Part III goes to Dad: Palo Duro 55, Caprock 42

Heaven forbid a full moon would have been out Friday night.

The Palo Duro Dons and Caprock Longhorns opened District 3-4A running crazy-wild - racking up 765 combined yards, 68 points and two PD runners over the 200-yard mark - by halftime.

When this offensive explosion had ended, the teams combined for 1,213 yards total offense, Palo Duro running backs Denzel Everhart and Ty Hicks each eclipsing the 300-yard rushing mark and Dons fans chanting "Daddy Parr! Daddy Parr! Daddy Parr!"

Parr Bowl III ended with Steve Parr (the dad) and his Dons fending off Seth Parr (the son) and his Longhorns, 55-42. Not many of the 2,500 in attendance at Dick BivinsStadium had never seen a game quite played out like this 14-touchdown affair.

"Just crazy out there," said PD junior running back Everhart, who made a crazy reverse run late in the game to help seal the win and finished with 321 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns.

"I have to credit our their kids, and I have to credit our kids," said PD coach Steve Parr, now 2-1 in three games coaching against his son. "Neither team ever let down. When we got ahead 26 points, their was no die in them. They even take the lead. Then our kids come back and answer.

"Offensively, we had a heck of night. Lord no, I have never had a game where two of our backs went over 300 yards. That was unbelievable."

Palo Duro, running out of three-back set at times, raced out to a 40-14 with 6:12 remaining in the first half and looked ready to blow this one open with Everhart and Hicks scoring on four runs of 40 yards or longer,

Caprock, sparked by the play of running back Jamar Johnson and quarterback Gerardo Ruiz - refused to go away reeling off 28 unanswered points and taking the lead 42-40 when Johnson scored his fourth touchdown on 6-yard run.

The Dons, however, closed out Caprock when Hicks ripped off a 64-yard touchdown run with 1:32 remaining in the third quarter handing the lead back to the Dons.

Six plays later, PD's Willey Riley intercepted a Johnson halfback option pass when the star tailback - he rushed for 196 yards and caught passes for 83 yards - was hit as he tried to pass.

"A lineman hit my elbow," said Johnson. "It was open. Wide open. I felt really good when we got ahead. We picked our heads up and came back."

PD converted the turnover into a four-play, 64-yard game-clinching scoring drive.

Everhart sent the Dons fans into a frenzy and finally burst Caprock's bubble when he was shut down on sweep, but reversed his field for a dizzying 54-yard run down to the Caprock 6-yard line.

Hicks scored the short touchdown and the Dons led 55-42 with 9:57 to play. This is some of the craziness witnessed:

# Palo Duro finished with 674 yards rushing as Hicks ran for 304 yards and scored three touchdowns, while Everhart added his 321 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns.

# Caprock totaled 506 yards of offense with Johnson handling the majority of the load. However, quarterback Gerardo Ruiz threw for 304 yards and two touchdown passes.

# The game featured 29 plays of 10 yards or longer.

# Caprock scored on four consecutive possessions in the second and third quarters rolling off the 28 unanswered points.

# The two teams combined for 876 rushing yards.

"This was an amazing game," Everhart said. "It was a dream come. I always wanted to perform at level like that with the help of my line. I wanted to give my team a spark. "We needed this. We started out the season 1-4. But we are 1-0 in district and that's big momentum."

Palo Duro 26 14 7 8 - 55

Caprock 14 14 14 0 - 42

PD - Denzel Everhart 34 run (Clemente Flores kick)

PD - Ty Hicks 70 run (Flores kick)

C-Darrian Sommers 8 pass from Gerardo Ruiz (Addison McCaulie kick)

PD-Everhart 1 run (pass failed)

PD-Everhart 68 run (pass failed)

C-Jamar Johnson 3 run (McCaulie kick)

PD - Everhart 40 run (Flores kick)

PD - Dartel Lewis 5 run (Flores kick)

C-Jimmy Maldonado 51 pass from Ruiz (McCaulie kick)

C- Johnson 8 run (McCaulie kick)

C-Johnson 18 pass from Ruiz (Flores kick)

C-Johnson 6 run (McCaulie kick)

PD- Hicks 64 run (Flores kick)

PD-Hicks 6 run (Hicks run)

Caprock Palo Duro

First Downs 28 21

Yards Rushing 202 674

Yards Passing 304 33

Total Yards Gained 506 707

Comp-Att-Int 20-40-2 1-4-1

Punts-Avg. 4-37.5 3-33.6

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-0

Penalties-Yards 5-30 3-25

Individual Statistics

RUSHING - Palo Duro: Ty Hicks 19-307, Denzel Everhart 23-321, Jaren Grayson 7-43, Dartel Lewis 3-8, Jerry Hill -(-)1.Caprock: Jamar Johnson 28-196, Gerardo Ruiz 4-6.

PASSING - Palo Duro: Jaren Grayson 1-4-1-33.Caprock: Gerardo Ruiz 20-39-1-304; Jamar Johnson 0-1-1-0.