Top5 Longview vs. Lufkin Games

In honor of Saturday’s classical showdown with our Lobos and Lufkin Panthers, this week’s top five are the best games from Longview left and rivalry over the past 20 years. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, the two teams will meet at Stephen F Austin at 2:00 PM in the regional quarterfinal with an opportunity to go to the state semi final to face the winner of Southlake Carroll and Waco Midway.

Honorable Mentions

2004 31-21 Lufkin

1998 24-21 Longview in overtime

5. 2002 Loss 24-21 Regional Quarterfinal

The stage was set up for some great football that day. After losing to Lufkin 2 previous times that season, Joel Armstrong and company had the opportunity to march towards state and make a statement with a win over Lufkin. Sophomore running back Javorskie Lane set the Panthers up early with consecutive touchdowns in the second quarter, putting Lufkin up 14-0 at halftime. The second half the Lobos came storming back with an 11 yard score from Joel Armstrong to Tate Casey and Rogers Taylor burned the trail with a 51 hard reception, tying the game at 14 to end the third. Longview took the lead in the 4th quarter when Joel Armstrong took a 8 yard scamper into the end zone making the score 21-14. Lufkin proceeded to break the hearts of the Lobos once again when Brian Rogers pranced in from 17. After a stop Lufkin scored on a game winning field goal from 27 yards with seconds remaining. 

4. 1997 Longview 28 Lufkin 17 Regular Season 

On their way to a state title game, Longview ran into some trouble when they made their trip to Abe Martin Stadium. Trailing the Panthers 17-6 at halftime, wide receiver Jamie Brown and Fred Talley made their presence felt as the defense shut the Panthers down.  After miscues from the kicking game and a Lufkin turnover, Jay Hurst hit wideout Jamie Brown on a 6 yard slant to bring the Lobos within 5. Hurst followed with a 2 point conversion run. The next drive the two hooked up again, this time from 35 yards out, giving Longview the lead 21-17. Defense shut Lufkin out in the second half and Fred Talley shoveled the dirt on the Panthers with a 56 yarder to end the game. 

3. 2007 Longview 31 Lufkin 24

In 2007 Longview and Lufkin faced off twice, the first a close thriller in which Longview lost, adding to a total 11 game losing streak to the Lufkin Panthers. When Lufkin came to town for homecoming though the result was different. Led by a furious flurry of points in the first half, Longview jumped out to a 28-0 lead. Jazmon Moon recovered a fumble in the end zone, Johnny Garrett had a 1 yard plunge, Fred Canida had an 8 yard lateral and Garret scored from 2 yards out. Of course Lufkin answered back. The Panthers scored 24 unanswered to make the game interesting again. Longview drove the field and Zach Decker booted a 24 yard field goal to make the score 31-24. The game ended a streak of 11 losses to Lufkin and turned the tide in a rivalry that was getting heavily one sided.

2. 2008 Longview 45 Lufkin 37 (3OTs)

Coming off a 52-22 blowout of Evangel, (that was forfeited later because ineligible player played one snap in the fourth) Longview came into the showdown confident against the Panthers. That confidence was shot immediately. The Panthers dominated the first 39 minutes of the game physically, but the remainder belonged to Longview. Trailing 20-9 in the 4th quarter, on 4th and 7 Aaron Johnson rolled out to his left and hit Carey Fortson in stride in the end zone from 37 yards out to make the score 20-13. The defense responded with a stop and AJ made two of his best runs in his career on back to back plays. On a 2nd and 15 he rolls out on a play action and had nothing opened. He keeps rolling and decides to tuck it. After a big block by some short stumpy center, Johnson rolled and picked up 20 yards getting the ball all the way to the 38 yard line. The next play Johnson operated the triple option to perfection and made a house call after pulling the ball from the fullback. Add a 2 point conversion and Longview led 23-20. After a big kickoff and a 15 yard penalty, the defense made a stop and Lufkin’s Sterling Meyers sent the game into overtime. Through 3 overtime’s, Longview prevailed thanks to a scoring jaunt by DaCedric Hunt and the first and last scored by Tyler McCray.  

1. 2014 Longview 43 Lufkin 42 Bi-District Playoff Game

Trailing 28-0 in the middle of the second quarter it all seemed downhill for Longview. The offense seemed inept and the defense couldn’t stop the run at all. Searching for offense John King called a tight end screen to Emmanuel Gordon that went 80 yards. The same drive Gordon scored a 8 yard touchdown. With a chance to make it a 2 score game Longview had the ball on their own 1 with seconds remaining. The Lobos called a qb sneak and Lufkin stuffed them. Down 28-7 at half, senior quarterback Dezmond Chumley told his team, “You can either play your hearts out or you can cry your hearts out.”

The Lobos came out of half and hit senior JaMycal Hasty for a 24 yard touchdown. Lufkin responded with a 37 yarder. The Lobos answered with 21 unanswered, a 10 yard scored from Chumley to Jordan Wyatt and two touchdowns from Tylan Miller to make the game 35 all. 

After a long drive, the Panthers took the lead once more on a 3 yard run to make it 42-35. With 3:34 remaining Chumley led his team down the field making runs and throws getting it to the 10. With both Hasty and Tylan Miller in the backfield, Chumley hit Miller for a 10 yard touchdown. In typical John King style, he rolled the 🎲 , opting to go for two rather than tying the game. Chumley hit Jordan Wyatt on a play action sub route that ended up being the final score for the game.