Amarillo Tascosa’s offense runs into buzzsaw against Denton Guyer in regional final
Denton Guyer coach John Walsh had seen the flexbone offense in person before, but nothing at the level of Amarillo Tascosa’s offense.
“It’s dynamic,” he said. “They’ve run it very well. But we knew that we if we could stop their quarterback and their fullback that we would be fine.”
Tascosa had used the flexbone to roll through five straight DFW Metroplex teams over the past two seasons in the Class 6A-Division II playoffs, and it was seeking a sixth consecutive win in Saturday’s Region I championship.
However, the Rebels ran into a buzz saw at the Ford Center — more specifically, Guyer.
One week after Tascosa quarterback Joseph Plunk rushed for 258 yards and six touchdowns in a rout of Flower Mound Marcus, Guyer’s defense limited him to just 35 yards on 21 carries, and the Rebels to just 236 total yards of offense, in a 48-7 rout in the Class 6A-2 Region I championship.
The Rebels had just 168 rushing yards on 58 carries. Tascosa’s previous low on the season for rushing yards was 360.
“My first reaction is that it is very unique because for the first couple of days, it was kind of iffy,” Denton Guyer linebacker Santigie Kanu said of Tascosa’s offense. “But when the walk-through came through Thursday and Friday, we saw it and felt very confident.
“At first, they took advantage of a crease,” Kanu continued. “We didn’t fit the crease right, and after that we adjusted, and we forced them to pitch the ball and made open-field tackles. We just kept our foot on their throat. It was just like a fist fight. We kept coming out here and winning.”
Meanwhile, the Guyer offense was simply electric.
Eli Stowers, a Texas A&M commit, completed 8 of 11 passes for 233 yards with four touchdowns, while Kaedric Gobbs gashed the Tascosa defense for 118 rushing yards on 10 carries with two scores on runs of 10 and 17 yards.
Guyer (13-1) advances to the state semifinals for the first time since 2013 and will play either Dallas Jesuit or Houston Westfield next week at a time and location to be determined. Jesuit and Westfield play Saturday night at NRG Stadium in Houston. Tascosa, which had earned wins over Arlington Bowie and Flower Mound Marcus this postseason, finishes its season at 10-4.
Tascosa’s game plan of consuming as much time possible nearly worked out for the Rebels on their initial drive. They drove 13 plays to the Wildcats’ 15, including two fourth-down conversions, both on runs by Plunk. However, on fourth and 6, Guyer blocked a 37-yard field goal attempt.
“Huge play,” Walsh said. “It completely changed the momentum. If they had made that, it would have completely changed the game.”
Guyer ran just 24 plays in the first half to Tascosa’s 36 and possessed the ball for six minutes to 18 minutes for the Rebels. But it was explosive plays by the Wildcats that propelled them to their first regional championship and semifinal appearance in six years.
Six plays after the Tascosa field goal attempt was blocked, Guyer got on the board first with a 10-yard touchdown run from Cobbs, and on the fourth play of the next Wildcats’ drive, he added a 17-yard dash for a 14-0 lead just seven seconds into the second quarter.
Coming into the game, Tascosa had not attempted a pass this postseason, but that all changed in the second quarter, when Plunk found Brandon Sanders wide open in the middle of the field to slice the Guyer advantage to 14-7 with 8:28 remaining in the first half.
It was all Guyer from that point on.
The Wildcats answered with 34 unanswered points — the first 27 coming on touchdown passes of 67, 41, 20 and 18 yards from Stowers, two of which were caught by Seth Meador, an Air Force commit. Meador led all receivers with 109 yards on four catches.
“My receivers create so much separation, so as a quarterback, makes my job easy,” Stowers said. “I love all my receivers. I love my O-line. My defense did amazing today. I’m blessed to be on this team.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 4:58 PM.