HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS UIL Playoffs
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Temple’s Jackson receives all-state honorable mention
HARKER HEIGHTS — The Temple Wildcats entered Friday night’s contest with a playoff berth secured and in third place in the District 12-6A standings. But where they finished among the league’s top four was still up for grabs, with an outside shot to claim the second seed.
Leaned against a wall inside Wildcat Gym about 20 minutes after his team dispatched Copperas Cove 52-47 in workman-like fashion, Temple head coach Michael Thomas looked to one of his assistants who then looked up from his cell phone to deliver the news Thomas wanted to hear to cap an already memorable Tuesday.
COPPERAS COVE — Throughout a back-and-forth affair with Copperas Cove on Tuesday night, Temple found itself down by one with 2.3 seconds remaining in a District 12-6A clash with the winner securing the fourth and final playoff berth.
Temple honored its seniors prior to Friday night’s home finale and hoped to add to the festivities by beating Hewitt Midway.
The Tem-Cats had their chances to do so, whittling a nine-point deficit to three with an early fourth-quarter surge. But the visiting Pantherettes countered with eight straight points for the contest’s first double-digit advantage, and the cushion proved enough for Midway to grab a 47-37 victory at Wildcat Gym.
Tarleton State seeks to take its success in NCAA Division II and keep it going as the Stephenville-based Texans transition into the Division I Football Championship Subdivision the next four seasons.
Eight Temple players had at least two points, and those who didn’t score provided a lift in other ways Tuesday night as the Wildcats put into motion the top priority jotted down on a white board in the team’s locker room — “Be a star in your own role.”
As usual, the University Interscholastic League’s biennial reclassification and realignment brought with it Monday some upcoming changes for area schools. There were not, however, any large-scale surprises.
The regular season doesn’t end until Feb. 11, but Friday night’s District 12-6A encounter between Temple and Killeen Ellison sure felt as though the playoffs already had arrived.
Opportunity after opportunity, shot after shot, the Temple Lady Wildcats had nothing to show through the first 89 minutes of their District 12-6A soccer match Friday night against the Killeen Ellison Lady Eagles.
