in one of the wildest finishes that we’ve witnessed, Burges pulled within one at 57-56 as QB Routledge found WR Ray Campos with 1:13 left in the game and the Mustangs decided to roll the dice and go for the potential win, but could not complete the 2-PT conversion as WR Campos caught the pass from Routledge, but was out of bounds.
Horizon went on to win one of the wildest post season games in recent memory and will travel to Midland to face Grapevine next Friday 11/19 at Grande Communications Stadium at 6:00 P.M. MST.
Scorpions’ RB Ernie Garcia finished with 180 yards on 24 carries, 4 TD’s, including an 85-YD kickoff return for a TD. QB Jacob Quijas was 15 of 18 for 148 yards, 15 carries for 202 yards and 3 rush TD’s. Burges’ RB Tavorus Jones had 16 carries for 163 yards and 3 TD’s, while QB Andrew Routledge was 24 of 38 for 262 yards and 5 TD’s.
Eastlake 21 - Central 17: Eastlake scores late to get past San Angelo Central
By Steve Escajeda
In a nip-and-tuck affair, which saw the lead change hands three times in the fourth quarter, the Eastlake Falcons came away with a thrilling 21-17 Class 6A bi-district victory over the San Angelo Central Bobcats.
Central quarterback Tyler Hill’s five-yard touchdown run with 3:40 left in the game, put the Bobcats up 17-14. But Eastlake would get the ball back for one final drive.
After being bottled up for most of the night, running back Elijah Uribe broke free for a 61-yard run that set up the Falcons with a first down at the Central 10 yard line.
Uribe finished the drive with a five-yard scoring run with 2:20 left in the contest.
On its hectic ensuing possession, San Angelo drove to the Eastlake 28-yard line with no timeouts and 48 seconds left, but Hill’s desperation pass was intercepted at the five-yard line, sealing the win for the Falcons.
As it has been for most of the season, Uribe led the way for Eastlake, rushing for 146 yards and a touchdown; he also caught seven passes for 137 yards.
Eastlake quarterback Sebastian Rendon was 15-of-21 for 226 yards and a touchdown.
The win was especially sweet for Eastlake, which was knocked out of the state playoffs a year ago against this same San Angelo Central squad.
The victory means that Eastlake (10-1) will take on Byron Nelson High (8-3) this Friday in the Area Round of the state playoffs at Wolfforth’s Peoples Bank Stadium at 6 p.m.
Permian 56 - Franklin 28: Permian sprints past Franklin 56-28
By Alex Nicolas
Permian racked up 532 yards of total offense, jumped out to an early 28-7 lead, withstood a valiant Franklin comeback and secured their 32nd bi-district title in school history with a 56-28 win Friday night in the Class 6A DI bi-district round.
The Panthers led 28-7 after Permian slot back Jaquan Richardson scored his fourth touchdown of the opening quarter on a highlight-reel 58-yard touchdown reception with one-minute left in the opening frame.
Richardson touched the ball eight times on offense, racking up 197 total yards of offense and five total touchdowns. He had touchdown receptions of 47, 58, and 68 yards in the game.
Permian quarterback Rodney Hall threw for 214 yards, and ran for 136 yards, throwing for a pair of scores and ran in a pair of touchdowns.
An onside kick, and a late interception in the first half helped Franklin close the gap at the half and made things very interesting.
After Cameron Byrd found Miles McWhorter for a 68-yard touchdown pass with 8:03 left until halftime to cut the Mojo lead to 28-14. Noah Alvarez would recover an onside kick in Permian territory aided by a personal foul on Permian on the extra point.
A few plays later after the onside, Franklin's Dominic Arellano took a reverse from 11-yards out to make it 28-21 Permian with 7:35 left until halftime.
After a Hector Facio interception for Franklin was returned to the Permian 21-yard line, Byrd found Arellano wide open in the back of the end zone with 10 seconds left until the half with Permian leading 35-28.
Permian would score on three straight second half possessions to extend their lead, but a key fourth down stop by the Panther defense before that ended up being a big difference maker in terms of momentum and field position.
With about four minutes left in the third quarter, Franklin was facing a fourth and short from their own 28-yard line and would gamble with an inside run to Jordan Morales which Permian would stuff.
Five plays later Rodney Hall would extend the lead to 42-28 with an eight-yard touchdown run to capitalize a short 29-yard scoring drive and the Panthers never looked back.
Byrd threw for 217 yards and a pair of touchdowns but was picked off twice by Permian’s Corey McCoy and was also sacked six times.
Miles McWhorter caught six passes for 118 yards, Franklin was held to just 282 yards of total offense.
Permian moves on to face Euless Trinity in the area round, Franklin’s season ends at 8-3 overall.
Amarillo 45 - Del Valle 21: Amarillo dominates in bi-district win
By Jaime Chavez
The Amarillo Sandies advanced to the 5-A area round playoffs by defeating the Del Valle Conquistadores 45-21 in a bi-district matchup Friday night at Del Valle's Conquest Stadium. Amarillo scored on 5 rushing touchdowns, 63 and 8 yards by Tyreese Molden and scoring runs of 1 and 8 yards by Mason Graham. Levi Slaydon added a 95 yard touchdown run in the third quarter to keep the game out of reach. Amarillo linebacker Jacob Greeson had a 17 yard interception return for a touchdown and Luke Laminack added a 25 yard field goal. Del Valle's scoring came on a pair of 4 yard touchdown runs, by Sean Ramos and backup quarterback Diego Carrera. Del Valle quarterback Jesse Ramos added a 1 yard touchdown burst. Amarillo (9-2) will take on Colleyville Heritage next week while Del Valle ends its season with a 7-4 record.