District 2-5A Division II promised a fight. Instead, it delivered chaos.
In one shocking night, Plainview stunned Lubbock-Cooper and Abilene Cooper knocked off Memorial, shattering the idea of a two-team race and throwing the playoff picture into disarray.
Before 2-5A Division II play started, I polled 12 high school sports reporters from Wichita Falls, Abilene, Amarillo and Lubbock.
The question: In what order do you think the district will finish?
The results were interesting with every Wichita Falls media member and two of the five from other cities picking Lubbock-Cooper first and Memorial second. The other three chose Memorial to win the district with Lubbock-Cooper in second.
In short, we all had Lubbock-Cooper and Memorial battling for the 2-5A DII title, although many felt Abilene Wylie and Amarillo Palo Duro could play spoiler. Abilene Cooper was considered a playoff contender, but only two voters pictured Plainview as a postseason contender.
Shows what we know.
District 2-5A Division II got turned on its head in Sept. 27’s openers with Plainview and Abilene Cooper upsetting Lubbock-Cooper and Memorial, respectively.
It was Plainview’s 37-22 win against Lubbock-Cooper turning the most heads. The Bulldogs entered the game as 28-point underdogs, according to PigskinPrep.com, and had never beaten Lubbock-Cooper in seven previous attempts. None of those past matchups had a final score closer than 10 points.
Yet Plainview only trailed once Friday night, falling behind 7-6 with 6:11 left in the opening quarter. The Bulldogs took the lead for good 1:34 later on a 58-yard pass by Seth Mayberry to Jordan Porter.
It was a glimpse of what was to come.
Lubbock-Cooper never threatened to overtake the Bulldogs again with Plainview building a 30-14 lead in the second quarter.
It’s the most significant win for the program in recent memory.
The Bulldogs haven’t qualified for the playoffs since 2017, finishing a season with a record above .500 once (6-5 in 2014) in the past 19 years.
But while the rest of the state may have viewed Plainview’s victory as a massive upset, the district’s coaches weren’t as shocked.
“Lubbock-Cooper was a district favorite, so in that way it’s suprising, but at the same time, I really wasn’t that surprised,” Memorial coach Marc Bindel said. “Plainview’s QB is unbelievable. Most people don’t realize how good he is. They play people tough in Plainview. I just wasn’t that shocked by it.”
Abilene Wylie coach Clay Martin echoed that sentiment.
“Plainview is a lot better than people realize,” Martin said after his Bulldogs defeated Legacy in Wichita Falls on Sept. 27. “I think those outside the district don’t realize how deep this district actually is. As coaches, we know it can be a dogfight every week.”
Of course, the district could have been turned upside down even more than it was had Martin’s Wylie team not regrouped at halftime to pull away from Legacy. The Leopards had Wylie shaking off an upset bid, trailing just 13-10 at halftime and 23-17 heading into the fourth quarter.
Legacy has just one win in its first 15 games as a program, but Martin remarked how improved the Leopards are in their first season under coach Greg Davis.
“You can see a difference in that team,” Martin said of the Leopards. “They’re making this district even tougher.”
Davis summed up the district in three words.
“It’s wide open,” he said, hoping his Leopards could figure into the postseason discussion.
Now Lubbock-Cooper and Memorial find themselves in an unexpected 0-1 hole to start district play, needing to find a win this week or risk that hole getting deeper. Both teams are at home Oct. 3 with Cooper hosting Legacy and Memorial welcoming Amarillo Palo Duro into town.
“We can’t take any opponent for granted,” is one of the most common phrases uttered by coaches. It’s classic coachspeak.
It’s also often a lie.
Teams take opponents for granted all the time. Coaches are even guilty of this. There are numerous occasions when a great team doesn’t take a lesser opponent seriously and gets away with it.
I’m not saying Lubbock-Cooper took Plainview lightly — I have more respect for coach Chip Darden’s program than to make that accusation — but given the recent history of both programs, it’s not unreasonable to think the Pirates overlooked Plainview to some degree.
But the opening week of the district schedule suggests taking anyone in 2-5A DII for granted can lead to a loss. And the wrong loss can leave a good team at home in November when the postseason starts.
According to PigskinPrep, that team could very well be Lubbock-Cooper. The website currently projects Amarillo Palo Duro to win the district with Wylie, Abilene Cooper and Memorial taking the final three postseason spots in that order.
That leaves Plainview, Legacy and Lubbock-Cooper out of the playoffs. That would end a 12-year streak of consecutive playoff appearances for the Pirates.
And there are definitely reasons to sweat that possibility now, and not just in Lubbock.
Bindel has never missed the postseason in his previous 11 seasons as a head coach, including a decade at Rider and Memorial’s inaugural season in 2024. But he admits that streak could be in jeopardy if the Mavericks don’t play to their potential over the next few weeks.
“I don’t want to say it’s always been a given in the past, but I have always felt really good about our chances of making the playoffs every year,” Bindel said. “It’s definitely not a given this year. There are a lot of good teams in this district, and I think we’re one of them. We really do have to play our best every week.
“That’s not just coachspeak.”
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: High school football: Plainview, Abilene Cooper turn 2-5A DII playoff chase upside down
Reporting by Jonathan Hull, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
