DAWG BITES

- Wylie falls behind in the first half again

- The Bulldogs tie the game with 2 minutes to go but can’t force overtime

- Blaze Ruffin catches his 7th TD pass, this one going for 65 yards

AMARILLO - The Wylie Bulldogs stayed in the game with a late break at the end of the first half.

The Palo Duro Dons won the game with a late break at the end.

After tying the game with 1:58 to play thanks to Jordan Lockett’s strip of the football and 75-yard return, the Bulldogs surrendered an improbable 49-yard kickoff return that the Dons cashed into a touchdown 1:06 later to win 42-35 here Friday night.

There wasn’t a big Palo Duro crowd but fans celebrated the gutsy win that put their team all alone in first place in the District 2-5A standings three weeks in.

PD is 5-1 overall - matching its 2024 win total - and 2-0. Wylie, which had first place to itself, fell to 4-3 and 2-1.

The game was one of three wacky ones in the district. In Abilene, the hometown Cougars vanquished Lubbock-Cooper 66-16 while Wichita Falls Legacy won its first district game as a new school with a 56-42 victory over Plainview.

The Dons are in the driver’s seat, for the moment. To go unbeaten in this balanced district would be a feat. They have to travel to Lubbock-Cooper next week but Wylie faces a Wichita Falls Memorial team stinging from an 0-2 start. It’s a must-win for both teams at Hugh Sandifer Stadium.

The loss was Wylie’s third in four road games.

“You’ve got to give (Palo Duro) credit,” Wylie coach Clay Martin said. “”They came out and got an early lead and we had to battle our way back from behind. Proud of the way our guys fought but you have to give them a lot of credit. It was a great football game.

“We have a huge game next week against Memorial and we’re going to go back to work. We’ll working on the way home.”

CHASING THE DONS

Wylie coach Clay Martin had wanted his team to play from ahead against PD. That didn’t happen.

The Bulldogs lost the first quarter 7-0. After that, the teams traded touchdowns the other three quarters.

The Bulldogs chased the Dons all night, finally catching them by catching a break.

Palo Duro had stopped Wylie on the Dons 40 yard line, holding a 35-28 lead with just under 4 minutes to play. Runs of 16 yards by Amarlyea James and 14 yards by Raymond Johnson V seemed to lock down the win for PD.

However, quarterback Julian Reese II was stripped of football at the PD sideline on a keeper. It was a scrum and perhaps he was trying to stay inbounds with Wylie trying to push him out of bounds at the Dons 20 with the clock ticking. Suddenly, Lockett broke from the melee with the ball and was running toward the Wylie goal line.

He was caught at the 5 by Daniel Moses.

“I have no idea what happened,” said Martin, who was watching across the field. “A pretty crazy moment, for sure.”

Dylan Regala gained four yards and then the final yard for the touchdown with 2:05 to go. Noah Rehburg’s fifth PAT tied the game.

The game had flipped and it seemed Wylie would benefit again when Reese bobbled Rehburg’s kickoff into the wind. The football died at the 1 instead of bounding into the end zone. Reese hesitated, then took off.

That threw everything off as he went to his left and was running free.

“It looks like the ball is going in the end zone and the ball dies on the one. It’s like this night can’t get any worse,” PD coach Eric Mims said. “My receiver (Kyron Brown) has peed back and crackbacked block and he had a guy squared up and he didn’t peel back and that let (Reese) come up the sideline.”

Martin was frustrated.

“We get it down to the one … but things get off-kilter sometimes,” he said. “We just couldn’t get him on the ground.”

It was Rehburg, the soccer player-turned-placekicker, who saved the touchdown at midfield. Unfortunately, the kicker grabbed more than Reese’s jersey and 15 more yards were tacked onto the play.

Starting at the Wylie 36, Reese went 28 yards to Kyron Brown after a loss of 8 yards, and Johnson ran 16 yards untouched for the touchdown with 53 seconds remaining.

Wylie could not muster a drive after, with Brown sacking Jadin Karleskint for a key loss.

Thus ended a game that Wylie could have won but perhaps should not have won.

The Bulldogs ironically lost scoring 35 points; PD had given up 37 points in its five previous games.

Still, the Dons’ defense set the tone for the game.

Wyllie drove to the PD 28 on its opening drive but Regala was dropped for a 1-yard loss on 4th-and-1. The Bulldogs were forced to punt on their second possession and the Dons drove 49 yards in six plays to take a 7-0 lead on Johnson’s 5-yard run.

Wylie punted again and Palo Duro made it 14-0 on Reese’s 1-yard keeper on fourth down.

The Bulldogs never could fully recover.

BULLDOGS DIDN'T GIVE IN

Not that the visiting team didn’t try.

“I’m just proud of the way our kids fought for the whole game,” Martin said. “We had chances when things weren’t going good but we kept playing and just came up a little short.”

For the second straight week, Karleskint connected with Blaze Ruffin on a huge play, this one going 65 yards. It was beautiful execution, with Karleskint rolling right with running back Julius Laine open for a screen pass. Instead, Karleskint threw to Ruffin crossing left and the speedy junior receiver turned a short gain into a long touchdown by outrunning the PD defenders.

Still, it was 21-7 with 3:02 when the first-half magic show began.

Wylie was forced to punt from its 42 but Karleskint booted the kick by the Dons’ returner. It rolled dead at the 4 with 1:27 to go in the half.

PD lost two yards on a false start that Johnson got back on the next play. But two stops by junior Landry Pate forced a punt.

Noah Faragoza’s kick, under huge pressure by Jake Smart and Braxton Sconyers, went straight up and traveled only five yards.

