Our Dave Campbell’s staff’s playoff predictions in Class 2A DI have more red on them than the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones. So what the hell happened?

These were the four games from the area round that busted our brackets.

Cisco defeats Panhandle 21-20 (Panhandle favored by 23)

Cisco head coach Kevin Stennett nailed Dave Campbell’s computer projection that his Cisco Loboes would lose by 23 points on the wall of his team’s locker room last week. Cisco, now 11-1, has played the underdog the entire year, beginning the season as the third-ranked team in its own district. 

“To be 23-point underdogs, they came out with a chip on their shoulder and wanted to prove themselves not just to the region, but the state,” Stennett said. 

The Loboes did just that, beating Panhandle 21-20 and knocking mine, editor-in-chief Greg Tepper and TXHSFB insider Matt Stepp’s Region I Champion pick out in the area round. Cisco defensive coordinator Mark Adams crafted a terrific game plan that held a Panhandle offense averaging 59 points per game to just 20. The biggest stop came when Panhandle got the ball at midfield, down by one point, with 90 seconds left.

“They played the hardest our defense has played all year,” Stennett said. “They flew around and got to the football. That was the goal: to get numbers to the ball, because their offense was explosive. Our kids answered the call.”

The difference in the ballgame came when Cisco executed a two-for-one scenario, scoring at the end of the first half and then scoring again after receiving the second-half kickoff. Stennett said sophomore stars in QB Colby McIlroy and WR Corbin Harrison had huge nights. 

Cisco sent such a clear message to the state that Stennett didn’t even have to give his team one at the end of the night.

“There was no message, we cranked the music and we celebrated,” Stennett said.

Elysian Fields defeats Garrison 55-54 (Garrison favored by 14)

Before his Yellowjackets took on Garrison in the area round, head coach Bo Maines gave his guys a history lesson on the Vikings.

“The Vikings didn’t fear death, that’s why they were such good fighters,” Maines said. “I said, ‘You guys did exactly what we said we were going to do: come out here and play like a bunch of maniacs with absolutely no fear.’”

Maines, in his first year as Elysian Fields’s head coach, had to wait a little longer than normal for the signature win of his tenure. The Yellowjackets’ 55-54 win came after two lightning delays and a tornado warning forced the bleachers to clear for two extended delays. How did Elysian Fields stay fresh? By having a dance battle during the hour-long second delay. 

“They were having a good time and staying loose, so it wasn’t anything that I thought was going to be detrimental,” Maines said. “That’s the part that can kill you, sitting around and losing interest in the game. They went into the locker room and had fun, and we were ready to go.” 

Brandon “NuNu” Kennedy ensured that the dance battle wasn’t the only celebration. The senior do-it-all athlete had 455 total yards and seven touchdowns from the QB spot. Kennedy left his heart on the field and could barely talk after the game from exhaustion. 

Elysian Fields, now 11-1, will have another tough test in the third round against Joaquin. Maines hopes the team’s scrimmage against Joaquin at the start of the year prepared them to defend the Slot-T offense. 

And the dance battle prepared them to deal with any weather delays going forward.

Joaquin defeats Honey Grove 41-8 (Honey Grove favored by 8)

Joaquin is doing the damn thing again. A year after making the state semifinals as a four-seed, the Rams once again shocked heavily favored Honey Grove. And while the 41-8 victory may have shocked the state, it didn’t shock Jared Jones’s ball club.

“Last year wasn’t going to be a Cinderella season,” Jones said. “We weren’t going to be a one-hit wonder. We were going to keep putting seasons like this together one day after the next.” 

Joaquin entered the playoffs as a three-seed after a 6-4 regular season. The Rams lost two starting offensive linemen before district play, which threw off the Slot-T offense’s timing. But Jones preached to his team that they would be the Kings of November. 

The Rams grabbed their crown against Honey Grove, limiting superstar athlete Ryelan Morris to 43 rushing yards and 34 receiving yards. Honey Grove attempted to split Morris out wide, hunting one-on-one matchups. But Joaquin’s defensive line, led by 6-foot-6 Conner Rios, wreaked havoc in Honey Grove’s backfield before it could get Morris the ball. 

Matt Stepp has often said that the Slot-T is the devil, and Joaquin’s scheme makes them dangerous in the playoffs against teams that don’t have experience defending it. Cooper Bragg finished with 14 carries for 264 yards and three touchdowns, but he was far from the only standout. Amarion Wilson added 106 yards and a score, while Jacob Gatlin racked up 74 yards and a score on just five touches. The running backs had plenty of room to work behind the offensive line led by Rios, Brody Cummings and Karson Rodgers. 

Want a snapshot of what makes Joaquin so different? Starting QB Trenton Runnels is also the Mike LB. Runnels, at 200 pounds, imposes his will as a lead blocker and one of Joaquin’s leading tacklers. 

De Leon defeats Frankston 74-46 (Frankston favored by 7)

De Leon was the Region II Champion pick in the 2025 Dave Campbell’s magazine, but a 7-3 regular season threw our pundits off the scent.

The Bearcats lost to Stamford 33-20 in Week 2 after Stamford scored on the final play, then were blown out by the reigning Class 2A DII State Champion Muenster. De Leon went on a roll to end the season, but fell 27-26 in the finale to Hamilton after 515 yards of total offense were spoiled by converting just one of five trips to the red zone.

But first-year head coach Brennan Whitaker said a bi-district victory over Wolfe City was the first signature win of his tenure. Other than QB Heston Jobe, the only senior who played varsity as a freshman, no De Leon player had experienced a one-score win. Their closest win of the year was by 18 points over Hawley. But holding Wolfe City and star RB HD Davis out of the end zone on a two-point conversion to take a 30-28 win gave this group confidence for the rest of the playoffs. 

In a 74-46 win over previously unbeaten Frankston, Jobe cemented his status as one of the top players in Class 2A. Jobe completed 20-of-24 passes for 379 yards and eight touchdowns, and now has 36 touchdown passes to just four interceptions on the season. He has three wide receivers hovering around 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns each to dish it to, and a stable of running backs combined for over 200 yards on 40 carries against Frankston. 

But De Leon’s defense has changed the trajectory of the season. Sophomore linebacker A.J. Stewart was called up from the JV squad for the last four games of the regular season and quickly became the team’s leading tackler of the entire year with 77 stops before Friday night’s game. He has earned De Leon’s defensive player of the week honors four times since his elevation.