'Heavy Weight Battle'
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In a battle between two state-ranked teams, No. 4 Lufkin and No. 10 The Woodlands played a game of "whatever you can do, I can do better," until the Panthers made a last-second defensive stand to escape a jam-packed Buddy Moorhead Memorial Stadium with a 35-28 victory over the Highlanders on Saturday. "We told our kids it was a heavy weight battle where we would punch them and they would punch us," said TWHS coach Mark Schmid. Before an overflow crowd of 10,391, the two squads swapped scores throughout the game with Lufkin's power running back Jorvorskie Lane scoring his fifth touchdown of the game to put the Panthers up 35-28 with just under five minutes left in the game. |
CONROE - The Woodlands had one chance to cut a seven-point deficit and send the sweltering afternoon game into overtime.
One chance. And on fourth-and-one from Lufkin's 22-yard line with six seconds left in the game, Highlanders quarterback Greg Meinzer took it.
When the pass went spiraling toward the end zone, everything stood still. A collective gasp was heard as receiver Kyle Drabek stretched out his hands and ...
Lufkin, the state's No. 4-ranked team, isn't about to say that it won the game simply because of Meinzer's incomplete pass. But the Panthers, who marched out of Moorhead Stadium with a 35-28 win and the District 14-5A title sewed up, were quick to admit Saturday's game was a bigger battle than they expected against the No. 10-ranked Highlanders.
"It was a true battle through and through," Lufkin coach John Outlaw said. "Coming into this game, you know about how big things are and how tough they'll be. But you just never quite know how much of a fight it will be until you put the play into action."
And that fight, staged in front of 10,319 screaming onlookers on a hot Saturday afternoon, was one that lasted until the bitter end.
Lufkin (9-0, 6-0 in 14-5A), opened the scoring with 9:17 left in the first quarter on senior Jorvorskie Lane's 41-yard touchdown run to cap a five-play, 76-yard drive. The game saw four lead changes after that and ended only after Meinzer's pass landed at Drabek's feet and Lufkin took a knee on the next play.
The Panthers racked up 468 yards; The Woodlands had 349.
"We told the guys at the half that this game was going to come down to the last man standing," said The Woodlands coach Mark Schmid, whose team scored with a minute left in the second quarter on running back Cameron Montgomery's one-yard scramble to head into halftime tied at 14. "This game shows our players that they can hand some tough competition to the best teams in the state and keep up until the end."
And the person the Highlanders (6-3, 4-2 in 14-5A) worked hardest to keep up with was the 6-1, 235 Lane, who finished the game with 222 of Lufkin's 300 yards rushing and scored all five of its touchdowns, including what proved to be the game-winner from 13 yards out with 4:55 left in the game.
Although Lane had suffered from a stomach virus all week and left the game briefly in the fourth quarter motioning for water and holding his sides, he was able to rack up more yards rushing on the Highlanders than any other team this season.
"I wasn't feeling well all week, so I knew coming into this game it was going to take an extra effort on my part to have the kind of game I did," Lane said. We just kept our heart. We never lost that."
But neither did The Woodlands. Montgomery finished the day with 148 yards rushing and three touchdowns, with runs of five, one and two yards. Meinzer was 9-for-17 for 190 yards and a touchdown, using Drabek as his primary receiver (118 yards on five receptions) and going to Eric Paul twice for 59 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to tie the game at 28.
In the end, Lufkin was the last team standing. And with the postseason looming, both teams are grateful for a playoff-caliber game with a week of district ahead of them.
"We have another game left," Schmid said. "But with this game today, we can take a lot out of here, use it against Oak Ridge in our final game of the season and know that we are absolutely equipped to handle teams in the playoffs."