Midlothian turns back Richland to clinch playoff berth. Royals can still make playoffs
The Midlothian football team was playing for playoff seeding on Thursday night at Midlothian ISD Stadium.
North Richland Hills Richland was playing for its playoff life.
Midlothian got an outstanding performance from its defense and a 118-yard rushing performance from Kaden Smith to down the Royals 21-10 and lock up the third-place spot in District 4-5A Division 1.
Midlothian (6-4 overall, 5-2 district) will most likely face 3-5A No. 2 Fort Worth Brewer on the road to open the post season, but an Azle win over Justin Northwest might shuffle the seeding. Richland (6-4, 3-4) will now need a victory by Red Oak over Burleson Centennial to make the playoffs.
It looked good for the Royals out of the gate as SMU commit C.J. Nelson took the opening kickoff and raced 77 yards for a touchdown with 12 seconds off the clock.
Midlothian rallied on its opening drive with an 11-play, 65 yard march capped with a 3-yard TD run by Smith on fourth down to tie the game at 7 with 6:32 left in the first quarter.
“We really wanted to go into the playoff with a win instead of a loss to have some momentum,” said Smith, who carried 10 times, eight after the half, helping Midlothian to grind out the clock late in the game. “It’s my first time to experience the playoffs so I’m looking forward to it and ready to go. I’m excited being my senior year, it’s pretty awesome.”
Midlothian did what Midlothian does rushing for 329 yards on 53 carries. De’ago Benson had 88 yards on 18 carries, quarterback Chad Ragle picked up 78 yards on 14 totes and Jordon Richburg carried nine times for 52 yards.
The Panthers defense allowed Richland 185 total yards and only gave up 70 yards on the ground on 30 carries by the Royals. Nelson was kept in check by the Panthers with minus-12 yards rushing on eight carries.
“In my opinion he’s the best athlete in the district,” said Midlothian coach Doug Wendel of Nelson. “Our defensive line containing Nelson was really big and he didn’t do a whole lot tonight. Our defense has given a great effort all year.”
Midlothian defensive back Xavionte Jackson picked off two Richland passes in the first half, both in Panthers’ territory, to kill Royals’ drives. Following the second interception at the Midlothian 30, the Panthers picked up four first downs in five plays with Ragle finishing the drive with a 10-yard scoring pass to Bryant Wesco to take a 14-7 lead with 5:54 left in the first half.
“I want to give a shout out to coach (Phillip) Paramore, because he’s the one that taught me the coverages and said that it would be easy to read what they were doing,” said Jackson. “It was all about focus.”
The Panthers opened the second half much like they did the first half scoring on the first possession. De’ago Benson gave Midlothian a 21-7 lead with 4:39 left in the third quarter on a 2-yard run.
Richland ran only 18 plays after the intermission, including a 31-yard Russell Skipper field goal that cut the lead to 21-10 with 25 seconds left in the third quarter. Midlothian’s opening drive of the second half was 14 plays and the Panthers ran 35 plays after the break.
“This was a big game, being a seeding game, and we wanted to have a winning record in the regular season and send the seniors out the right way at MISD Stadium,” said Wendel.