Football: Permian survives tough test from Montwood

The Permian Panthers didn’t have their best outing Saturday, but it was good enough.

The fifth-ranked Panthers overcame a 14-0 first-quarter deficit at Ratliff Stadium to take a 37-17 victory over El Paso Montwood in a Class 5A Division I area playoff. It was only the second game this season in which Permian has trailed and the first time at home.

The Panthers (12-0) advanced to the regional round for the second year in a row and will face Euless Trinity. The game, a rematch of Permian’s 30-3 victory Sept. 15, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene.

“The best way I know to put it is we didn’t have our knives sharp early in the game for whatever reason,” Permian coach Darren Allman said. “Our kids found a way to fight back and make some stuff happen.

“Our defense continued to be opportunistic and created enough opportunities that we could get going offensively. Once we got stuff going offensively, we played better defensively. That’s kind of been the story of our year.”

Taylor Byrd threw for 228 yards and two touchdowns — both to Melvis Pride, who had five catches for 148 yards — on a day when the Panthers struggled for consistency.

“We know what we’re capable of,” said Pride, who scored on plays of 25 and 80 yards. “The only reason we were down was we were beating ourselves with mental mistakes. We stepped up our game and made it happen.”

Permian led 23-17 with Montwood facing second down at the Panthers 20-yard line to start the fourth quarter.

The Rams lost the ball on downs when Ross Forrest tipped a fourth-down pass, and Pride’s 80-yard catch and run two plays later put Permian firmly in control.

“Not many teams can say they’re about to score late in the third quarter and take the lead on Permian,” Montwood coach Chuck Veliz said. “We played with a lot of heart. Permian played us well.

“The Permian players and coaches gave us the ultimate. They said we’re not the typical El Paso team they’re used to seeing. That gives me a lot of pride that these kids can play on a big stage like this.”

Jamison Berryhill and Sherard Ray ran for touchdowns, and Michael McNatt added a 24-yard field goal for the Panthers with two seconds left in the half. Byrd also ran for a score, his 19th rushing TD of the season.

Montwood (10-2) got a pair of 1-yard TD runs from Josh Flores to cap drives of 74 and 79 yards on the Rams’ first two possessions.

“We just do what we do offensively,” Veliz said. “We can move the ball and we’ve got some weapons and our offensive line blocks real well.

“It’s not that we played bad in the second or fourth quarters, but Permian is going to make some plays, too. They’ve got some guys who are going to play D-I. Their defensive ends are outstanding. We had them on their heels and made a couple of mistakes and came up on the short end.”

Louie Maldonado added a 28-yard field goal in the third quarter, but the Rams never got closer than seven points after Permian went up 23-14 at halftime.

Rams quarterback David Reza threw for 247 yards with receiver Danny Perez setting records for a Permian opponent with 12 catches for 175 yards.

After getting 138 total yards on the first two drives, the Rams managed 176 the rest of the way.

“It all starts up front. If the front seven gets penetration, then the secondary doesn’t have to stay in coverage that long,” said Permian defensive end Austin Shaffer, who had a fumble recovery to set up a score.

“If we start being in the back of (the quarterback’s) mind then he’s going to think about us being in his face and he’s not going to do as well.”

Permian scored 23 points in the second quarter, rallying to tie on Berryhill’s and Ray’s TDs.

Pride scored the go-ahead TD after Brennan Welch recovered a kickoff that Montwood inexplicably failed to field.

“We missed some assignments early in the game and we had some penalties in the second quarter that cost us some points,” Allman said. “We can’t do those things as much as we did today if we’re going to play much longer.

“And we won’t. We’ll get them fixed. You learn lessons every week and the guys are just like us coaches — they weren’t completely pleased with the win, either. They’re glad we got it and can appreciate it, but they’re not overjoyed.”

Permian had five plays of 25 yards or more, including a 56-yard run by Esai Sotelo to set up the final TD.

Allman said the big plays were nice, but he’d rather not rely on them.

“The later in the year it gets, the tougher in the year it is to defend people because they do more stuff,” he said. “And it’s tougher to move the ball on people because they’ve seen more of you. Some times, that’s part of it.

“We’ve got to go and do a really good job of game-planning, and I think we did this week. A lot of credit goes to Montwood. Their kids played extremely well.”