By james art 
Nothing is official yet, but the Amarillo Sandies are getting closer to moving on after the regular season ends.
In a game that featured plenty of offense, the Sandys hosted Lubbock Coronado in a District 2-5A Division I decider Thursday night at Dick Bivins Stadium.
Amarillo High made a statement by dominating the second half to cruise to a 54-14 victory that put the Sandies in second place in the district with two regular season games remaining.
That means the magic number for Amarillo High (4-3, 3-1 in district) is now down to one, as the Sandies need to win just one of their last two games to clinch a playoff spot.
In many ways, the win over Coronado (2-7, 1-4) was pretty typical of how the Sandys have operated this year. They had a typically big game on offense and had a bend but no break on defense that was enough to get through.
However, the offense was the star, as it has been all season. Amarillo High closed the game with 27 unanswered points to cruise to the win and didn’t break through until the final minutes.
While Coronado controlled the ball for most of the first half, it didn’t lead to any points. Amarillo High, on the other hand, got a big play from the hands and feet of quarterback Jett Lopez, a constant theme throughout the evening, to take a 21-7 halftime lead.
Coronado received the kickoff and was stopped on downs at the Amarillo High 33-yard line. Three plays later, the Sandys scored when Lopez hit Jude Dunavin on a perfectly executed screen pass for a 49-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
On Amarillo High’s next possession, Lopez was thrown out of the pocket and took advantage of an open field in front of him, running 35 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
Despite moving the ball well, Coronado only scored once in the first half. That came after Demarion Finch’s 18-yard run midway through the second quarter to cut it to 14-7.
The Sandys answered on their next possession when Lopez took a basic quarterback draw and raced up the middle for a 27-yard run to make it 21-7. It was just one highlight of a night in which Lopez completed 14 of 25 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 91 yards on just five carries.
Coronado then drove deep into Sandy territory and faced a fourth-and-goal at the AHS 1. The Mustangs elected to punt, but the Sandys held Finch less than a foot from the goal line to hold.
That pretty much summed up the offensive frustration of Coronado’s offense in the first half. The Mustangs moved the ball great between the 20-yard lines and racked up 278 yards, but only had seven points to show for it.
Amarillo High got the ball in great field position to start the second half when Jaylend Brashears returned the kickoff to the Coronado 26, setting up the first of Dunavin’s two 16-yard touchdown runs to make it 27-7.
The Mustangs answered two minutes later on a 1-yard run by Finch to make it 27-14 and it still looked like a ballgame.
However, the Sandys were unstoppable on the night.
Lopez threw scoring passes of 41 yards to Trey Warnsley and 16 yards to Cooper Manning before the end of the quarter to make it 40-14 and all but end the competitive phase of the game.
The Sandys were balanced offensively with 253 yards to give them 525 yards of offense for the game. Dunavin ran for 96 yards on just 11 carries.
Coronado racked up 429 yards of offense and quarterback Isaiah Vazquez threw for 344, but it wasn’t enough.