Weighing dark horse candidates to do damage in the state playoffs

[caption id="attachment_20084" align="alignright" width="300"]Photo by Gary Sanderson Photo by Gary Sanderson[/caption] We’ve arrived at the final Friday of the Texas high school regular season. It is always bittersweet, because for some teams it is the end of the season. For others, it is the start of the playoffs. Here are a few darkhorse teams to watch in the playoffs. 1. Class 6A is full of state title contenders from the Dallas and Fort Worth area. One of the teams not getting mentioned enough is Southlake Carroll. The Dragons are 7-2 entering their regular season-ending showdown with Bell. The issue for Southlake Carroll is that the bi-district opponent is already set and it is two-time defending state champion Cedar Hill. If Carroll, a team with losses to Westlake in the first game of the season and Euless Trinity by two points in district, can get past Cedar Hill, the road towards a state title game opens up tremendously. The winner of the Cedar Hill/Southlake game likely wins the region and reaches the state semifinals, at minimum. 2. John Tyler found its way and is set to make a run in the state playoffs. The Lions started the season 0-3, but Ricklan Holmes’ squad is now 6-3 entering the final game of the season. John Tyler played a tough non-district schedule while breaking in new faces at crucial positions during district play. It resulted in an ugly record through the first month of the season, but it made the Lions better. John Tyler is the best three-loss team in Class 5A and is capable of making a run to the state title game. 3. The Pittsburg Pirates are 8-1 and ready to make a splash this postseason. Head coach Brad Baca has a family affair working well in Pittsburg with his dad as the defensive coordinator and his younger brother playing quarterback. The lone loss for Pittsburg this season is to Texarkana Liberty-Eylau. 4. La Grange is a team I was high on earlier in the season and any team with running back J.K. Dobbins on the field has a chance to win. It will be tough to knock off the highly ranked teams in the top-heavy Class 4A-D2 landscape. Gilmer, West Orange-Stark and a few others are breezing through the regular season, but Dobbins could be the best ball-carrier in the classification and could lead to a long playoff run. It’ll be a pesky team to beat in the playoffs, if nothing else.