It’s a shame last year’s Lake Highlands football team didn’t get to play one of its playoff games at Texas Stadium. Now it looks like there may be far fewer high school games at the new Cowboys Stadium than at the old stadium. The new stadium may simply be too expensive to rent.
LH football was a Texas Stadium regular during its long playoff runs in the 1990s. So for today’s Friday Flashback, I thought I would list my top three LH games at Texas Stadium. You might have a different favorite.
1. 1992 – Lake Highlands 31, Nacogdoches 28. This was a wild, back-and-forth game full of lost of offensive fireworks. It was also played in the days before overtime. The score was tied late. The teams were also tied in penetrations inside the 20, the first tiebreaker. Nacogdoches held the edge in first downs, the second tiebreaker. LH mounted a final, furious drive to get in kicker Phil Dawson’s range. Without missing a beat, Dawson ran onto the field and calmly boomed a 52-yard field goal to break Nacogdoches’ heart.
Click on the jump to read the other two top LH games at Texas Stadium.
2. 1981 – Lake Highlands 17, Tyler John Tyler 14. Another game decided by a dramatic field goal. This was LH’s first playoff game in six years, and first-ever game at Texas Stadium, as far as I can recall. It was also the first of many great playoff battles with John Tyler. LH kicker Todd Tschantz kicked one from about 40 yards out to win the game. The next day, the Redskins’ Mark Moseley, another famous straight-ahead kicker, missed from a shorter distance at Texas Stadium.
3. 1998 – Lake Highlands 40, Garland 14. LH lost its first four games of the season and made the playoffs with a humble 5-5 record. The Wildcats struggled in the first half of the bi-district game with Garland and looked to be on their way to an early playoff exit. But something clicked in the second half with quarterback Peter Ruth and the mid-line veer. Lake Highlands rattled off touchdown after touchdown, then rode the momentum of that win all the way to the state semifinals,
