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North Lamar still controls playoff destiny
By Brent Wilburn
The Paris News
Published November 3, 2009
Friday night was an eerie Halloween’s eve for the North Lamar Panthers.
In their game against the unbeaten Van Alstyne Panthers, they performed several acts that even the most savvy prognosticators couldn’t have predicted.
For instance, they were unable to convert an extra-point kick in their two attempts in the contest. Yet kicker Cody Daniel split the uprights with a rare North Lamar field goal when he successfully connected with a 22-yarder in the third quarter. It was the first successful North Lamar field goal since Corey Lawson made one against Paris in the 2007 season.
Another example of the strange Friday night was that, for the first time in over a year, the North Lamar squad had more passing yards than rushing yards. Senior quarterback Ryan White passed for 146 yards, with many of those coming in a last-minute drive that almost yielded a game-winning touchdown.
Instead, North Lamar (2-8, 2-2) suffered a heartbreaking 27-21 setback to the visiting Panthers from Van Alstyne (9-0, 4-0) on that strange Halloween’s eve.
“We played hard,” North Lamar head coach Tommy Felty said. “We just didn’t tackle well and they hurt us with the inside run. We made some mistakes and had some turnovers when we had the lead. Van Alstyne took advantage of those turnovers.”
The bright side for North Lamar is that not all hope is lost.
The team can maintain intensity in practice this week knowing it stood toe-to-toe with an undefeated team and the co-leader of District 10-3A.
And it can do so knowing that an opportunity at the playoffs is still there for the taking.
Paris High and Van Alstyne have punched their tickets to the postseason. The third, and final, spot in the district will come down to the wire Friday night. North Lamar, Commerce (1-8, 1-3) and Anna (3-6, 1-3) still have a chance to claim it. If North Lamar takes the spot, it will be the Division I representative for the district. If not, Paris High will be.
North Lamar has the upper hand in the scenario for the final spot. The Panthers need only a road win over Commerce in their 7:30 p.m. showdown on Friday to be the third-place team.
A loss and an Anna win over Bonham would bring forward a complicated tie-breaking system between the three teams to see which one would go to the playoffs.
The possibility of that tiebreaker is there, but North Lamar prefers to just get the win Friday and avoid all the extra arithmetic.
“We just need to come out and beat Commerce,” North Lamar senior Canyon Conley said after Friday’s loss against Van Alstyne. “At this point (this late in the season), that’s all we can do.”
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