SA Times - Camden Steele may want to steer clear of Amarillo - for the rest of his life. He's not going to be welcome there. One year after his overtime field goal beat Amarillo Tascosa and vaulted the Central Bobcats into the playoffs, Steele had an even bigger peformance against the Rebels on Friday night. Steele kicked five field goals (a single-game school record) and in the process became Central's career field goal record holder as he propelled the Bobcats to a 35-7 blowout of Amarillo Tascosa. "Camden is about as solid as you can get," Central head coach Steve Heryford said.

The Bobcats looked about as solid as they have all year Friday. They forced four Tascosa turnovers and limited the Rebels (3-5 overall, 0-2 in district) to their lowest scoring output of the season. "They are the best offense, or were the best offense in our district," said Central cornerback Solomon Sutton, who along with Jacob Banks and Josue Rodriguez all intercepted passes by Tascosa quarterback Joe Ledoux. "But we know what we can do." The win puts the Bobcats on the cusp of a playoff berth. With their win, all they needed was for Monterey to knock off Lubbock High on Friday night and Central would have been playoff bound. The Westerners pulled off a 16-14 upset, but with a 5-3 overall record and 2-1 district mark, the Bobcats can clinch a playoff berth in a number of ways over the next two weeks. One more loss by LHS over the next two weeks would do it, as would one more Central win.

"I told our kids that they deserve to be talked about as a playoff team," Heryford said. "We don't plan on losing again until someone makes us." The Bobcats play at first-place Lubbock Coronado (7-1, 3-0) next week. Coronado head coach Butch Henderson was in attendance Friday and he got more of a scouting report on the Central kicking game than he probably wanted. With his second field goal of the evening, Steele took over sole possession of the record for most career field goals by a Bobcat. It would be a record he would continually add to as the night went on. He now has 19 in his varsity career. His third kick of the night was a 49-yarder, the third-longest field goal in school history. "I have to thank God for giving me the talent to do this. I'm speechless," said Steele, who had a Gatorade bucket of ice water tossed on him by teammates in celebration as the game winded down. "It's something I'll remember for the rest of my life."

Steele was consistently set up in good position by a Central offense that came out of the gate firing. The game started off well for Central as the Bobcats marched 77 yards down to the Rebels' 2-yard line mostly on a mix of runs and passes by quarterback Clayton Kafer, who finished the game with 48 rushing yards and 49 passing. The Bobcats couldn't punch the ball in, however, and had to settle for a 19-yard field goal by Steele. Central would cling to that 3-0 lead through the first quarter, but on the third play of the second quarter, Tascosa finally got on the board. Rebels quarterback Joe Ledoux hit a wide-open Dalton Brooks with a 24-yard touchdown pass, and the Jason Cunningham extra point had Tascosa up 7-3. The rest of the first half would be all Bobcats, however. Set up by a nice punt return by Anthony Castillo, the Bobcats went on a three-play scoring drive that was capped by a 21-yard Tyler Jones touchdown pass to Shea Herron in the corner of the end zone. Tyler Jones had entered at quarterback starting in the Bobcats' fourth possession of the game, and finished with team highs in rushing yardage (53) and passing yardage (91) . With 1:48 left in the first half, Steele kicked a 34-yard field goal that put Central up 13-7 and gave him sole possession of the school record for career field goals with 16. He wasn't done.

After the Central defense forced a quick punt by the Rebels, Tyler Jones ran the ball 41 yards on a pair of carries. On the second such run, he dashed 32 yards and just ducked out of bounds at the Tascosa 36 with 0.9 of a second on the clock. That was close enough for Steele, who booted the 49-yard field goal through the uprights with room to spare for a 16-7 Central lead. After Steele's kick, the Bobcats were jumping up and down at midfield like they had won the game. It would be only a matter of time before that was so.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Bobcats got two more Steele field goals and a pair of touchdown passes. Jones found Taylor Patton with a 29-yard toss, then Kafer found Marc Campos with an 11-yard touchdown pass to complete the scoring. On the Pattin and Campos touchdown receptions, the Central receivers caught the ball after Tascosa defenders had touched it first. "Good concentration," Patton said. "Just work to get the ball," Campos said. The Bobcats worked to put themselves in an enviable position to make their fifth playoff appearance in as many years. "We're coming," Campos said.