Boerne receiver Adam Amick gets a hand slap from head coach Danny Threadgill after hauling in a touchdown pass against Kerrville Tivy. Photo by Mike Reeder

To quote a saying current in political circles, you can’t paint lipstick on a pig.

Operating on that premise, about the best anyone could say about the Kerrville Tivy Antlers’ 50-20 district-opening win over the Boerne Samuel V. Champion Chargers is that it wasn’t nearly that close.

The Antlers, despite starting four backups, thrashed the Chargers on Friday night in Kerrville. Tivy staggered Boerne with a long return of the opening kickoff and a quick score to go up 7-0, and the Chargers never regained their footing.

Total yardage was actually close, with Tivy amassing 437 yards to Boerne’s 392. The difference was that Tivy’s totals came early, as the Antlers built leads of 21-0, 28-6, and 50-13.

While Tivy was scoring touchdowns the first four times it touched the ball, Boerne’s offense was sputtering and doing itself in with crucial penalties, dropped passes, errant throws and way too many three-and-out possessions. Charger tailback Josh Wray ran with tremendous determination and rolled up 185 yards rushing on just 21 carries, but the rest of the offense never looked in sync.

“We shot ourselves in the foot offensively, which gave them momentum defensively,” Charger Head Coach Danny Threadgill said.

“Between the special teams giving up field position and the offense giving the ball back, we put our defense back on its heels the whole first half. It wasn’t physical, it was mental, and that comes back to me.”

“We had a lot of miscues and penalties that really killed our drives,” Charger center Kevin Peet said. “We’d be moving the ball fine, but we’d make a mistake and kill it.”

“They had some starters out and we were thinking we’re just going to come in here and blow them away,” Wray said. “You just can’t do that.”

The Charger defense, left on the field far too long, could not match the speed and quickness of the Antler offense, and spent most of the night looking at the back of Tivy backup quarterback Johnny Manziel. Manziel, an electrifying sophomore making his first varsity start under center, ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns on just 15 carries and completed 14 of 18 passes for 231 yards and three touchdowns.

“He was quick,” Boerne defensive back Drew Roumelis said. “We’ve seen him play and he’s very fast, one of the fastest on their team. Their receivers are all fast and we just could not find a way to shut them down.”

Tivy made sure the humiliation was complete when it went for a two-point conversion in the fourth period with the Antlers already ahead 48-13. Adding injury to insult, Boerne linebacker and team leader Earnest Jones left the game with what trainers fear is a season-ending knee injury.

Tivy had entered the game shorthanded after eight players were suspended in connection with an alcohol-related incident. Kerrville coaches never released any names, but all-district quarterback Coleton Palmer was among the missing.

Boerne was playing its first game of the year without senior quarterback Chuck Thornally, who is out for at least two more games with a broken hand. Junior backup QB Taylor Davis did not play badly, completing 15 of 29 passes for 148 yards. But Davis and the Chargers’ first-team receivers were seldom on the same page, and the offense bore little resemblance to the efficient machine it had been in the team’s first three games. Wideouts Adam Amick and Miles Albrecht had good nights, but they was the exception that proved the rule.

“Taylor and I were on JV and freshmen teams together and we’re comfortable with each other,” said Albrecht. “He’ll know when I’m open, I’ll know when he sees me and know when to break on the ball.”

If there is such a thing as a key play in a game this lopsided, it came in the first quarter with Tivy already ahead 14-0.

With Wray plowing the road, the Chargers moved down to the Tivy 13, where they faced fourth and one. Everyone expected Wray to get the ball, but at the last second the Chargers changed the formation, emptied the backfield and went to the air. Davis’s pass fell incomplete, and Tivy took over.

“If you execute that call, then we’re heroes and it’s a great call,” Threadgill said. “If you don’t, it’s an awful call.”

By the time the Chargers held the ball again, they were trailing 21-0, and the only thing left in doubt was the final margin of Tivy’s victory.