ADAM ZUVANICH | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
ODESSA – Mission Veterans Memorial wasn’t intimidated Saturday afternoon – not by the cloud-covered West Texas sky, not by the black-clad team on the other side of the field, and not by the giant new video board on one of the most hallowed grounds in Texas high school football.
But like many teams that have wandered into Ratliff Stadium for the first time, the Patriots never saw what was coming from the venue’s most well-known resident.
Permian pounced on its unsuspecting visitor from the Rio Grande Valley, building a four-touchdown lead in the first half and cruising to a 44-8 win in its 2014 home opener.
“It wasn’t what we expected at all,” Mission Vets senior Adrian Flores said. “This is a really good football team. We saw them on film and, to be honest, we felt like, ‘Oh, we can handle these guys.’ And we let our guards down big time.”
The Patriots (1-1), who will return to Odessa next season for another non-district game against the Panthers (2-0), found out rather quickly that it would be a rough afternoon.
They went three-and-out to start the game and then watched Permian march 60 yards in 11 plays on its first possession, with Brandon Bailey scoring the first of his three touchdowns midway through the first quarter.
Less than one minute later, Panthers cornerback Jordan McCoy returned an interception 34 yards for a TD of his own, and the rout was on.
“We started off real good,” said McCoy, a junior who made his first career start. “The intensity was high.”
Permian scored on each of its next two offensive possessions, with Heath Wood throwing touchdown passes to Kobe Robinson and Bailey to build a 28-0 lead with 9 minutes, 27 seconds, remaining in the first half.
Then, as Robinson said, the Panthers “kind of fell asleep.”
The Patriots’ Scout Sanchez intercepted Wood at midfield, and Veterans Memorial got on the scoreboard at the end of Permian’s following possession. Flores blocked a punt by Dakoda Delao, with the ball rolling through the end zone for a safety.
“It was something,” Flores said. “Something’s better than nothing.”
The Panthers reasserted themselves to start the second half, recovering an onside kick attempt to start the third quarter and getting a second touchdown run by Bailey six plays later. Then Permian got a safety of its own when Veterans Memorial snapped the ball over its punter’s head and through the end zone, and Wood rushed for a TD on the ensuing possession to make it 44-2.
The Patriots’ offense finally broke through late in the third quarter, when quarterback Santos Villarreal engineered a 12-play, 80-yard drive. The senior converted three consecutive third-down plays with his feet, then scampered into the end zone from 7 yards out.
Villarreal finished with 50 rushing yards and completed 18-of-44 passes for 180 yards, and he and the Patriots matched the Panthers with 19 first downs. But Veterans Memorial had four turnovers on downs – three in Permian territory and one at midfield – and Panthers safety Jax Welch had a second-half interception near the end zone.
Andrew Blackstone made a sack of Villarreal – giving the junior defensive lineman two sacks in two games – and Angel Gonzales and Tommy Taylor teamed up for another. The Panthers held an opponent to one offensive touchdown for the second week in a row, but they really wanted a shutout.
“They should never, ever get into the red zone,” Gonzales said. “We were good enough to stop them before, and that’s one thing we also need to correct in practice.”
The Permian offense did plenty of good things as well, especially early on. Bailey finished with a game-high 112 yards on 23 rushing attempts – giving him 267 yards and four rushing TDs in two games – and Wood finished 8-of-12 passing for 143 yards and the two TDs.
But much like the defense, the Permian offense lamented a lackluster finish after such a strong start. Because while the Panthers are 2-0 for the first time since 2008, when they finished 12-1 with a trip to the third round of the playoffs, they’re far from content heading into Friday night’s game at El Paso Americas.
“Before the game, our mentality is just so high and uptempo,” Wood said. “I think after we get that lead, I feel like we’re getting too comfortable with what we’re doing and not keeping that same mentality. We’ve got to come out after we score a touchdown and go back to the sidelines like it’s zero-zero.”
The Patriots wish the score could have really been reset, because they would have had a chance to leave home with a victory. Instead, they had to settle for some small victories once the game was out of hand.
And they’ll always have the experience of playing at Ratliff Stadium, even if that experience wasn’t too enjoyable.
“It’s an honor playing these guys,” Villarreal said. “I’m excited for the rest of the season now. “