Top 10 Playoff Games of All-Time

[Matthew328]

I know that my age makes me somewhat biased on this list..but it is all in fun...just wanted to give my opinion on the 10 best playoff games of all time..feel free to post your list or games that I don't have on the list....

1. Tyler John Tyler vs Plano East 1994 5A Div II Regional Semi-Final: In a game that won an ESPY Plano East rallies from a 41-17 deficit with 5 minutes left, scoring 4 TD's and recovering 3 consecutive onside kicks to take a 44-41 lead with less than a minute left...only to see JT return the ensuing kick-off 95 yards to win the game with less than 10 seconds left..

2. SA Lee vs SA Brackenridge 1963 4A Bi-District Playoff: the original game of the century, Warren McVea vs Linus Baer.....in a shootout of unbeaten teams Lee won a thriller 55-48 in front of an overflow crowd at Alamo Stadium....

3. Converse Judson vs Midland 2002 5A Div I State Championship Game: in front of over 25,000 fans at the Alamodome Midland took a late 32-27 lead over Judson with less than a minute left...only to see Andre Williams catch a 76 yard desperation TD with under 20 seconds left to give Judson a 33-32 win and a state title...

4. Southlake Carroll vs Vernon 1992 3A Regional Semi-Final: In front of 18,000 fans packed into 12,000 seat Pennington Field the 2 12-0 teams met in a thriller with fans sitting on the wall behind the end zone and on nearby rooftops to watch this battle of number 1 vs number 2...with SLC leading and Vernon inside the 20 with under 2 minutes left a Vernon fumble preserved the 39-35 win for SLC....SLC didn't have another close game the rest of the year as they rolled to a state title..

5. Plano vs Highland Park 1977 4A State-Quarter-Final: In front of the largest crowd ever to witness a high school sporting event in the history of the United States Plano stormed back from a 28-7 3rd Quarter deficit to win 29-28 over their arch-rivals in front of 54,000 at Texas Stadium....

6. Ennis vs Denton Ryan 2002 4A Div II State Semi-Final: trailing 14-3 with under 2 minutes left and on their own 11 facing a 4th and 30 Ryan converts the first down and scores a TD and 2 point conversion to cut the lead to 14-11..Ryan recovers the onside kick and quickly hits another long pass inside the Ennis 5 where they score the game winning TD with under a minute left..18-14....Ryan goes on to win their second straight title..

7. Everman vs Forney 2001 3A Div I Area Playoff: you know I had to put this one...in front of 15,000 fans crammed into Pennington Field, 8 rows deep along the sideline and behind the end zone.. the number 1 and 2 teams in 3A both at 11-0 played a heartstopper..a heroic 20 play drive for Forney got them inside the Everman 25 with 1:17 left..a drive that took up 8 minutes and converted 3 4th downs..finally on 4th and 1 Everman stopped FB Brown and won the game 21-17...

8. Ennis vs Cuero 1975 3A State Championship: Ennis ends Cuero's record (at the time) 44 game winning streak 13-10 and Ennis wins their first ever state title...

9. Celeste vs Stratford 2001 1A State Semi-Final: trailing 31-8 in the 3rd quarter to defending state champ and prohibited favorite Stratford the Blue Devils rally to 31-29 late...then a kicker who hadn't kicked a FG all season comes in with 30 seconds left and drills a 30 yard FG to give Celeste a 32-31 upset win....

10. Grapevine vs Greenville 1998 4A Div I State Quarter-Final: unbeaten Greenville rolled into Texas Stadium as big favorite against upstart Grapevine..in a shootout Grapevine stunned the Lions 34-31 in 3OT to advance and go on to win their second 4A state title...

[Old Cardinal]

The SA Lee/ SA Brackenridge in 1964, had to be the best of all....

<small>[ June 11, 2003, 04:02 PM: Message edited by: Old Cardinal ]</small>

[Jacket2000]

Matt, as a matter of fact, that Ennis/Cuero game was about boring as hell! 6 plays, fumble. 5 plays, 3 penalities, punt. 3 plays, 3 yards, punt. 2 plays, fumble. I dont think there was a single play for more than 7 yards the entire game!
Besides, you know that my top game(other than TJT/Plano East) is Grapevine/Greenville in '98.
J2K

[true_blue_tiger]

I think the Daingerfield-Celina game should be somewhere in the top ten. Not everyday does a team end the longest winning streak in the history Texas High School football.

