Friday Night Five: Clear Creek, Mason, two teams we're watching closely, and more

Screen Shot 2015-10-31 at 12.56.38 AMWell, hello Clear Creek. The Wildcats knocked off Dickinson 31-27 in a wild finish that served further notice: Clear Creek’s offense is going to be a problem for anyone they cross paths with in the playoffs. As noted in our picks this week, the depth of offensive weapons at their disposal rivals just about anything else in Class 6A, and it’s a big reason they can just keep throwing punches, even when they’re on the ropes, trailing a team like Dickinson 27-24 with just over a minute left and all momentum seemingly lost. Now that we know how that ended, it's hard to bet against this bunch. Should we pump the brakes on Tyler? The Lions edged out a 10-0 win over Jacksonville, a team that entered the game with a mark of 2-6. The weather was doing few teams any favors Friday night, but this is still a game we expected Tyler to run away with as the Lions built steam into the playoffs. Granted, a win's a win, especially as the season ticks down, but we’re still left scratching our heads a bit. Waco La Vega survives a scare. Burnet led much of the game, but La Vega mounted a second half comeback that resulted in a 32-25 win. Disaster was averted, but for the first time in weeks, a few weaknesses seemed to have been exposed for the undefeated Pirates. Then again, as mentioned with Tyler, high-flying offenses found lots of a trouble on a swampy night all over the state. Mason passed a tough test with flying colors. The Punchers don’t seem to have missed a beat following their runners-up performance at the UIL state championships last year, rolling to a 10-0 record (their fourth undefeated regular season in five years) and finishing things off with a district title-clinching 21-10 win over Johnson City. The Eagles have a salty defense, but the Punchers’ Wing-T created enough problems to lock up a comfortable win while their defense proved to be every bit a state title contender. Two teams we’re watching closely. Waxahachie beat Red Oak 48-0, and Kilgore beat Brownsboro 38-7. Both are teams we’re keeping a close eye on right now. Here’s why. First, Waxahachie came out of the gate this season on fire, putting up huge offensive numbers en route to beating Ennis and announcing their presence with authority on the 5A stage. Then quarterback Jordan Kitna got hurt. He’s back, but the team sits in third in 14-5A and can lock up that spot with a win over Lancaster next week. If the Indians make he playoffs, they should surprise a few teams with that offense, which probably would be a much bigger talking point in 5A right now had Kitna remained healthy. Kilgore is another team many slept on, including us. In preseason predictions and rankings, and even weeks into the season, Kilgore remained outside the Top 10, and behind fellow 9-4A foes Carthage and Henderson. Now the Bulldogs sit 4-0 atop the district with a sputtering Henderson team remaining. Kilgore may have been quiet to this point, but that’s another team to watch out for as the playoffs start.