Football: Permian routs Monterey for 5-0 start

Whether by land or air, the Permian Panthers have shown they can do what it takes to move the football.

A week after torching Amarillo High with deep passes, the Panthers ran over, through and past the Lubbock Monterey Plainsmen on Friday to take a 44-7 homecoming victory at Ratliff Stadium.

Permian rushed for 336 yards and for the first time this season did not have a touchdown pass. It didn’t matter as the Panthers improved to 5-0 for the first time since 1995.

“I think the consistency with which our team has played these five games is the most encouraging thing,” Permian coach Darren Allman said. “We played well defensive and offensively on a consistent basis and I think our special teams have done well, too.

“We’re pleased with where we are right now and excited about the chance to get into the district race and try to make some noise. I told our kids that it’s just nondistrict, but I’m not going to say it doesn’t mean anything. It takes a lot of work to win any football game, but to win five in a row is certainly significant to us.”

The Panthers again just missed producing their first 100-yard rusher of the season.

Esai Sotelo had 99 yards on 16 carries and Sherard Ray had 90 on eight carries. Each scored a touchdown.

Jamison Berryhill added 71 yards and a TD and quarterback Taylor Byrd ran for 60 yards and two scores in addition to passing for 89 yards.

“We were just finding the holes real well,” Ray said. “The line was doing its job making blocks. If the missed a block, they just blocked somebody else to make the way for us. The line did a good job and we (running backs) did our job.”

Meanwhile, the Permian defense turned in another solid performance, limiting the Plainsmen (2-3) to 211 total yards. Monterey quarterback John Paul Floyd threw for 129 yards and a touchdown, but 112 of that came in the first half.

Floyd’s last two passes were intercepted, with Andrew Amoyaw returning the second 23 yards for the game’s final touchdown.

Monterey failed to rush for 100 yards for the second straight week, averaging 2.7 yards per carry Friday. Backup quarterback Tyler Mattson was the leading rusher with 25 yards in mop-up duty.

Penalties killed Permian’s opening drive, but Monterey gave up a safety on a bad punt snap and the Panthers converted the free kick into Ray’s 7-yard TD. Sotelo added a 9-yard score on the second play of the second quarter before Monterey scored its only touchdown.

Floyd hit Patrick McNamara, who had seven catches for 72 yards, from 22 yards out with 6:29 to go in the half, but Permian countered with Berryhill’s 1-yard TD.

Monterey coach James Morton said the early scores played right into the Panthers’ hands.

“That’s what they’ve done all year, seize momentum and make the most of it,” Morton said. “In good football games, there are momentum swings that go back and forth. Other than the one (TD) we did put up that got it back to 16-7, it just never was really a true football game with momentum swings back and forth.”