[Matthew328]

Yeah I heard that Ennis Cuero game was kind of a yawner...I put in there simply becuase it ended a LONG winning streak and it was a state title game...I really debated that one and this year's Celina-Daingerfield game......Ennis-Cuero won out becuase it was a state title game...

[GOFOR2]

How could anyone forget the historical game between Sinton and Hitchcock back in the Davenport era? That was one heck of a game and a gutsy call late in the 4th quarter.

[PPHSfan]

1980 Pilot Point vs Tidehaven for Class 2A ending in 0-0 tie has got to rank top twenty. Maybe it is true what they say. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships, or at least Co-Championships :D

[BigChamp05]

Bandera-Greenwood 27-24 2OT game won a field goal in the last haf of the overtime. I think that was a pretty good game and playing in it is something i'll never foget.

[TarponFanInNorthTexas]

BigChamp05:
Bandera-Greenwood 27-24 2OT game won a field goal in the last haf of the overtime. I think that was a pretty good game and playing in it is something i'll never foget.I agree, the Bandera/Greenwood title game last season was one of the best games i've had the honor to attend.

However, as far as games that I was personally involved in, Port Isabel/Cuero 1994 has got to be considered in the Top 20 at least. Port Isabel scores a TD with about 2 mins. remaining in the 4th to make the score 20-18 Cuero. Port Isabel goes for two and makes it by running right up the gut to tie the game at 20. Cuero's last gasp play was intercepted by Gilbert Verduzco and the Tarpons celebrated the most unlikely of victories. Port Isabel advanced via penetrations 5-3.

[sinton66]

I didn't see any of the games the majority of you mentioned, but I did witness the Sinton/Hitchcock game that GOFOR2 mentioned. It was indeed the most memorable game I've ever witnessed in my 55 years. I'll never forget it, and all I did was watch! :D

<small>[ June 11, 2003, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[Old Tiger]

How about a 3A top 10 list Matt?

[wildstangs]

Stratford fell hard after their QB got hurt that game. I saw them the year before when they won it all and they were awesome. I remember them scoring two TD's on Collinsville in the first minute of the game.

[sinfan75]

Calallen vs.West Orange-Stark and at least two of the Calallen vs.La Marque semi-final games.AWESOME!!!

[Keith7]

I know not a 10 ten game of all time but a very good game none the less was Gainesville Vs. Atlanta in the playoffs.. 2 good speedy defenses.. here is the story

Atlanta’s Ross Heath broke up a screen pass with 53 seconds left in regulation to preserve a 14-10 win over Gainesville in a Class 3A Division I Region II semifinal at Eagle-Mustang Stadium in Richardson.Gainesville (10-2) drove 40 yards on its final drive, including converting a 4th and 30 thanks to a 30 yard scramble by Chris Brown on a broken play, which began with 4:28 in the fourth quarter. Facing fourth-and-seven from the Atlanta 18, quarterback Chris Brown’s pass was broken up by Heath.Atlanta (9-3) trailed 10-7 until running back Jonathan Blaylock scored on a 14-yard run with 8:35 left in the fourth quarter. Blaylock (19-114, two touchdowns) was hemmed in at the Gainesville eight-yard line before stumbling forward for the score. Gainesville was held to just 62 yards of total offense and three first downs in the first half, but managed a 10-7 lead at the break thanks in part to an 87-yard opening kickoff return for a touchdown by Terrius Purvey. Jon Lopez added a 47-yard field goal with 1:12 remaining in the first half. Atlanta, though trailing at the break, had a first half time of possession of 18:13. This was a sad game for me cuz it was my last one

[SintonFan]

GOFOR2:
How could anyone forget the historical game between Sinton and Hitchcock back in the Davenport era? That was one heck of a game and a gutsy call late in the 4th quarter.
sinton66:
I didn't see any of the games the majority of you mentioned, but I did witness the Sinton/Hitchcock game that GOFOR2 mentioned. It was indeed the most memorable game I've ever witnessed in my 55 years. I'll never forget it, and all I did was watch!That was one heckovagame!

