The Blanco Panthers wrapped a perfect regular season and district schedule by picking up their 10th win this past Friday in an easy victory over the visiting Natalia Mustangs. Blanco coasted to a 54 to 6 win to set-up a bi-district play-off against the Boling Bulldogs.
Blanco took command of the game early, scoring 4 times in the opening quarter of play for a 28-0 lead. Adrien Dominguez scored the first two touchdowns of the night on runs of 55 and 3 yards. Quarterback McKay Adamson then passed to Colton Elrod for a 39 yard scoring play before Alex Juarez took advantage of a Mustang fumble deep in Natalia territory returning the fumble 1 yard for the touchdown. Justin Requenes converted 2 of 3 PAT’s while Adamson passed to Colton Elrod for a two-point conversion.
The Panthers added another score in the second quarter when Adamson passed to Jordon Wagner for a 15 yard touchdown. Although Blanco missed the PAT, the halftime score was 34-0.
In the third quarter, Blanco added another two scores as Logan Dodd scored first on a 6 yard run. Then, Dru Ramirez returned an interception 30 yards for the next touchdown. Requenes was good on both PAT’s to increase the Panther lead to 48-0.
With the game well at hand, Blanco managed one final score as senior Dylan Tesch made a diving catch on a 5 yard touchdown pass from Adamson. Although the extra point was no good, Blanco lead 54-0 before the Mustangs scored a late touchdown on a 35 yard pass play to make the final score 54-6.
For the game, Blanco’s offense picked up over 300 yards in a balanced attack that picked up over 200 yards on the ground and over 100 yards through the air. Adrien Dominguez led all rushers with 116 yards on just 5 carries, and McKay Adamson completed 5 of 9 passes for 127 yards. Colton Elrod led the team in receiving with 91 yards. As a team, the Panthers picked up 15 first downs.
Defensively, the Panthers put up another dominant performance limiting the Mustangs to just 6 first downs and only 81 yards while forcing 2 turnovers, both of which resulted in touchdowns for Blanco as Alex Juarez was credited with a fumble return for a score and Dru Ramirez returned an interception for a touchdown. Blanco also forced Natalia into 7 punts and did not allow the Mustangs to cross midfield until the second half of the game.
Blanco will now begin preparations for their upcoming bi-district match-up versus the Boling Bulldogs on Thursday in Bastrop. Boling comes into the game as the #4 seed out of District 13-3A Division II with a record of 6 and 4. Kick-off in Bastrop on Thursday is set for 7:30 pm.
2 photos attached to this article.
More from Sports.