Somewhere on the road to Abilene, the Bronchos lost their magic.
Abilene High jumped out early, dictated the pace, pushed Odessa High around and then ran its way to a 31-21 win Thursday night in Shotwell Stadium.
The Eagles led by two touchdowns at the half, and stretched their lead to 28-7 midway through the third quarter before closing it late.
Abilene High rolled up 409 yards in the win, while holding Odessa High to 293.
The win marks Abilene High's first of the season, lifting the Eagles to 1-3.
The Bronchos, after an exciting two wins to start the season, tumbled to 2-2 to close nondistrict.
Odessa High battled back to score two second-half touchdowns late in the third quarter and midway through the fourth, but the comeback effort wasn't enough to dig out of that hole.
“The team that came out the second half is the team that I'm used to seeing. The team the first half — I couldn't recognize them,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said of his Bronchos.
The Eagles punched first on the scoreboard with a 15-yard Raekwon Millsap touchdown to go up 7-0, then after Odessa High challenged back with a score early in the second quarter, Abilene High answered with two touchdowns to take a 21-7 lead into the halftime break.
Odessa High did push back to score its first-half touchdown on the ensuing drive just after Abilene High's first score. Julian Galindo took a short completion from Trey Smith and broke loose for 51 yards on a third-and-16 play from Odessa High's 25-yard line.
That set up Smith’s connection with tight end Jacob Munoz for an 18-yard touchdown two plays later, to make it 7-7.
But the Eagles kept on the pedal, marching down the field on a six-play scoring drive, capped when Eagles quarterback Andrew Ezzell hit Doak Holloway in stride behind the defense for a 44-yard touchdown on reverse play-action.
After an Odessa High three-and-out, Abilene High pushed its way to 21-7 with a four-play scoring drive, ending with Wes Berry taking a handoff in the backfield before pulling up to pass and hitting Millsap behind a biting Odessa High defense for a 25-yard touchdown.
In the third quarter, after both teams exchanged a few punts, Abilene High put the game seemingly out of reach.
When play-action moved right, Ezzell turned to find tight end Tyler Bridges all alone deep to the left, connecting with him for a 27-yard touchdown to make it 28-7.
“We weren't very disciplined on defense tonight, and it resulted in them getting some easy points,” Servance said. “We didn't make them earn them.
“We've got to go back and we've got to get better and see if we can get this thing going.”
Odessa High got back in the end zone late in the third, when Smith found Munoz for his second score to make it 28-14. After an Abilene High field goal made it a three-score game again, Smith hit Tyrone Caufield for an 18-yard touchdown to make it 31-21 with 7:26 left, but it was too little, too late for Odessa High.
“I'm proud of how they played in the second half,” Servance said. “I feel like if we had played that way from the beginning of the game, the outcome would've been different.
“But, 'coulda', woulda', shoulda.'“
Servance agreed that the loss was a bit like looking into a reflection.
In winless Abilene High, Servance said his Bronchos saw a team that played with as much desperate hunger for a win as Odessa High did in its first two games entering the season on a 15-game losing streak.
“That's exactly what I told them: ‘You ran into somebody who was just as hungry as you were,’ Servance said.
“They played with that kind of zeal and that kind of effort tonight, and I don't think we matched them until the second half.”
Abilene High dictated play through most of that first half. The Eagles held the Bronchos to just 23 yards through the first two quarters of the game.
With Thursday's result, Odessa High fell to 1-13 against Abilene High since 2001. The Bronchos' only win in that span came in 2014. The teams have met in 14 of the past 16 seasons, with the series taking a break in 2008 and 2009.
