By HOWARD RYAN / Special Contributor
If Skyline expected Lake Highlands to roll over and play dead during Friday night's opening-round playoff game, the Raiders had another thing coming.
Lake Highlands, which won half as many games as Skyline during the regular season, led the Raiders at halftime and kept them on their heels for four quarters in an eventual 21-10 loss at Forester Stadium.
Skyline (9-2) will face Rowlett at 2 p.m. Nov. 21 at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.
"Our guys came out a little lackadaisical because Lake Highlands is 4-6, but Lake Highlands has a good ballclub," said Skyline coach Derick Roberson. "During halftime, we just told them we need to play. We weren't executing and we were putting ourselves in a bind with bad penalties. We just had to play smart."
Ironically, it wasn't the kind of smart play Roberson had in mind that put Skyline back on top.
After two-and-a-half quarters of keeping it simple on offense, the Raiders lined up in a diamond formation when faced with second-and-two at the Lake Highlands 8-yard line late in the third quarter.
Then they snapped the ball to the wrong player.
"It wasn't supposed to come to me, but I made a play," said Skyline receiver LeDarryl Randolph, who made it look natural when he fielded the snap and sprinted to his right for an 8-yard touchdown run.
"It was supposed to go to LeDavion Washington," Randolph said. "I just looked for open grass and ran."
Lake Highlands (4-7) stubbornly hung on for another quarter before Skyline put the game out of reach with a Terreon Randolph pass to Malik Webb, set up by a fake handoff to workhorse running back Da'Leon Ward that fooled the defense.
When Lake Highlands fumbled with less than three minutes to play, Skyline ran out the clock with a drive that reached the Wildcats' two-yard line before time expired.
Possessions were at a premium in the run-heavy game, so when two of Skyline's first three drives fizzled due to penalties and a fourth-down stand by the Lake Highlands defense, the Wildcats were in position to make things interesting down just 7-3 with two minutes left in the second quarter.
They didn't waste any time.
Two plays after taking over on downs, the Wildcats dialed up some trickery with a 30-yard flea flicker from quarterback Brendyn Gettens to a leaping Blake Cronin, who caught the ball while being tackled into the end zone by a pair of Skyline defenders to give Lake Highlands a 10-7 lead that held into the half.
"We saw how they were really coming up into the box, committing eight, sometimes nine, so we knew we'd be able to get them to come in and thought the flea flicker would be there," said Lake Highlands coach Lonnie Jordan. "We had the right down and distance and the timing was right, so we took the shot and fortunately it worked out for us."
Lake Highlands struck first when its offensive line paved the way on an opening drive that reached the Skyline 13-yard line, where the Wildcats settled for a 27-yard Alan Selzer field goal.
Skyline answered on its following possession with an 11-play, 73-yard drive capped by a 1-yard Ward touchdown run.