By DAVID MAY
Special to Mineral Wells Area News
So they meet again.
Last year, the Horns went undefeated in the regular season, vanquishing all 10 opponents by the sixman football mercy rule. They then won their bi-district and area round playoff games and faced the Abbott Panthers in the quarterfinals. Abbott won, 32-24, on their way to playing in the Class 1A-D1 title game.
Fast forward to this season, and Gordon once again notches mercy-rule wins in all 10 regular season games, win their first two playoff games, and again faces Abbott in the quarterfinals.
With apologies to Yogi Berra, Gordon hopes it will not be déjà vu all over again when the two teams square off at 6 p.m. Friday at Burleson ISD Stadium.
Both teams are 12-0 on the year. Dave Campbell’s Texas Football ranks Gordon No. 1 in the state and Abbott third. Both have lost just one game the last two seasons. Gordon to Abbott, and Abbott to Westbrook in the 2022 championship game.
At least outwardly, Gordon head coach Mike Reed downplayed any revenge aspect attached to this week’s highly anticipated game. Just about everyone who follows Texas sixman football knew this rematch was likely to happen.
“We know who we have to go through,” Reed responded when asked about the potential matchup last week.
Eight teams remain in the Class 1A-D1 playoffs. The Gordon-Abbott winner will play the winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup between May and Jonesboro. On the other side of the bracket, Miami and Happy play Friday, with the winner advancing to face the Borden County vs. Westbrook winner.
On paper, Abbott and Gordon, which plays in District 12, seem fairly equal. There are no common opponents between the teams this season. Of note is that Abbott mid-season defeated Borden County, 78-28, in a non-district tilt.
Gordon has scored 705 points this season (58.8 ppg) while Abbott has put up 680 points (56.7 ppg). Gordon has been better defensively, allowing just 92 points on the season (7.6 ppg), while the Panthers have allowed 170 points (14.1 ppg).
But, as the saying goes, they don’t play the games on paper.