Lakeview’s Varsity football team took on the Westbrook Bruins in Palestine, a long 2 hour drive from home, in the 2nd round of playoffs. The game ended with a score of 45-69, Bruins taking the win. The last time Lakeview went to the 2nd round of playoffs was in 1988, where they lost against Marshall 14-24, so advancing this far was history 28 years in the making.

“I knew we would make it to playoffs this year since January,” senior defensive back Jesse Paul said. “We knew how we would stack up in district and figured we were definitely going. The second round seemed so foreign to me that I had no idea how well we would do.”

The drive to Palestine High School was about an hour and fourty five minutes away from Lakeview, a trek that most fans weren’t used to. Some fans even had a bumpy encounter.
“[The drive] wasn’t too terrible minus us hitting and killing a raccoon,” senior Maegan Plunk said. “It was fun to jam out to songs with my best friends.”

The band rode all together on a GISD school bus which called for fun bonding time.

“It was a long ride but fun,” junior flute player Kimberly Pastor said. “We got told to keep it down a little bit. We couldn’t find anything to do for two hours but be loud.”

Going into the game, Westbrook had a 10-1 record and Lakeview had a 8-3 record which caused some nerves among the students, but most were confident in our boys.

“Honestly, I thought we had a good chance at beating them,” senior drummer Ethan Cassell said. “I really just wanted to make it as far in the playoffs as we could so I always had at least a little hope.”

The team was self-assured in their abilities to stand tall against a high record team especially after playing Rowlett and defending themselves well.

“Records really mean nothing when it comes time,” Paul said. “It’s all about strength of schedule, and I believed we were evenly matched. I compared, and we put up more points and allowed fewer points so I had a good idea it was going to be a dogfight.”

Patriots fans showed up to the game, either by fan bus or driving on their own. The crowd was almost jam packed.

“Even though their band was pretty loud, we had a lot more fun by cheering for our team as much as we could,” Pastor said. “Our student section was awesome for helping everyone cheer.”

The game had many high points, including the second half when Lakeview finally scored a touchdown. Many of the star players played key parts in the game.

“Calen Mayfield, no question, [was the MVP],” Paul said. “If I remember correctly, I think he had 5 touchdown catches and a few hefty kick returns. [He] really sparked our fire in the second half.”

The second half of the game really got the crowd on their feet to cheer on the team.

“My favorite part was when our team started to close the gap between the scores and caught up,” Cassell said. They were only behind by two points and it just got me really excited while I was playing.”

The Patriots took the close loss and journeyed home with support of the fans still bubbling on Twitter. Making it this far in playoffs felt like a school-changing accomplishment.

“This game meant solidifying my legacy at Lakeview,” Paul said. “I eliminated all distractions towards the end of the season knowing I wanted to make Lakeview history.”

The game started rough, but ended strong with Coach Kendall Miller giving a speech over his pride for his team. The season was hard-fought and record-breaking.

“The boys fought their hearts out,” Plunk said. “It was a great game and an even greater season for the team. I’ll miss supporting them next year.”