Tascosa runs over Palo Duro, 49-7

In renewing their longtime rivalry in Dick Bivins Stadium on Friday night, the Tascosa Rebels and Palo Duro Dons found out how easy it can be to erase memories from a week earlier.

That was great news for the Rebels and bad news for the Dons.

Tascosa was able to leave behind a heartbreaking loss to Amarillo High a week earlier in another Amarillo ISD rivalry game against Palo Duro. The Rebels used their traditionally ground-heavy attack to bludgeon the Dons, scoring touchdowns on their first seven possessions to roll to a 49-7 victory in a game which wasn't in doubt after the first quarter.

It was exactly what Tascosa (2-1) could have hoped for after losing to Amarillo High 36-33 with four seconds left in the game a week earlier.

"We played a tremendous game tonight," Tascosa coach Ken Plunk said. "We've been close all year to putting things together but we had a lot of mistakes as far as turnovers and penalties. We were better at keeping drives together by not making mistakes."

Tascosa dominated in every facet imaginable. The Rebels outgained Palo Duro (1-2) by a 552-101 margin, with 544 of those yards coming on the ground.

So effective was Tascosa's ground attack, the Rebels went the entire first half without throwing a pass en route to taking a 35-0 halftime lead.

The Rebels averaged over 10 yards a carry in the first half, as they had 350 yards on 33 attempts. They accumulated all of their 30 first downs on the ground.

"We just took what (the Dons) were giving us," Plunk said. "We really didn't have many opportunites to throw it. We have to do a better job at throwing it but we were happy with what we did running the ball."

Quarterback Joseph Plunk, the coach's son, naturally orchestrated the ground attack. On the fifth play of the game he ran a masterful deception play and raced 46 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

It was the first of four scoring runs for Plunk, who had 165 yards on 14 carries. He led six Tascosa runners who had at least 40 yards.

"We knew that wasn't what we were last week," said Joseph Plunk of the loss to Amarillo High. "We didn't play the way we could have played. We saw the front (the Dons) gave us by taking away the passing game and it made the running game work. If the running game's working, why go away from that."

By the time the game was over, Tascosa had 13 players run the ball as all the ballcarriers seemed fresh.

Palo Duro, on the other hand, struggled against the Rebels on offense. The Dons managed only 51 yards of offense and three first downs in the first half.

PD averted a shutout midway through the fourth quarter on a 7-yard scoring pass from Dondray DeGrate to Esley Fields.

Other than that, though, Tascosa gave the Dons practically nothing. It helped that they returned defensive end LB Moore, a commitment to Texas Tech who missed the first two games of the season with a shoulder injury.

"We played well across the board on both sides of the ball," Plunk said. "Our defense really was lights out. It was a great win for us."

Tascosa 49, Palo Duro 7

Palo Duro 0 0 0 7 — 7

Tascosa 14 21 14 0 — 49

First Quarter

T—Joseph Plunk 46 run (Max Burleson kick), 10:23

T—Blake Anderson 30 run (Burleson kick), 5:36

Second Quarter

T—Plunk 30 run (Burleson kick), 10:16

T—Plunk 2 run (Burleson kick), 5:36

T—Darius Sanders 17 run (Burleson kick), 1:37

Third Quarter

T—Plunk 39 run (Burleson kick), 8:30

T—Major Everhart 35 run (Burleson kick), 2:15

Fourth Quarter

PD—Esley Fields 7 pass from Dondray DeGrate (George Martinez kick), 5:14

 Palo Duro Tascosa 

First downs 6 30

Rushing 65 544

Passing 36 8

Total yards 101 552

C-A-I 6-11-1 1-2-0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1

Penalties-yards 3-35 6-45

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Palo Duro: Danny Dilworth 1-0, DeGrate 4-16, Treyson Dilworth 10-38, Anthony Randle 7-12, Jibri Edwards 2-(-1). Tascosa: Parker Settle 12-71, Plunk 14-165, Logan Nance 1-21, Everhart 4-69, Anthony Tuttle 6-53, Anderson 4-41, Jaiton McMorris 2-22, Sanders 2-27, Chance Jones 5-16, Ryan Barnett 6-42, Izik Bosquez 3-12, Burleson 2-1, Alex Arredondo 1-4. 

PASSING—Palo Duro: DeGrate 6-11-1-36. Tascosa: Plunk 1-2-0-8.

RECEIVING—Palo Duro: T. Dilworth 2-10, Randle 2-14, Kameron Brown 1-5, Fields 1-7. Tascosa: Sanders 1-8.