It was an uneasy loss for the Texas High football team as they fell behind the John Tyler Lions on Nov. 14, to close out the end of football season at the first round of playoffs.

“The first half we played like state champions, honestly,” senior kicker Aaron Sesler said. “It was crazy. There weren’t any mistakes.”

The Tigers’ first Tiger touchdown resulted from a pass from senior quarterback Alex Kugler to junior wide-receiver J’Kardi Witcher, with the extra point kicked in by junior Ethan Montez, the Tigers set the game with a strong presence and incredible energy, starting the game with a lead of 7-0.

The energy kept flowing as senior running-back Javon Thomas made another touchdown for the Tigers. As the Tigers took advantage of the Lions’ few fumbles and mistakes the energy of the Texas fans started to warm the cold stadium.

During the second quarter is when John Tyler started to fight back with a touchdown. The Tigers try to make more headway with a field goal from Montez, but the Lions retaliated with a field goal of their own making it 17-10 with 30 seconds left in the first half.

“During the second half [John Tyler’s] athleticism really started to show,” senior fan Nick Richter said. “We just couldn’t keep up with them.”

As the 3rd quarter started, the Lions were quick to tie up the score with a touchdown, which lead to four more before Texas could get another one in. Two were result of Tiger mistakes, such as a blocked punt and interception.

Fortunately, Thomas was able to score another touchdown for the Tigers in the fourth quarter, but John Tyler’s momentum was already too great, and ended the game with two more touchdowns, keeping the score at 58-23 in the last four minutes of the game.

“First half we came out with the correct energy,” junior player Jacorien Walker said. “But everything that could’ve went wrong went wrong in the second half. We underestimated their ability, thought the game was over with, stuff happened and we lost.”