HEWITT, Texas — The Grand Prairie Gophers came out and punched Waco Midway in the mouth to start the game, but like any great champion the Panthers shook it off and regained composure. Midway would go on to dominate the Gophers 46-18 in what was the last home game for the 2017 senior class at Midway’s Panther Stadium.
In its first playoff game in 28 years, Grand Prairie wasted no time finding the end zone. Tylexis Straughter took an option pitch 75 yards for a Gophers touchdown on the first play of the game. The Gophers were able to recover a Will Nixon fumble on the ensuing kickoff, but the Panthers defense held strong and forced Grand Prairie to punt the ball.
“It’s the first playoff game and I think the kids were a little nervous,” said Midway Coach Jeff Hulme.
James Ellis/TexasHSFootball
The Panthers were able to answer the Gophers touchdown with a James Fullbright run of yards and the game was tied 7-7 with 8:38 in the first quarter. Parker Null snagged his fourth interception of season on Grand Prairie’s next possession and the Panthers only needed four plays to drive the ball thirty-six yards and take the lead 14-7, with a 5 -yard quarterback keeper by Tanner Mordecai.
Grand Prairie was able to set up a 30 yard field goal attempt for Jose Carranza, but a bad snap forced the kick to push and bounce of the upright. The Gophers wouldn’t get back into scoring position for the remainder of the first half.
The Panthers managed two more first half touchdowns and both of them game on passes from Mordecai to CJ Williams. The first touchdown was from 16 yards out, while the second was from 7 yards out. Midway took a 28-7 lead into halftime over Grand Prairie.
“It was huge because we get the ball to start the second half,” Hulme said of that first half sequence, “We’ve been able to do that the past couple of weeks and I think that gives our kids a boost.”
James Ellis/TexasHSFootball
Midway dominated the second half of the game and even had a little fun, as they put in DE Jaxon Player and let him get a rushing touchdown in his last home game of the
season.
“I bugged Coach Hulme to let me run the play and we practiced it some during the week,” Player explained, “I would like to give credit to my offensive line, they opened up the hole and I was going to run over anyone that got in my way, I think some of those defenders got scared.”
Tanner Mordecai was able to find split two Gopher defenders and hit Demarcus DeGrate on a 23 yard touchdown pass.
“It was really good to get this victory,” Mordecai said following the game, “We’ve been feeling that loss to Cedar Hill for a year and we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.”
The Gophers were able to do something unusual, which was block two PAT’s and return them for scores that totaled 4 points. Grand Prairie found the end zone once more on a 36 yard pass, but it wasn’t able to change the outcome of the game.
Grand Prairie ended their season with a record of 5-6, but were able give the community something to celebrate by putting an end to the playoff drought.
Midway moves to 11-0 on the year will continue their pursuit for a state championship next Friday when they play Byron Nelson in Arlington at AT&T Stadium. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 8:00pm CST.
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