THORNDALE, Texas -- Coach Mike Reed was thinking about failure in the moments after his Gordon Longhorns beat Thorndale 54-21 to extend their state-best winning streak to 34 games.

For his players, failure in football is a foreign concept. The back-to-back six-man state champions only played into the second half of two games last season, winning all by a 45-point mercy rule. The Longhorns won the 2024 Class 1A DII State Championship after running 17 offensive plays.

But by scheduling an 11-man game, the program’s first since 1946, against perennial playoff contender Thorndale, Reed had put his team’s reputation and streak on the line. Most of his players had not played an 11-man football game since elementary school. Their center was wearing No.11 and the right guard wore No. 25 because they didn’t have enough lineman jerseys.

“In a society that does everything aside from putting itself in a position to fail, we knew we were going to fail today at a lot of different things,” Reed said.

So why did Reed purposefully put his team in a position to fail?

Partly because he has two players pledged to Division I football programs who he wanted to get 11-man experience. His son, Stryker, is an Air Force commit, while teammate Ry Reed (no relation) is off to Army. A third player, Brayden Walters, has generated significant Division I interest.

Another factor was getting more kids playing time. It’s difficult to get everyone reps when every game ends before halftime.

But perhaps the most important reason: he needed to see how his kids would respond when the outcome was in doubt.

“That’s one of the big reasons we play this game, to fight through adversity and make ourselves better by having to struggle,” Walters said.

But Reed was not the only coach who risked it all on Friday night. Thorndale head coach John Kovar played a game in which many coaches saw a lot to lose and little to gain. Gordon is not a normal six-man program. The Longhorns have more DI athletes on one team than Thorndale will likely see all season.

Gordon was at a disadvantage on Friday night having never played an 11-man game and only suiting out 23 players. But Thorndale had its own disadvantages. Kovar’s staff could only study one 11-man scrimmage Gordon had played against Itasca. Both coaches had discussed pregame what formations they’d run because the circumstances were so unusual.

Admittedly, playing Gordon wasn’t Kovar’s first option. Non-district games are scheduled for a two-year block, but Thorndale had a team drop them late into the offseason. When Reed first reached out, Kovar discussed details while searching for an 11-man team. When he had no takers, and his two options were playing nine games or playing Gordon, there was one clear answer. He didn’t want to cheat his team out of a Friday night, and he knew they’d be a better team in the long run even if they lost.

“We’re a pretty good little 2A program,” Kovar said. “So, finally, I just said, ‘If we lose to this team, there’s a lot of 2A teams that are going to lose to this team.’”

Gordon scored in four plays on its first offensive drive, then forced a turnover on downs. But the game was a back-and-forth affair until midway through the second quarter with Gordon clinging to a 20-14 lead.

For a team that doesn’t face much adversity, Gordon showed a lot of resolve in the face of it. In the second quarter, Thorndale forced a fumble deep in Gordon’s own territory and was driving to score. Then, a crushing hit by Stryker Reed jarred the ball loose, and Aiden Shank returned it 90 yards to the house. After Thorndale scored on the next drive to cut the deficit to six, Ry Reed scored an over 50-yard touchdown pass on the next play.

Gordon’s players fought cramps all game from playing both ways with zero breaks. But Ry Reed said he found more gas in the tank when he thought he was running on empty by thinking about how his community fought through an offseason tornado that ravaged the town.

“I was kind of dying the first half,” Ry Reed said. “But I know they’re going to fight for me, so I’m going to fight for them. The whole community is a family. When we went through the tornado, that’s what I noticed – we’ve got a family in Gordon.”

Coach Mike Reed said his team’s bond was evident when he saw players volunteering to be offensive linemen. In six-man football, every player is eligible to get the ball and score a touchdown. But multiple players decided to forgo an opportunity to tote the rock for the betterment of the team.

“How unselfish of kids who are normally skill players scoring touchdowns on Friday nights to say, ‘Hey, Coach, put me on the line, I’m going to block. Give me a lineman jersey,’” Mike Reed.

Friday night’s win proved to the state that Gordon is not content to coast. The ultimate goal is to three-peat and become the best six-man football team of all time. Playing this 11-man game gave them the best chance to achieve the ultimate goal.

“We’re not settling for the success we have,” Stryker Reed said. “We want a three-peat. There was a guy who came here and told me that Marathon is the greatest six-man football team of all-time, but he said if we three-peat we’ve officially beat them.”