Football: Panthers grind out close victory over Aztecs

EL PASO The Aztecs should have sacked Steven Pipes. Wrapped up after he rolled to the left, Pipes somehow broke free and rolled back to the right.

And then Pipes saw the hand of Tommey Morris high in the air.

Morris caught the ball, turned upfield, hit a wall of defenders, kept his legs churning, kept fighting, twisted and blasted into the end zone to give Permian a 10-7 win over El Paso El Dorado in a Class 5A Division I bi-district playoff at the Socorro Activities Complex.

Up until that drive, Pipes had turned in a performance he’d rather forget.

Stifled at the point of attack in the running game, Pipes had tossed three interceptions and been sacked four times.

“That’s a tough situation,” Pipes said. “I know they all look to me, because I’m a captain, and I’m a quarterback. When something bad happens, you have to keep your head up.”

But the Permian defense kept giving the offense another lease on life. Other than a 7-yard touchdown pass from Josh Huerta to M.J. McFarland in the second quarter, the Panthers (8-3) had shut down every Aztec trip to the red zone.

To open the fourth quarter, Ruben Johnson sacked Huerta so hard that the quarterback’s helmet ripped off of his head.

“Coach always tells us to keep on running,” Johnson said. “If everybody does their job, that guy will come back to you.”

Johnson’s sack forced a punt that El Paso El Dorado punter Arturo Lugo boomed out of the bounds at the 1-yard line.

A little over eight minutes remained in the game.

Forced to contend with Aztec running back Nick Kilgore, who had 139 yards on 19 carries, the Panthers knew they might be looking at their last chance.

“There wasn’t much time left,” Morris said. “We had to get down there on that drive.”

Lining up to take a direct snap in Permian’s Panther formation, Morris banged and bruised his way out of the end zone on the first two carries.

And then Pipes started making plays.

Facing a second-and-12 at the 10, Pipes hit Morris for 30 yards up the middle.

A holding penalty knocked Permian back into a second-and-15. Pipes responded by tossing a wheel route up the left sideline that Felix Neboh turned into a 40-yard gain.

On the next play, Morris lost the ball fighting for yardage, shot out of the pile to recover the fumble and picked up a first down in the process.

Two plays later, Pipes escaped and hit Morris for a 20-yard touchdown pass to put Permian in the lead 10-7 with 3:49.

“I looked up and Tommey got his hand up,” Pipes said. “We just kept fighting. Never gave up. And we had to score on that drive.”

El Paso El Dorado (8-3) still had one more chance.

But on third down, chasing down Huerta as he tried to escape to the left, Carson Brown dove and tripped up Huerta short of the first down.

“We knew we were going to get that stop,” said Brennan Welch, who made a diving interception in the first half. “We’ve been doing it week after week.”

Aztecs head coach Jim Althoff elected to punt.

Three consecutive runs by Morris — who had 51 rushing yards and 82 receiving yards — allowed Permian to escape a tough Aztecs team.

“They caused us a lot of problems,” Permian head coach Gary Gaines said. “But if you go back and look at the big plays in the game, that’s what made the difference.”

And made it a game the Panthers will want to remember.

Permian 10, El Paso El Dorado 7

Permian                      0    3    0    7     — 10

El Paso El Dorado         0    7    0    0     —   7

Second Quarter

Permian— Taylor Martin 22 field goal, 5:01.

Drive: 9 plays, 80 yards, 4:53.

Key play: Alfonso Zubiate 40 pass from Steven Pipes on second-and-3 at the Permian 47.

El Paso El Dorado— M.J. McFarland 8 pass from Josh Huerta (Arturo Lugo kick), 2:32.

Drive: 8 plays, 73 yards, 2:22.

Key play: Nick Kilgore 17 run on first play of drive.

Fourth Quarter

Permian— Tommey Morris 20 pass from Steven Pipes (Taylor Martin kick), 3:49.

Drive: 9 plays, 99 yards, 4:22.

Key plays: Tommey Morris 30 pass from Steven Pipes on second-and-12 at the Permian 10                  Felix Neboh 40 pass from Steven Pipes on second-and-15 at the Permian 35.

———

TEAM STATISTICS

                                       Permian           El Dorado

First downs                13                 16

Total yards                316                300

Rushes-yards             33-72             43-195

Passing                     244                105

Comp-Att-Int             11-21-3          9-14-1

Sacked-Yards Lost      4-26               4-19

Punt Returns              1-25               0-0

Kickoff Returns           2-33               2-35

Punts-Avg                 4-45.5             4-41.5

Fumbles-Lost             1-0                 0-0

Penalties-Yards          7-70               4-25

———

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Permian

Tommey Morris 12-51, Steven Pipes 13-13, DeAnthony Fay 7-10, Talon Smith 1-(-2).

El Paso El Dorado

Nick Kilgore 19-139, Jose Guillen 13-47, Anthony Huerta 2-6, Lesley Byerly 1-4, Josh Huerta 8-(-1).

PASSING

Permian

Steven Pipes 11-21-3-244.

El Paso El Dorado

Josh Huerta 5-8-0-81, Anthony Huerta 4-6-1-24.

RECEIVING

Permian

Tommey Morris 3-82, Talon Smith 4-50, Felix Neboh 1-40, Alfonso Zubiate 1-40, Josh Tarin 1-16, Eli Torres 1-16.

El Paso El Dorado

M.J. McFarland 5-65, Ervan Jean Pierre 2-13, Josh Holguin 1-13, Vance Chavez 2-11, Nick Kilgore 1-3.

INTERCEPTIONS

Permian

Brennan Welch 1-0.

El Paso El Dorado

Rene Hernandez 1-7, Monte Lloyd 1-0, Steven Villa 1-0.