RISON - The Woodlawn Bears will open the eight-man state playoffs by hosting the Midland Mustangs at 7 p.m. Friday night at the Carl Jones Sports Complex.Woodlawn (8-0 overall and 5-0 in conference) enters the playoff opener as the no. 1 seed from the South Conference while Midland (2-4 overall and 1-3 in conference) is the no. 4 seed from the North Conference.This will be the second time this season the two teams have faced off. Back on Sept. 12, the Bears rallied from 18 points down at halftime to knock off the Mustangs, 42-32, in what was Woodlawn’s second game of the year. That game was played at Woodlawn as well.That also seemed to be the turning point of the season for both teams. Midland, after making the state finals last year, was expected to contend for the North Conference championship again this season. Instead, the loss to the Bears turned out to be the first in a four-game losing streak for the Mustangs. It finally came to an end last week with their 64-24 victory at Guy-Perkins. Following the loss at Woodlawn, the Mustangs fell to Cedar Ridge (48-20), Rector (40-20) and South Side-Bee Branch (54-16). Two other non-conference games against Rose Bud and Marshall were cancelled.Bears Coach Doug Means said Midland Coach T.J. Pugh informed him that the Mustangs suffered four injuries when they visited in September. One lineman suffered a season-ending knee injury during warm-ups before the game event started while three others, including starting quarterback Chase Rascoe. Means, had to leave as well. Means said he was told all three of those players ended up with season-ending injuries as well. Woodlawn, meanwhile, used the come-from-behind win as a springboard for the rest of its season. Quarterback Ethan Saeler went wild in those final two quarters, returning the second-half kickoff 57 yards for a touchdown and then ripping off a 33-yard run for a TD after the Bears recovered the...
To access content, please login or purchase a subscription.