Sinton was down by one (13-12) with less than two minutes to go. They (Sinton) were up by one penetration, but Hitchcock was driving. Hitchcock was bigger than Sinton by far. They had great skill players to boot. Everyone on the Sinton side thought they were wearing us down as we couldn't stop them in the last few minutes. They had earned a hard first down with less than two minutes reamaining. Suddenly the Hitchcock runner burst through a wide open Sinton defense for a touchdown(50+). The Sinton players were looking bewildered as they didn't understand what was going on and several players were seen mad and despondant!
Coach Davenport had told his defense to let the runner score. What?!? This is what happened. Alot of Sinton had started to make their way to the exits. How can you blame them?
This was by design, of course (not the fans leaving hehe).
Hitchcock was up 19-12 and decided to go for two. I know penetrations were tied and they tried to get the game out of reach. The two point try was not successful. Somehow our little guys stuffed their their big line.
Sinton received the ball back with around one minute left.
They went all pass and this was NOT their strength.
They started bad and connected finally on 3rd or 4th down for 20 to Hitchcock's side of field.
The clock was down to around 37 seconds with Sinton on Hitchcock's end and complete a couple of short passes for a first down inside the 30 playing the sidelines.
With about 19 seconds left Sinton completed a pass
for an unbelievable touchdown pass!
Sinton tied it on a hairy point after to tie.
Sinton went up one more penetration and won the greatest game I have witnessed.
How many of you has seen a coach tell his team to give up a touchdown to get a win.
Then the team actually win's it???

If I erred with this rendition of the game Sinton folk, please correct me...

<small>[ June 12, 2003, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: SintonFan ]</small>

[sinton66]

I remember thinking "what the H*LL was THAT?" when the Sinton safety stepped aside and let the runner score. Then it slowly dawned on me that since we were out of timeouts and Hitchcock had the ball, that's the only way we could get our hands on it one more time. There was some super TRUST and discipline between that coach and his players! Most unbelievable game I ever saw. Hitchcock was definitely outCOACHED that night. Amazingly enough, the two point try was their undoing. They could have kicked the extra point and forced us to go for two, and they had already stuffed a previous attempt by us.

<small>[ June 12, 2003, 09:34 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[District303aPastPlayer]

I remember the Calallen-La Marque series(What is seemed like) years ago. The game i attended was at Bobcat stadium in San Marcos. The running back from La Marque had over 280 yards on 5 or 6 rushes from scrimmage. One of the best 1st half performances i have ever seen.
-aaron

[big daddy russ]

I went to almost all those Calallen/LaMarque games, but none that I saw compared to that Calallen/WO-S game that sinfan75 was talking about. The game was even through three quarters before WO-S took control in the final frame. They were down, but scored a couple of touchdowns to go up on Calallen and suck every ounce of wind out of Calallen's sails. The Wildcats' offense was faltering and its defense wasn't getting them stops. Then Calallen turns things around with about two minutes to play. They get a little momentum, march down the field and score the go-ahead TD with something like 45 seconds to play. You could hear a pin drop over on West Orange-Stark's side of the field. Calallen's side was going crazy... they thought the "Curse of the Astrodome" was over. (Calallen was like 0-3 in games at the 'Dome going into that game) The Mustangs took the kickoff but couldn't get too much against Calallen's special teams, winding up around their own 40 yard line. Stark then proceeded to run the exact same passing play three consecutive times to the left side of the field and scored the third try with less than 15 seconds to go. Calallen loses.

[PhiI C]

I wasn't at this game but a friend told me about it. It was in 1973 when John Tyler played Texercana (spelling?) in bi-district and Texercana was rated No. 1 in the State and were favored to win State. It was in Earl Campbell's senior HS year and the score was 20 to 16 in favor of Texercana with about 45 seconds left and Tyler had fourth and four at their 44 yard line. Earl Campbell was given the ball and every Texercana player went for Earl. He suddenly stopped and threw a bad pass to a wide open receiver at about the 30. In fact the receiver had to stop and come back a few feet to catch it. Plus he was not a fast receiver either. But he was left all alone and by the time he caught the ball and turned toward the goal line he was still ten yards behind everyone and scored easily and Tyler won and went on to be state champions. Had Texercana had a defender with him he probably could have easily prevented the catch and the touchdown. This is from memory and if any of our East Texas friends are more familiar with the game please feel free to correct me since I wasn't there and this is from memory from a friend that told me about it that I haven't seen in 25 years. But it must have been a great game.