Weather adds to Dallas-area drama in final week, with 26 playoff berths up for grabs

The final week of the regular season is always crazy in Texas high school football, with points tiebreakers and sometimes even coin flips determining playoff spots. It can get complicated because every district has its own tiebreaker rules, instead of the UIL having one universal format for the entire state.

But one of the wildest endings to determine a playoff spot unfolded outside of Houston on Thursday night. A Hail Mary put Pasadena Dobie in the playoffs — in a game it led by 14 before the quarterback threw a 38-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play to win 54-34.

Dobie couldn’t take a knee because the team had to beat Manvel by at least 17 points to make the postseason, so it needed a miraculous finish when it got the ball at its 26-yard line with 18 seconds left to play. Pearland Dawson, which beat Dobie by 15 earlier in the season, missed the playoffs as a result of the shocking finish that produced a three-way tie for third in District 22-6A.

The playoff picture wasn’t quite that crazy in Dallas-area districts, but there was still plenty of drama with 26 playoff berths up for grabs in Week 11.

Friday’s inclement weather created havoc, too, leading many schools to move their games to Thursday or start early or late Friday. Garland Naaman Forest moved its start time to 4 p.m. Friday, and DeAngelo Perales threw four touchdown passes to beat South Garland 39-14, setting up a first-round playoff game against Longview a year after going 1-9.

A tornado watch was issued for Mansfield until 9 p.m. Friday, but Mansfield High started its home game against Weatherford only 15 minutes late, while knowing it would make the playoffs with a win or a loss by one or two points. The score was tied at 14 in the second quarter before Mansfield pulled away for a 49-34 win behind three touchdown passes from Braxton Van Cleave. A first-round matchup with Euless Trinity awaits.

For some, the path to earning a playoff berth was simple. Arlington and Haltom simply had to win Thursday to get in, and both District 8-6A teams took care of business and avoided complicated multi-team tiebreakers.

Arlington ended Arlington Martin’s 18-year playoff run with a 49-31 win and will face Richardson Pearce in the first round next week. Haltom opens the playoffs against Richardson after routing Arlington Sam Houston 42-8 to make the playoffs just two years after finishing 0-10.

South Grand Prairie lost is district finale 48-28 to Arlington Bowie on Thursday, but both 8-6A teams were celebrating on the field after the game. Bowie won its first district title since 2012 and will face Jesuit in the bi-district round, while SGP reached the postseason for the 11th straight season because Martin lost.

“I told them I know it’s kind of weird. It’s not a great feeling, because we just lost a game where we could have played better,” said South Grand Prairie coach Laban DeLay, whose team plays Lake Highlands next week. “But we get to advance, where a lot of other teams are putting their stuff up Monday morning. We’re happy to be in the tournament. I reminded them that everybody is 0-0 now. We get to hit reset and start a new season.”

DeLay was so focused on his game that he didn’t realize updates from Martin vs. Arlington were being posted on the scoreboard at SGP’s game. With SGP losing, a Martin win by eight or more would have kept South Grand Prairie out of the playoffs.

Richardson had made the playoffs just once in the past 11 seasons, after a fourth-place district finish in 2020. All it had to do to get in this year was win its district finale against Irving MacArthur on Friday or have Richardson Berkner lose to Richardson Pearce on Thursday, and Pearce made the outcome of Richardson’s game moot by beating Berkner 34-21.

Instead of attending Berkner’s game, Richardson coach Kendrick Holloway went to scout Haltom. Several of his players were following the Berkner game online and excitedly texted him once they knew they were playoff-bound. Berkner’s loss gave Richardson a chance Friday to relax and just focus on clinching the program’s first winning season since 2010, which it did with a 37-7 victory.

“My seniors were in the eighth grade the last time Richardson went to the playoffs,” Holloway said. “I talked to them [Friday morning] about the history of Richardson football over the last 21, 22 years. I wanted them to understand the magnitude of being able to get to the playoffs.”

Prosper Rock Hill made the playoffs for the first time and clinched its first winning record in school history, beating McKinney 21-14 to improve to 6-4 in its fifth season of varsity football. Rock Hill was 12-26 before this year and lost students to Walnut Grove when Prosper ISD’s third high school opened last year. All three of Prosper ISD’s teams made the playoffs this season.

“It’s really special for this campus,” Rock Hill coach Mark Wilkinson said. “The campus opened during COVID, then we undergo a coaching change when I take over, then we get bumped up to 6A. And when they open up Walnut Grove High School, we lose some numbers to them. We had to kind of rebuild, and just the adversity this campus has gone through and bringing them this experience, it’s huge.”

Rock Hill’s win kept seven-time state champion Plano from making the playoffs for the third time in 10 years. Rock Hill had to wait until late Friday night to find out who it would play in the first round, but it will be Hebron, which got in with a 59-21 win over Flower Mound in a game that started an hour late because of the weather.

Terrell faced the pressure of a win-or-go-home game against Mesquite Poteet and won 35-14 to punch its playoff ticket and end the season for Poteet and five-time state champion Ennis. Terrell opens the playoffs against South Oak Cliff, which has reached the Class 5A Division II state championship game the last three years.

Notable bi-district playoff games

• TC Byron Nelson at North Crowley, 1:00 Saturday at Crowley ISD
• Prosper at Coppell, 7 p.m. Friday
• Lewisville at Allen, 7 p.m. Friday
• Arlington Seguin at Prosper Walnut Grove, 7 p.m. Friday at Children’s Health Stadium
• Frisco Emerson at Argyle, 7 p.m. Friday

Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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