Stepp's Five thoughts from the regional semifinals

Big weather impacts playoff games Friday night
As the week wore on, we thought there could be some impacts to playoff games Friday night as a line of potentially strong storms was scheduled to move through DFW and East Texas in the evening. By Friday early afternoon, it became almost a certainty that the line of storms were a threat to the regional semifinals. Games were impacted in a line from Mineral Wells to the west all the way east to Royse City. In Mineral Wells, Celeste and San Saba saw their scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff pushed all the way back to 8:35 p.m., but once the game kicked off, it was completed with no other delays. There were multiple delays in the immediate DFW area with Southlake Carroll-Euless Trinity, Aledo-South Oak Cliff, Arlington Lamar-Duncanville, Frisco Reedy-Burleson Centennial, Argyle-Celina and Texarkana Pleasant Grove-Gilmer all being delayed around halftime. The most frightening delays may have been in Royse City where a tornado warning was issued in the area and fans from both Pittsburg and Lorena were forced to take cover and shelter in place until the storm passed. Thankfully, there was no word of a confirmed tornado touchdown in the area and after over a three-hour delay Pittsburg and Lorena finished their game well after midnight.

Waco Midway’s rally
For 24 minutes, it appeared that Waco Midway’s season was all but over at Kyle Field in College Station. Jeff Hulme’s Panthers had been thoroughly dominated by Klein Oak and trailed 24-0 heading into the locker room. The Panthers had a defensive score to cut the lead to 24-7 early in the third quarter and that seemed to ignite MHS. QB Nick Jimenez on a bum ankle, that was heavily taped after an injury in the first quarter, gutted it out in the second half throwing a touchdown pass, while RB James Fulbright had a pair of touchdown runs to lead the comeback for Midway in a 28-27 win. The reward for Midway’s huge rally is defending state champion, the Allen Eagles who are coached by former Midway head coach Terry Gambill.