College Park Cavaliers Fall Short to Conroe, Denied Playoff Birth

For the second consecutive season, the College Park Cavaliers feel the sting of narrowly missing the football playoffs.

College Park dropped a 46-28 decision to Conroe on Friday night at Buddy Moorhead Stadium in a game that effectively opened the playoffs for both teams. That’s because the winner earned the fourth and final playoff berth from District 14-5A while the loser stays home.

Despite an incredible night from junior running back Paco Solano, it’s College Park that stays home again. The Cavaliers finish the 2009 season at 4-6 overall and 1-4 in district play while Conroe (5-5, 3-2) plays on.

“It hurts,” said Cavaliers head coach Richard Carson of the loss that leaves College Park on the outside looking in. “They played very hard.”

The College Park offensive line did its job, opening holes for Solano, who rushed for 240 yards and three touchdowns.

But three lost fumbles and a blocked punt forced the Cavaliers to play from behind the entire night. In fact, College Park trailed after the first play from scrimmage. Conroe’s Darrell Thomas raced 85 yards up the gut on the first offensive play of the game to give the Tigers a lead they never relinquished.

Thomas finished with 138 yards and four touchdowns to compliment Conroe quarterback Jordan Marah, who threw for another 224 yards and three touchdowns.

“We missed a tackle the first play, they got a quick score and then we gave up the blocked punt,” Carson said. That led to another Tigers touchdown and a 14-0 deficit midway through the first quarter.

“We have a stop and we get a roughing (the kicker penalty),” Carson added. “It was just a combination of things. (Conroe) is a good football team and you can’t spot them points.”

The Cavaliers found back gamely and a 12-yard touchdown run from Solano cut the deficit in half, 14-7 at the end of the first quarter. It was 21-14 after Solano struck again on an 18-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter.

But Conroe scored twice in a 17-second span late in the second quarter to bolt ahead 33-14 at halftime. It was too big a deficit for the hobbled Cavaliers to recover from.

“We’re beat up,” Carson said. “We lost three starters in the first half of the ballgame when we already had 11 kids not suited up. And that’s not an excuse. Our kids played hard. We got close and (Conroe) did a good job. Hats off to them.”