After losing to Brock 18-13 last season, the Paradise Panthers were looking for revenge in Brock on Friday night. Paradise came in 8-0 on the season and both teams were undefeated in the District 8-3A standings.
Paradise has been good the past two seasons.
The Panthers also started 8-0 in 2022 – prior to last season, they hadn’t won 8+ games since 2008. But like the script last fall, Brock took the win 26-14 to take over solo possession of the district lead with two games left in the regular season.
Paradise came into the night #5 in the Class 3A D1 state rankings while Brock was #7.
But the Eagles (5-3, 4-0) scored on their second play from scrimmage when QB Brody Woods found two-way star Carson Finney wide open for a 74-yard touchdown and 7-0 lead less than a minute into the game.
After Paradise (8-1, 4-1) was forced to punt on its opening drive, Brock took it back for six on Colt Matlock’s 70-yard return. The extra point was wide, but Brock led 13-0 at the 9:11 mark.
The Panthers responded on the ensuing possession.
They went 10 plays and 79 yards capped by a 15-yard TD pass from QB Austin Iglesias to wide receiver Landon Holley to make it a 13-7 game with five minutes to play in the frame. The Paradise D stepped up again after forcing a Brock punt and the Panthers went on to take their first lead.
Iglesias hit Callahan Moritz for 44 yards to the Brock 20. Then two plays later, Iglesias scrambled from pressure, fumbled the ball, picked it up and would find a wide open Holley for a 19-yard TD to give them a 14-13 lead near the end of the first quarter.
But that was all Paradise would score.
The second quarter was nearly scoreless until Brock found the end zone with under a minute before halftime. Woods scored on an 11-yard run and after the extra point was blocked, the Eagles took a 19-14 edge into intermission.
Brock’s final score came late in the third quarter.
After forcing Paradise into a punt on the opening drive of the second half, the Eagles marked 82 yards on 14 plays and killed nearly EIGHT minutes off the clock. Woods hit Tyler Butler on a 7-yard TD pass and the lead grew to 26-14 at the 3:36 mark of the third.
Woods led the Eagles with 126 yards rushing on 28 carries and 198 yards passing. The Eagles overall had 39 carries for 148 yards and 346 total. Butler had 42 yards on four catches and Britton Burrows added 66 on five catches.
Iglesias led the Panthers with 136 passing and 49 rushing. Holley had 59 yards on six catches.
Paradise hosts Whitesboro in Week 10 before its bye in the final week of the regular season. Brock, meanwhile, ends the year at Ponder and at home against Pilot Point. The Eagles had one of the hardest non district slates in the state, playing Pleasant Grove, WF Hirschi, Wimberley and Gunter. They went 1-3 in those game. They went 0-4 in those games last season before winning 11 straight to reach the 3A D1 state title game where they lost to Franklin.
