BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
Peaster— District 4-3A Division I has become a very competitive district over the past few years. Now that the Brock Eagles have been promoted to Class 4A, the door is open for a new district power to emerge. Two of the teams vying for that title faced off in Parker County on Friday night.
The Peaster Greyhounds came into the game off of the best start they have ever had as a program, but they had to first get through the Paradise Panthers who have had Peaster’s number over the last few years.
It was a tightly contested battle in the first half but the Panthers ultimately ran away with it, scoring 21 points in the second half to defeat the Greyhounds 35-14.
“I’m glad at how the kids responded,” Peaster head coach Trevor Owens said after the loss. “I feel like in the dogfight with Jacksboro, we hit a moment in the third and fourth quarters where we folded just from a maturity issue and not being in those dogfights before. But we locked it up defensively, we just have to get back to work and clean up where we couldn’t finish.”
The game got off to a perfect start for Paradise as they took almost seven minutes off of the clock in an 18-play drive, capped off by a five-yard keeper by Ayden Olalde to take a quick 7-0 lead.
The Greyhounds responded on the ensuing drive with a controversial touchdown. Layton Kennedy lofted up a pass into the back corner of the end zone to Brayden Gent who had to go up for a contested catch. It appeared that the Paradise defender came down with the interception, and that was the initial ruling on the field. Then after deliberation between referees, the play was ultimately ruled a touchdown for Peaster, tying the game.
Both offenses went silent for the rest of the quarter. Peaster was able to get on the board again in the second quarter after Rhett Kelley came up with an interception deep into Panther territory that set up Kaden Albert to take a direct snap into the end zone from five yards out, giving the Greyhounds a 14-7 lead.
Peaster did create two more turnovers in the second quarter, but was unable to capitalize. Paradise tied it up once again with just seconds remaining in the half on an eight yard strike from Olalde to Jacob Chism.
The struggle continued midway through the third quarter before the Panthers finally started to break it open. After recovering a Greyhound fumble at the one yard line, Olalde found paydirt once again on the quarterback sneak to give Paradise a 21-14 lead after three quarters of play.
Peaster struggled offensively for the entirety of the fourth quarter, and the Panthers took advantage. They found the end zone again on a keeper by Olalde, and a scoring run by Isaiah Jennings to bring the final score to 35-14.
Paradise (6-2, 4-0) will get a much deserved bye week next week before returning home to play Ponder (5-3, 2-2). However, it is Peaster (5-2, 2-1) who will get the first shot at Ponder next week on the road.
