Photo by Mark Bennett
BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
FRISCO— The defending champion Malakoff Tigers kept their dreams of a repeat alive on Thursday night after getting a scare from the upstart Paradise Panthers in the 3A Division I semifinals at The Star.
The Tigers trailed for the majority of the game before getting a big defensive boost in the fourth quarter, opening the door for the offense to put the game on ice with a final score of 27-19.
“We fought,” head coach Jaime Driskell said after the game. “It didn’t look good there for a little while and then our kids made some big plays. Then we finally got in a rhythm offensively and finally got some big plays. Our kids fought. I don’t know how else to say it. It wasn’t pretty but it didn’t matter.”
Malkoff opened the game with a quick scoring drive capped off by a 13-yard touchdown pass from Mike Jones to Parker Poteete to take an early 7-0 lead. From there, the Panthers put their game plan into place by methodically driving down the field and eating up the clock, ultimately responding with a five yard keeper by Ayden Winters to make it 7-6 after a botched extra point.
The Tiger offense struggled to get any momentum for the rest of the half, failing to find the end zone again. The Panthers took the lead early in the second quarter with a 59-yard jet sweep by Luke Brown, making it 13-7 at the half.
The woes continued for Malakoff in the third quarter as Paradise came out and went on a nine and a half minute drive that resulted in a touchdown from Brown on a six yard carry.
“I was mad,” Jones said about the long drive. “They scored and they took nine minutes out of the third quarter. I was thinking it’s now or never, we’ve got to score.”
Trailing 19-7 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jason Tennyson sparked the comeback with a touchdown run from 11 yards out to pull the Tigers within five. Three plays later, Jack Hustead came up with the play of the game when he jumped in front of a pass from Winters and returned it 32 yards to the end zone to put Malakoff in front 20-19 after the failed two-point conversion.
Winters went down on the play with a significant injury, leaving Paradise to turn to its backup quarterback for the remainder of the game.
Without their main signal caller, the Panthers were unable to regain any momentum and the Tigers dominated the rest of the game. Tennyson delivered the finishing blow with just over two minutes to go in the game on a three-yard touchdown run to bring the final score to 27-19.
“Our kids fight,” Driskell said about his team. “They’re fighters and we found a way to win this one tonight, and I know we’ll have a tough one next week no matter who it is.”
Paradise’s season comes to a close after its deepest run in program history with a record of 12-3. Malakoff improves to 15-0 and has now won 31 games in a row. They will face the Columbus Cardinals for the 3A Division I state title at 7 p.m. Thursday, December 19 at AT&T Stadium.
