You would think that out of four Class 5A local playoff teams, that the City of El Paso would be lucky enough to win at least one coin toss in order to earn a playoff game. But no! Montwood, Coronado, Franklin, and El Dorado, all struck out batting 0-4 in coin flips. As a result, the very rabid high school football fans in Odessa and Midland will have four first round Class 5A football games to attend this Friday and Saturday.
On Friday night the # 4th ranked and undefeated (10-0) Odessa Permian Panthers will host the (6-4) El Dorado Aztecs at 6 PM El Paso time from the 21,000 seat Ratliff Stadium in a Division I, Region I contest. Some 16 miles to the east, (7-3) Midland Lee will welcome (7-3) Montwood to Grande Communications Stadium at 6 PM El Paso time on Friday night in a Division 2, Region I game.
Saturday finds (7-3) Franklin invading Ratliff Stadium at 12 noon El Paso time to play the (8-2) Odessa Bronchos in a Division I, Region I battle. Meanwhile, at the same time in Midland, the (7-3) Coronado Thunderbirds will meet the (7-3) Midland Bulldogs at the Grande Communications Stadium in a Division 2, Region I war.
None of the El Paso teams are favored to win. In fact, all four El Paso schools are heavy underdogs against the Permian Basin teams. Odessa Permian, Odessa, Midland Lee, and Midland sport a 32-8 won-loss record entering the playoffs. Montwood, Coronado, Franklin, and El Dorado own a 27-13 mark.
Texas playoff games are usually worth a lot of money to towns like Odessa, and Midland, in terms of filling motel rooms, preparation of meals, gasoline purchasing, buying game tickets, and shopping at local malls. So, the El Paso fans traveling to the Permian Basin will make Odessa and Midland a few thousand dollars this weekend.
Perhaps, it is a blessing in disguise that the El Paso Class 5A teams are out of town this Friday and Saturday. It is not a lot of fun to watch the local teams get stomped and that is probably what is going to happen this weekend. Unfortunately!
Before the District 2-5A season began, the coaches working at Lubbock Monterey, and at Lubbock Coronado were afraid their teams were not going to be good enough to beat Odessa Permian, Odessa, Midland Lee, and Midland. They were right! Monterey and Coronado finished well out of the District 2-5A playoff standings. Now, the coaches working at Lubbock Monterey and at Lubbock Coronado do not believe they will be able to scratch the playoffs in year two of the District 2-5A re-alignment and have begun to look for new jobs before they get fired. That’s hard to believe!
Locally, the El Paso Class 4A playoffs begin on Thursday night at 7 PM when the defending District 1-4A champion Austin Panthers welcome the Parkland Matadors to R.E. Mc Kee Stadium in a re-match of last year’s Division 2, Region I Bi-District game. Austin crushed Parkland 31-6 a year ago winning its’11th game of the year against no losses. This year, Austin is 10-0, while Parkland is 7-3. The winner of the Austin-Parkland contest will play the winner of the (6-4) Dumas-San Angelo Lakeview (5-5) game.
On Friday night, El Paso will be the site of three Class 4A Bi-District Championship games, all set for 7 PM. (5-5) Andress journeys across Trans-Mountain Road to meet the (8-2) Canutillo Eagles in a re-match of a September 12th game that saw the Angry Orange Eagles win 24-12 over the Andress Golden Eagles. The winner of the Andress-Canutillo war will play the winner of the (3-7) Amarillo Palo Duro and (10-0) # 7th ranked Frenship Tigers contest.
Andress High School’s new artificial-turf playing surface will be the site of the Division I, Region I match-up between (8-2) Chapin and (7-3) Del Valle. This should be a wide open offensive game between the Huskies and the Conquistadors. The winner of this game will play the winner of the Canyon Randall (8-2) and Abilene Cooper (6-4) war.
Finally, on Friday night, the Burges Mustangs (7-3) will bus down to play Riverside (5-5) in a Division 2, Region 1 game. The winner will get to play the victor of Canyon (6-4) and Big Spring (6-4).
Now surely one of the El Paso Class 4A teams will win a coin toss to host a game in two weeks.
A week ago, I correctly guessed at 17 winners and 2 losses. My 2008 seasonal record stands at 107 wins and 20 losses for an 84.3 winning percentage. My play-off selections for this week are as follows:
Odessa Permian over El Dorado
Midland Lee over Montwood
Odessa High over Franklin
Midland over Coronado
Austin over Parkland
Canutillo over Andress
Chapin over Del Valle
Burges over Riverside
Good luck to all the teams and I hope that I am wrong about the Permian Basin contests. I will gladly accept 4 losses on my seasonal record if the El Paso teams can prove me wrong.