The little guy wins, a powerhouse goes pfft, and a bunch of teams get flattened

It’s always fun to see the little guy win.

In this case, the little guy is Texas’ smallest Class 5A team — Fort Worth Young Men’s Leadership Academy, with a whopping 177 kids — which beat Fort Worth North Side 38-14 to make the playoffs in just its second year.

We talked with the understandably psyched Wildcats after the game.

▪  Meanwhile, three-time state champion Cedar Hill, which had to forfeit a recent game, won’t even be part of the playoffs this year after losing to South Grand Prairie by a 14-10 final.

You remember how it felt after they killed off Glenn on The Walking Dead? This is just like those first few episodes with no Glenn.

And the loss ushers none other than Grand Prairie into the playoffs. The good old Gophers haven’t been to the postseason since 1989, and that’s a long drought even for Texas.

▪  Four big-deal games featured teams with the same district record.

5-0: Crowley visited Everman for retiring coach Dale Keeling’s final home game and politely lost, 31-12.

5-0: Fort Worth South Hills shooed away Fort Worth Southwest, 40-23.

4-1: Arlington Martin doubled down on Arlington 28-14 in a quarterback duel.

3-2: White Settlement Brewer smacked down Azle 44-18 to clinch the playoffs.

▪  Speaking of lopsided wins, Keller Fossil Ridge demolished Weatherford, 49-24. Don’t worry, that’s not the highlight.

The cool thing about this is that it puts the Panthers within a game of their first undefeated district run in school history.

And the last obstacle between Ridge and the record book? Arch-rival Keller. That’s gonna be fun.

▪  It’s never fun getting puréed by a powerhouse team like Aledo.

Justin Northwest quarterback Prince Mavula got just a bit too steamed, however, and then he got the boot.

That one went 48-nothin’. You can guess who won.

▪  Keller Timber Creek wanted the playoffs so bad, it handed the ball off to a linebacker against rival Central.

Noah Gnacinski dove in from the Central one yard line to tie it up at 22 with just over three minutes left in the skirmish.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, Central kicked an overtime 35-yarder to win 25-22 and punch its ticket to the playoffs.

But this was still really cool:

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 1:19 AM with the headline "The little guy wins, a powerhouse goes pfft, and a bunch of teams get flattened."