PLANO – Nearly 15,000 fans filled up John Clark Stadium on Friday night. Some filled Plano's side, some filled Allen's side, and a couple hundred filled up a grass area beyond an end zone because there weren't enough seats at one of the area's biggest high school stadiums.
That was expected for a game this big. What wasn't expected was a margin of victory that felt nearly as big as the overflow crowd.
But after seeing Allen run away for a 56-23 victory against previously undefeated Plano, it did make sense.
Plano (7-1, 3-1 in District 8-5A), the No. 2 team in SportsDay's Class 5A area rankings, couldn't stop Allen's offense, and after committing one turnover in its first seven games, Plano turned the ball over four times.
No. 3 Allen (6-1, 3-0), was better than its rival on offense, defense and special teams, and never turned over the ball.
The closest Allen came to a turnover was when Justin Robinson fumbled on a run and teammate Bradlee Waddell picked it up and ran for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. That was lucky, but Allen didn't need luck Friday.
Less than two minutes into the game, it was clear Plano was in trouble. Allen averaged 14 yards per play on its 83-yard opening touchdown drive, which ended with one of Dakarai Pecikonis' three first-half touchdown receptions.
When Pecikonis wasn't catching touchdown passes, Allen running back Jeremiah Williams and quarterback Matt Brown were running free for big gains. That helped Allen score touchdowns on four of its first five possessions to take a 28-10 halftime lead.
The final touchdown of the half was a good example of how well things went for Allen. On third-and-18, Brown dropped back to pass, got flushed out of the pocket and ran for a 30-yard touchdown. By halftime, Brown had rushed for 110 yards, more than Rex Burkhead and the entire Plano offense.
Plano scored on its first possession of the game to tie the score at 7, but though it moved the ball early, it didn't score again until a field goal in the final seconds of the half. Plano was partly to blame for that, ending drives with a Carson Meger interception and a fumble by Burkhead.
Meger, who entered the game without an interception this season, threw his second on Plano's first drive of the second half.
Allen punched that in for a touchdown to take a 35-10 lead. Plano responded with a touchdown with three minutes left in the third quarter, but while its crowd was still celebrating, Allen's Jeremy Reeves returned the kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to make the score 42-16.
That return was the kind of big special-teams play that often decides a matchup of even teams. But Friday, it was almost forgotten in the barrage of Allen touchdowns that proved this was not a game of evenly matched teams.
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