THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Permian High School Athletics

The Permian football team did pretty much everything it wanted in rolling to a 70-8 homecoming victory over Hollywood (Fla.) International School of Broward on a rainy Friday night at Ratliff Stadium. Despite the absence of quarterback Peyton Powell, who was held out with a nagging ankle injury that he's dealt with since the Panthers' preseason scrimmage against Lubbock-Cooper, Permian (2-2) was never challenged in a game that quickly became a runaway. Justin Hammond and Christian Rodriguez shared quarterback duties and directed eight scoring drives in nine possessions. Permian interim coach Jeff Ellison said while the outcome was never in doubt, the Permian starters maintained the level of play that was expected of them. “We had a great week of practice, a great week of preparation, and we came out and executed what we needed to do early on,” Ellison said. “We were fortunate to get some of the other guys in toward the end of the game.” The Panthers emptied the bench in the second half with several players seeing their first game action of the season. “They show up every day to practice and they've done everything we ask everybody else to do,” Ellison said of the reserves. “We talk about earning things and they earned their playing time tonight. They did a great job of executing offensively and defensively. The Panthers tied or broke a handful of scoring records, matching the most total points in a game and points in a quarter (35 in the first) and setting a new mark with 56 points in a half. The Panther defense also set a record by holding International (0-5) to minus-50 yards rushing, bettering the old mark of minus-44 against Big Spring in 1972. Ed Williams rushed for 167 yards and three touchdowns, while Hammond and Alex Rose each scored twice. Kaden Horrell also ran for a touchdown and special teams contributed two more scores. Permian did not attempt a pass and didn't need to, gaining all of its 393 yards on the ground. It was the eighth time in program history and first since 2003 that the Panthers finished with no passing yards. Ellison said Hammond, who started and popped a 67-yard run on the game's first play, and Rodriguez were efficient in their stints at quarterback. “Justin did a great job. We've got him on offense at slot receiver, he played quarterback for us tonight, he's a kick returner. Then we put him back at slot and he scored a touchdown. He's having a great senior year.” The most important thing, Ellison said, was Permian being able to continue to make progress heading into next week's home game against Los Fresnos, the Panthers' last outing before facing Odessa High in the District 2-6A opener on Oct. 12. “Our focus, like we've said in the past, is to eliminate mistakes — turnovers, penalties and things like that. There toward the end of the game it wasn't very good, but for the most part we improved on that ths week.” Rose capped Permian's opening drive with a 7-yard TD run, then special teams recorded the next score when Tanner Adams blocked a punt that Andy Notley recovered in the end zone. Horrell recovered the ensuing kickoff and Hammond scored on a 6-yard run three plays later to make it 21-0. Williams broke loose for a 45-yard score on Permian's next play, making it 28-0 less than six minutes into the game. Horrell's 14-yard run capped the first quarter and Williams scored on runs of 1 and 2 yards in the second. Those were sandwiched around Hammond's 13-yard scoring run that put Permian ahead 49-0 with 9:25 left in the half. Defensive lineman Devon Hinojos scored the first touchdown of the second half on a 1-yard punt return. International was backed up to its own 5-yard line and the punt bounced at the 1. Hinojos went up for the rebound and came down in the end zone. Rose capped Permian's scoring with an 11-yard run with 4:25 left in the third quarter. International avoided being shut out for the third consecutive week when Tavarus Hall found Lavar Williams for a 10-yard touchdown with 10:38 to go in the game. Hall then passed for two points to Andy Vieux. Hall completed 10 of 18 passes for 96 yards.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Permian High School Athletics

PANTHERS ROAR TO HOMECOMING VICTORY

SAM WALLER

Odessa American | 9/24/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Permian Athletics