LONGVIEW, Texas — In District 4A-D1, there's a three-way tie of one loss schools between Kilgore, Pine Tree and Henderson.
No team has substantially separated themselves from the rest of the field, which could mean one team will not make it to the playoffs. The top four teams will continue to the playoff round starting Nov. 15.
Chapel Hill is sitting in fourth with a 3-2 district record and Lindale is fifth with 2-2. Chapel Hill plays Henderson Friday night, and if the Lions lose, then Kilgore or Pine Tree has a better chance of winning the district title.
Teams that have nothing to lose are the ones to fear the most.
Lindale shut out their last opponent 36-0 so they're confident going into this week's game.
"Nowadays, shutouts are very hard to come by, and so that was important to the whole group," said Lindale Head Coach Chis Cochran.
Pine Tree was moved from 5A-D2 down to 4A-D1 after UIL realignment, meaning that the matchups would get tougher, but it seems like the teams facing the Pirates have had a tougher time then they have.
"We knew coming in that it was gonna be really tough, last spring when we got realigned. Pine Tree's coming in very good program already," Cochran said. "These last couple weeks are going to be very interesting. We can finish second or we could finish on outside looking in. But I do feel like there's five teams in this district, that are some of the best teams in the region."
There is no clear leading team in 4A-D1 because of the level of competitiveness. That being said, there's big playoff implications on the line and there's no room for error.
"It's been stressful," Pine Tree Head Coach Jason Bachman said jokingly. "It's good. It really is, it really is something that every night, every week, you go out there on Friday night and it's really good competition. So it definitely doesn't disappoint us - the District of Doom."
Pine Tree will host Lindale Friday at 7:30 p.m.
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