Texas high school football’s playoff picture made clear after surprisingly unchaotic Friday night
It looked for a while on Friday that the last two playoff berths in District 3-6A could be decided by a coin toss.
If Haltom beat North Crowley with 18 points or more and Fort Worth Boswell Hurst beat LD Bell, a coin toss would be required. At one point Haltom won 18-7 and Boswell won 35-7.
But in the end there was no chaos.
And that was the theme of the last week of the regular season.
North Crowley rallied for a 42-39 win, and Boswell beat LD Bell 42-13, bringing North Crowley and Boswell to the playoffs. Quarterback Quinton Jackson made five touchdowns in North Crowley’s win to set up a first-round playoff game against Southlake Carroll, third-place in the state.
As in 3-6A, many districts that could have resulted in many convoluted tiebreaker scenarios have been resolved in the simplest possible way. This was the case in District 8-6A, where South Grand Prairie started its playoff party early at Club Dub.
While many teams had to wait until Friday, the last day of the regular season, to see if they would play in the playoffs, District 8-6A played all of the week 11 games on Thursday. Four teams were still fighting for the district’s last two playoff spots well into the last week, and there was a long list of playoff scenarios and possible point differences that could have come into play, but South Grand Prairie made it easy.
At least as easy as triple overtime can be.
SGP won dramatically, beating Arlington Lamar 12-10 after a successful two-point conversion in third overtime. That was all South Grand Prairie needed to get a playoff spot and set up a first-round playoff matchup with Lake Highlands next week.
It was the same story for Arlington that included the other remaining playoff spot of 8-6A by defeating Arlington Bowie 51-20 to win a first-round game against Jesuits. None of the complicated tie-break scenarios came into play in the district, and no math was required to determine who went into the postseason.
The South Grand Prairie reward was a trip to the so-called “Club Dub” – a festive dance evening that was held in the locker room after the game. The scene repeated itself on Friday during the team’s athletic phase, when SGP turned the music up again, took out a strobe light and began to dance.
Twelve UIL districts in the Dallas area had already completed all four playoff spots in Week 11, but there was still a lot of tension on Friday.
Flower Mound defeated Coppell 45-21 in a winner-take-all game that decided the final playoff spot in District 6-6A. Flower Mound quarterback Nick Evers, who was signed in Florida, made six touchdowns (two passes, four rushes) when Flower Mound won a first-round matchup with Denton Guyer.
The win came on the 51st birthday of Flower Mound trainer Brian Basil.
“It’s a great birthday present,” said Basil. “It was a matter of believing in each other and taking care of each other because we didn’t want to finish. The most important thing this week was to emphasize that it would be for our seniors if we didn’t win. “
Frisco Reedy’s 37-7 win over The Colony was also a winner-take-all match that marked fourth playoff spot in District 5-5A Division I. Reedy will open the playoffs against Lancaster.
The only mess came at the end of the Lewisville vs. Hebron game. Lewisville won 37-35 on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Hail Mary of Ethan Terrell to Kye Stone in the final game of the game, meaning Lewisville (ranked 13th in the region) avoided beating the five-time State champion Allen in the first round. This task will now fall to Hebron.
Four districts – 3-6A, 9-6A, 3-5A Division I, and 5-4A Division I – had the opportunity to flip coins to determine which playoff teams will go into the week. Two other districts – 8-4A Division I and 5-4A Division II – had the option of requiring a coin toss to determine the playoff setting.
In 9-6A, Rowlett’s 19-16 loss to Garland Lakeview on Thursday reduced the playoff scenarios to one – Friday’s winner Wylie vs. North Garland got into the playoffs and the loser was out. North Garland, who won just one game last season, came into the game with a 30-14 win.
No coin toss was required in 3-5A Division I as Abilene Cooper took care of the business and earned his place in the playoffs with an easy 28-13 win over Crowley.
In District 7-6A, three teams were battling for the final playoff spot before last week, and the points tiebreaker could have come into play if Richardson Berkner had lost to Irving Nimitz on Thursday. But Berkner’s 14-7 win made the playoff picture clear.
Irving MacArthur could have easily got in with a win, but his 40-26 loss to Richardson Pearce put Berkner in the playoffs. Berkner expects Grand Prairie next week.
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