For one half of football, a defensive struggle broke out Friday night at Ratliff Stadium.

The second half told a different story.

Midland Lee forced two turnovers in the third quarter, and scored three touchdowns during the same span, to defeat Odessa High 42-7 in a District 2-6A matchup.

“We just got worn down in the second half,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said. “We had a couple of people banged up heading into this game and their physicality just took a toll on us.”

The Midland Lee defense gave its offense a boost starting in the second half as Karl Taylor intercepted an Odessa High pass as the Bronchos had just crossed into Rebels territory.

From there, quarterback Felix Hinojosa took the Rebels down the field before running back Josh Traylor capped off the scoring drive with a 16-yard touchdown run.

Traylor surpassed 1,000 yards on the season, finishing with 19 carries for 89 yards and the touchdown.

A quick Bronchos three-and-out would set up the Rebels (6-1 overall, 2-0 in district) in Odessa High’s territory and it took just three plays before Hinojosa found Loic Fouonji on a slant for a 25-yard touchdown.

The Midland Lee defense would make another statement on Odessa High’s next drive as linebacker Charles Gonzales forced a fumble that was recovered by Trent Low at the Bronchos’ 23.

As he did in the first half, Hinojosa cashed in with a touchdown run to cap off a 21-point scoring burst in less than five minutes of game time.

The senior signal caller would add another rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter as he accounted for 304 total yards and five touchdowns on the night.

The Midland Lee defense would put a bow on its effort thanks to another Taylor interception that he returned for a 37-yard touchdown to cap the scoring.

“We just told our kids to do their job and stop pressing,” Midland Lee head coach Clint Hartman said. “We haven’t been in a war in a while and we just had to tell our guys to settle down and just play.”

“They did a good job.” Servance said. “We missed a lot of tackles and we have to do that better on that and other things that we didn't do well tonight.”

The Bronchos must now regroup and get ready to hit the road to face Wolfforth Frenship next Friday night.

“They’ll stay focused,” Servance said on his team moving forward. “They have a lot of resiliency and I know they’ll be ready to go next Friday.”

For a matchup of two teams that predicate their offenses on establishing the run, both the Bronchos and Rebels had challenges moving the ball on the ground.

After Odessa High (4-3, 0-2) punted on their its two possessions and Midland Lee punted on its opening drives, the Rebels used their intermediate passing game to move the ball against a stingy Bronchos defense that was playing without defensive backs Charles McClure and Darrieyon Rangel.

Midland Lee converted four third downs on their second possession of the game, marching 67 yards on 16 plays that was capped off by Hinojosa’s 2-yard touchdown run to put the Rebels in front.

The Bronchos’ offense could muster little against a physical Midland Lee defense, going three and out on each of its next two possessions.

However, the Odessa High defense was able to keep the Rebels offense out of the end zone for the remainder of the half, including a fourth-down stop in the red zone.

Odessa High was able to take advantage of the stop as Kameron Gonzales engineered a drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Tyrone Caufield with 28 seconds left in the half.

Midland Lee appeared to gain a momentum swing at the end of the half as Sheldon Bass caught a 40-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired. The play would be nullified due to a holding penalty, the third such time that a Rebels touchdown was called back.

The officials gave Midland Lee an untimed down to end the half but the Bronchos stopped Traylor in the backfield to end the threat.