Wylie had the football at the PD 15. A trick play netted nine yards before Cooper Jones, on his first carry of the game, dashed six yards for the touchdown with 20 seconds left in the half.

With PD accepting the second-half kickoff, the score was key to keeping Wylie in the game.

It looked bleak with 10:47 to go, however, when Johnson followed his blocking on a 12-yard TD run that made it 35-21.

Wylie did not panic and drove 75 yards in eight plays to score.

On a night that the Dons did little wrong, PD frayed a bit. The Dons were flagged for three penalties on the drive, giving the Bulldogs 38 yards and three first downs that also stopped the clock.

Still, it took Karleskint’s keeper on a fourth-down option play from the Dons 2 to get the Wylie touchdown.

There still was 6:52 to play and Wylie had life after forcing a punt and taking over at the PD 47.

However, that talked-about PD defense stiffened.

The Bulldogs gained seven yards on two plays but Laine was stuffed for no gain on third down and a deflected pass caught by Laine on fourth down resulted in no gain.

Who knew that two touchdowns would be scored in the final 3:59.

TOO MUCH PD

A week after giving up 315 rushing yards to Abilene Cooper’s three-headed attack, Wylie surrendered 264 to Palo Duro. Johnson logged 139 on 18 carries while James added 84 and Reese 41.

Johnson scored three times.

Reese added 196 yards passing, with Brown catching six passes.

Reese accounted for a touchdown throwing and two running.

His passing success in the first half led to his team’s rushing success in the second half.

“I thought (the Dons) have a good scheme and they played pretty hard,” Martin said. “They have athletic players and we had trouble slowing them down.”

Wylie’s offense was doubly challenged Friday. The pass-and-catch play from Karleskint to Ruffin was the only big play. Ruffin caught only one pass.

PD defenders seemed to shadow Wylie offensive players all night.

Laine, who scored his 11th rushing touchdown, ran for 88 yards but his longest run was eight yards.

Karleskint got free for 17 yards on a keeper and Regala caught another pass for 20 yards. Those were the only three Wylie plays for more than 10 yards.

Karleskint threw for just 116 yards, staying short. The two longest plays were the result of yards after catch.

The Bulldogs’ other challenge was injuries.

Wylie lost center Barrett Huffington in the first half. Later, offensive lineman Daniel Haynes, a freshman who is starting, exited with an injury. The Bulldogs already were missing senior Deandre Rodriguez on the defensive line.

Wylie has given up 865 yards on defense in its past two games.

Pate said “a loss is a learning experience,” especially for the large group of juniors on the team new to the varsity.

The district season is far from over.

“The way we played tonight against Palo Duro was really great. We still can be district champion,” Pate said.

NOT A NIGHT FOR DEFENSE
Defense was in short supply in District 2-5A on Friday night. Save for Lubbock-Cooper, no team scored less than 35 points. Total, 257 points were scored by six teams - an average of 43 a team. Even Palo Duro faltered. After giving up 37 points in five games, the Dons surrendered 35 to Wylie. Plainview scored 42 points, and lost.

YARDSTICK
Wylie Palo Duro
First downs 17 21
Rushing 42-143 39-264
A-C-Int 12-16-0 21-25-0
Passing 125 196
Total offense 268 461
Punting 3-36.0 2-44.0
Fumbles/lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties 4-35 9-84

SCORING
Wylie 0 14 7 14 - 35
Palo Duro 7 14 7 14 - 42

First quarter
PD- Raymond Johnson 5 un (Luis Fuentes-Navarrette kick), 2:04
Second quarter
PD - Julian Reese 1 run (Fuentest-Navarrette kick), 8:39
Wylie - Blaze Ruffin 65 pass from Jadin Karleskint (Noah Rehburg kick), 7:30
PD - Arturo Velasquez 32 pass from Reese (Fuentes-Navarrette kick), 3:02
Wylie - Cooper Jones 6 run (Rehburg kick), 0:20
Third quarter
PD - Reese 3 run (Fuentes-Navarrette kick), 8:09
Wylie - Julius Laine 1 run (Rehburg kick), 1:14
Fourth quarter
PD -Johnson 12 run (Fuentes-Navarrette kick), 10:47
Wylie - Karleskint 2 run (Rehburg kick), 6:57
Wylie - Dylan Regala 1 run (Rehburg kick), 1:58
PD - Johnson 16 run (Fuentes-Navarette kick), 0:53

WYLIE INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing - Julius Laine, 25-88-1; Jadin Karleskint, 11-31; Dylan Regala, 4-13, Cooper Jones, 2-11
Passing - Karleskint, 10-15-116-0-1; Regala 1-1-9-0
Receiving - Regala, 4-35; Laine 2-2; Aaron Edwards, 2-8; Blaze Ruffin, 1-65; Karleskint, 1-9; Michael Pena-Perez, 1-8; Cooper Jones, 1-minus 2.

DISTRICT 2-5A STANDINGS
W L PF PA W L PF PA
Am. Palo Duro 2 0 90 42 5 1 208 72
Wylie 2 1 109 88 4 3 238 178
Ab. Cooper 2 1 65 131 3 3 286 171
Plainview 1 1 79 78 2 3 245 267
Lub-Cooper 1 2 87 129 4 3 266 266
WF Legacy 1 2 106 136 3 5 151 299
WF Memorial 0 2 33 90 4 2 200 178

WEEK 7
Amarillo Palo Duro 42, Wylie 36
Abilene Cooper 66. Lubbock-Cooper 16
WF Legacy 56, Plainview 42
WF Memorial open

WEEK 8
WF Memorial at Wylie
Amarillo Palo Duro at Lubbock-Cooper
Abilene Cooper at Plainview
WF Legacy open