Undefeated rivals Fort Stockton and Monahans left it all on the field on Sept. 17 and the performances by both squads lived up to the billing of their highly anticipated matchup.

Monahans secured the 28-21 win in overtime with a 1-yard run on fourth and goal with running back Tre Gomez. Fort Stockton elected to play defense first in the extra period and got their opportunity to respond following the score.

After a 5-yard run by Isaiah Garcia on the first play on offense for the Panthers, a fumble by Fort Stockton on the quarterback-center exchange was recovered by Monahans to end the game.

“I thought it was a heck of a game and we played them as good as we could play them. We had some mistakes with some turnovers but other than that the ball just didn’t bounce our way when we needed it to,” said Fort Stockton head coach Mike Peters.

Overtime almost never happened in the game as Garcia had an 80-yard touchdown run with less than three minutes in the game called back by a block in the back penalty that put the Panthers deep into their own territory.

“Everyone talks about the penalty call but there were a lot of things penalty wise and coaching wise that we got to clean up for this week,” Peters iterated. Fort Stockton narrowly avoided a blocked punt following the call, resulting in a 4-yard punt that gave Monahans the ball with less than three minutes to play on Fort Stockton’s 25-yard-line.

The Panthers showed grit defensively to hold off the Loboes in the final minutes of regulation. Garcia defended a jump ball in the corner of the endzone against Leonard Davis, who scored two receiving touchdowns in the first half.

The 6-foot-2 Garcia shutdown the 6-foot-2 Davis after getting assigned to cover him on every play following his two scores before halftime.

“I was really proud of our defense because they dug in in the redzone, probably the best they have all year long. They shut those guys down and they had several op portunities to score that they turned away,” Peters said. “Isaiah played solid. We already had it in the gameplan to move Isaiah to corner if we got in that situation. He did a great job and Devon (Rodriguez) did a good job at safety with a pick.”

Fort Stockton found a majority of their success in their run game, as they have all season, and Monahans threw the ball with efficiency for most of Friday’s contest.

Quarterback Dominic Aguilar scored both of Fort Stockton’s first half touchdowns running the ball and Corbin Luna added another rushing TD.

The Panthers rushed for 319 yards on 48 attempts, led by Corbin Luna’s career-high 225 yards on 32 carries.

Aguilar rushed for 78 yards on 13 carries and threw for 27 yards on 3-of-7 passing.

Monahans had a plus two turnover margin as the Panthers committed four turnover (two fumbles and two interceptions) and Monahans committed two turnovers (interception and a fumble).

Peters made it clear after Friday’s game that the turnover battle needs to be won in order to win games against quality opponents.

“We put up right at 400 yards of offense on Friday night. Minus the four turnovers we may put up 500 yards. It’s one of those deals where you can’t play in rival games and commit turnovers,” Peters explained. “They had four and we had two (takeaways) and that’s what it all came down to.”

Monahans improves their record to 4-0 while Fort Stockton moves to 3-1.

Up next is an away contest at Pecos (3-1) on Friday, Sept. 24.