Lindale’s Eagles got more than they bargained for Friday night from the Iowa Colony Pioneers in a Class 4A Division I Area playoff game at Bryan’s Merrill Green Stadium and saw their season end with a 45-22 loss.
The Eagles finished the 2023 season with a 7-5 record. This was the sixth consecutive season they earned a playoff berth. Lindale finished the district campaign with a 5-1 record and a second place finish.
The Pioneers don’t have a single senior on their roster and are in just their second year of varsity football competition but none of that mattered as they fought back from a 14-point first period deficit with three unanswered touchdowns to take a 21-14 lead at intermission.
After receiving the second half kickoff, the Pioneers wasted little time in padding its lead to 28-14 with just under nine minutes left in the third.
After taking the third period kickoff, the Eagles moved to the Pioneers’ 17-yard line, but this drive was thwarted by an interception of quarterbacks Clint Thurman at the Iowa Colony 10-yard line.
Iowa Colony put together another drive in the waning moments of the third and in the first minutes of the fourth added a field goal to increase its lead to 31-14.
But on Lindale’s next series, Thurman completed an 83-yard touchdown and with a successful two-point conversion the Eagles had trimmed its deficit to 31-22.
With under 9 minutes left the Eagles forced a Pioneer punt, but after driving to the Iowa Colony 45, the Eagles turned the ball over on downs.
Three minutes later, the Pioneers padded their margin to 38-22 on a 40-yard run.
KILGORE 37, BAY CITY 28
The District 9-4A champion Kilgore Bulldogs grabbed a 10-7 lead in the first period, added two more touchdowns in the second period to take down the Bay City Black Cats, 37-28, in an Division I Area playoff game Friday night in Sheldon ISD’s Panther Stadium.
The Bulldogs, now 11-1 on the season, advanced to the Regional Semifinal round of the state playoffs next Friday night.
Kilgore managed to take a 23-14 lead at the half, but on its first drive in the second half, Jada Andrews trimmed the Bulldogs’s lead to 23-20 with a six yard run.
But following an Black Cats’ interception that stalled a Kilgore drive, the Bulldogs’ P. J. Wiley swiped a Bay City pass and took it in from 60 yards out to increase the Bulldogs’ lead to 30-21.
CHAPEL HILL 54, EL CAMPO 18
In an Area playoff game in Spring’s ISD Stadium, the Chapel Hill Bulldogs had little trouble with the El Campo Ricebirds, 54-18, Friday night.
The Bulldogs, who finished third in District 9-4A, improved to 10-2 on the season. El Campo finished at 6-6.
Chapel Hill raced out to a 26-6 lead in the first quarter and were never threatened. The Bulldogs scored three TD’s on the ground and another through the air and went into halftime with 40-6 lead. This margin increased to 47-12 in the early moments of the third period on another rushing touchdown.