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Football: Mistakes haunt Permian in loss to Duncanville
A 22-game regular-season winning streak gets halted in 33-14 setback
The Duncanville linebacker saw Permian trying to set up a screen to Eli Torres, closed the gap quickly, picked off the pass from Steven Pipes and kept running until he reached the end zone in the Alamodome.
Lanigan’s interception return for a touchdown late in the third quarter broke open a close game and helped Duncanville hand Permian a 33-14 loss in the Texas Football Classic, cleanly snapping Permian’s 22-game regular-season winning streak.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot too much offensively,” Permian quarterback Steven Pipes said.
Permian’s offense clicked on its opening drive. DeAnthony Fay capped an 11-play, 77-yard drive by banging in for a 1-yard touchdown to give Permian (0-1) the lead.
But Duncanville (1-0) started forcing turnovers on Permian’s next offensive series.
Fumbles ended Permian’s next two drives, and Ashton Neroes ended the next drive by picking off Pipes deep in Duncanville territory.
Capitalizing off of the turnovers, Duncanville kicker Nate Warren — who finished 4-for-5 on field goals — banged home a pair of field goals to close the gap.
Trying to make something happen, Permian head coach Gary Gaines rolled the dice on fourth-and-inches at the Permian 30 on the Panthers’ next drive.
Pipes was stuffed short of the first down. Four plays later, Warren slammed home another field goal to give Duncanville a 9-7 halftime lead.
“That wasn’t a smart call,” Gaines said. “But the defense needed a break — they had been on the field for most of the half. It didn’t work, and I’ll take the blame for that.”
Coming out of the locker room after halftime, Permian’s defense forced a three-and-out, and Pipes scored on a 19-yard run to put Permian back in front 14-9.
Backup quarterback Charles Williams — starter Divan Ealy left in the second quarter with an injury — answered by tossing a 35-yard touchdown pass to Darrin Brown to take back the lead.
And then Lanigan made his play.
Facing a third-and-goal at the Duncanville 8, Pipes tried to slip a screen in to Torres, and Lanigan returned the pick 91 yards for a touchdown to give Duncanville a 23-14 lead.
“We killed ourselves,” Pipes said. “We had lots of opportunities to get in the end zone.”
Feeding off of Lanigan’s interception, Duncanville kept making plays on defense.
Permian never answered.
“We started off the game strong,” senior safety Colby Pyron said. “It all went downhill from there.”
Another interception by Neroes ended Permian’s next drive. And after Warren blasted home a 40-yard field goal for Duncanville, linebacker Thomas Hill sealed the game by returning another interception — Duncanville’s fourth of the game — for a 42-yard touchdown.
Pipes, who had to evade a constant rush from the Duncanville defensive line, finished the game 11-of-28 for 212 yards and four interceptions.
“We learned a lot of hard lessons in this game,” safety Brennan Welch said.
Permian hasn’t lost a regular-season game in two years.
For the first time in recent history, this team has to find a way to bounce back heading into the District 2-5A schedule.
“You’re going to have some setbacks,” Gaines said. “Sometimes, when you get your tail kicked, it’s a motivator.”
>> Duncanville 33, Permian 14
Permian 7 0 7 0 — 14
Duncanville 0 9 14 10 — 33
First Quarter
Permian — DeAnthony Fay 1 run (Taylor Martin kick), 6:21. Drive: 11 plays, 77 yards, 5:32. Key play: Fay 40 run on 1st-and-10 at Permian 37; Tommey Morris 27 pass from Steven Pipes on 3rd-and-17 at Duncanville 30.
Second Quarter
Duncanville — Nate Warren 19 field goal, 9:30. Drive: 5 plays, 19 yards, 2:15.
Duncanville — Nate Warren 28 field goal, 3:12. Drive: 6 plays, 66 yards, 3:30. Key plays: Victor Winzer 46 run on 2nd-and-5 at the Duncanville 28.
Duncanville — Nate Warren 28 field goal, 0:23. Drive: 4 plays, 16 yards, 1:30. Key plays: Brennan Welch tackles Zavian Handy for a 1-yard loss on 3rd-and-10 at Permian 11.
Third Quarter
Permian — Steven Pipes 19 run (Martin kick), 8:25. Drive: 5 plays, 47 yards, 2:05. Key plays: Fay 7 run on 3rd-and-1 at the Duncanville 38.
Duncanville — Darrin Brown 35 pass from Charles Williams (Warren kick), 6:27. Drive: 4 plays, 43 yards, 1:58. Key plays: Chris Simpson 14 run on second play of drive.
Duncanville — Stephon Lanigan 91 interception return (Warren kick), 3:32. Drive: 0 plays, 0 yards, 0:00.
Fourth Quarter
Duncanville — Nate Warren 40 field goal, 5:38. Drive: 9 plays, 36 yards, 5:03. Key plays: Zavian Handy 12 run on 3rd-and-1 at the Permian 21.
Duncanville — Thomas Hill 42 interception return (Warren kick), 4:49. Drive: 0 plays, 0 yards, 0:00.
———
TEAM STATISTICS
Permian Duncanville
First downs 15 15
Total yards 333 277
Rushes-yards 28-121 32-184
Passing 212 93
Comp-Att-Int 11-28-4 9-19-0
Sacked-Yards Lost 2-12 0-0
Punt Returns 1-8 1-0
Kickoff Returns 4-28 3-104
Punts-Avg 3-32.3 2-32.5
Fumbles-Lost 4-2 1-1
Penalties-Yards 5-31 10-72
———
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Permian
Steven Pipes 15-60, DeAnthony Fay 11-52, Eli Torres 1-9, Tommey Morris 1-0.
Duncanville
Victor Winzer 8-65, Divan Ealy 9-37, Chris Simpson 4-32, Zavian Handy 9-32, Charles Williams 2-18.
PASSING
Permian
Steven Pipes 11-28-4-212.
Duncanville
Divan Ealy 4-5-0-38, Charles Williams 5-14-0-55.
RECEIVING
Permian
Tommey Morris 4-61, Keenan Mosby 1-53, Talon Smith 2-52, Eli Torres 2-18, Josh Tarin 1-16, Gordon Palmer 1-12.
Duncanville
Darrin Brown 4-59, Jalen Parker 3-23, Lewis Plummer 1-12, Zavian Handy 1-(-1).
INTERCEPTIONS
Permian
None.
Duncanville
Ashton Neroes 2-0, Stephon Lanigan 1-91, Thomas Hill 1-42.
