Bulldogs stun 'Horns

One thing should be clear during the second week of Panhandle high school football: If you want to have a nice opening at home, don't have the Borger Bulldogs over.

Six days after opening the season with a thrilling win at Pampa, Borger came to Dick Bivins Stadium on Thursday night to greet Caprock in the season opener for the Longhorns. The Bulldogs looked like a tired team in the third quarter, falling behind by 20 points.

But the Bulldogs have shown they're perfectly at home on the road, as they came back with three unanswered scores and held on the rest of the way, rallying for a 28-27 victory over Caprock.

First-year coah Rusty Purser couldn't have gotten off to a better start at Borger. It's hard to imagine the Bulldogs possibly topping last Friday's 45-43 shootout victory at Pampa, but they may well have topped that against the Longhorns.

"I think what you saw out there tonight was a team that was going to play for 48 minutes," Purser said. "I told (the Bulldogs) at halftime that we were going to see what we were made of."

Caprock went up 27-7 early in the third quarter when Jamar Johnson scored the last of his three touchdowns, taking a shovel pass from Gerardo Ruiz and rumbling 35 yards for a score, running over seemingly half of the Borger defense.

But when Conner Hollabaugh missed the extra-point attempt, it began a string of kicking game miscues for the Longhorns that proved their undoing.

Late in the quarter, Caprock muffed a Borger punt, setting up the Bulldogs at Caprock's 26-yard line. Three plays later, quarterback Trent Kirklin, who figured in all of Borger's touchdowns, hit Andrew Murga for an 8-yard scoring pass to cut the lead to 27-14. The TD was Murga's second of the game.

"It was just a matter of making plays, and we made some pretty unbelievable ones," Purser said. "We needed a break, and we didn't get any in the first half."

On Caprock's next possession, Ruiz, who completed 29-of-49 for 361 yards and two touchdowns, was intercepted by Michael Morrison, and the Bulldogs took over on their own 13.

On the next play, Kirklin kept the ball on an option, then broke to the outside, outracing the Longhorns 87 yards for a touchdown that cut it to 27-21.

"I told the defense that if they got a stop, we'd score right then, and that's what we did," said Kirklin, who threw for 155 yards and ran for 109.

On the ensuing kickoff, Borger booted the ball high into the air, and Caprock failed to field it as the Bulldogs recovered it at Caprock's 28. Six plays later, Kirklin hit Zac McDonald for a 5-yard scoring pass, and Albet Gutierrez kicked the extra point that gave Borger the lead.

"We had some guys playing in their first varsity game, and we have some guys who need to know what to do on special teams," Caprock coach Seth Parr said. "They hadn't seen it before, but they've seen it now."

Caprock was hurt by the fact that Johnson cramped up and wasn't available for most of the second half. He had 82 yards on 11 carries and scored two touchdowns in the first half on runs of 47 and 6 yards.

Borger 7 0 7 14 - 28

Caprock 7 14 6 0 - 27

Caprock _ Tobias Milton 46 pass from Gerardo Ruiz (Conner Hollabaugh kick)

Borger _ Andrew Murga 5 pass from Trent Kirklin (Albert Gutierrez kick)

Caprock _ Jamar Johnson 47 run (Hollabaugh kick)

Caprock _ Johnson 6 run (Hollabaugh kick)

Caprock _ Johnson 35 pass from Ruiz (kick failed)

Borger _ Murga 8 pass from Kirklin (Gutierrez kick)

Borger _ Kirklin 87 run (Gutierrez kick)

Borger _ Zac McDonald 5 pass from Kirklin (Gutierrez kick)

Borger Caprock

First Downs 14 26

Rushing 193 48

Passing 155 313

Total yards 348 361

C-A-I 12-24-1 29-49-1

Punts 6-38.2 3-32.7

Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-3

Penalties 10-80 7-60

Individual Statistics

Rushing - Borger: Dylan McKinney 8-41, Kirklin 13-109, Shevoye Clement 13-43. Caprock: Johnson 11-82, Ruiz 5-(-36), Jimmy Maldonado 4-2.

Passing - Borger: Kirklin 12-24-1-155. Caprock: Ruiz 29-49-1-313.

Receiving - Borger: Garrett Irwin 2-27, Murga 7-94, McKinney 1-25, McDonald 2-9. Caprock: Johnson 6-56, Darrian Sommers 7-42, Milton 4-81, Tyler Rannals 1-12, Oscar Najera 2-36, Gerardo Arevalo 2-5, Hollabaugh 5-65.