Times-Journal News Editor

In what proved to be a futile fight for their playoff lives, the Southside Panthers closed out their season by taking out their frustrations on an overmatched Keith team.

Touchdown Tony Myles Jr. racked up 335 yards and five TD’s on the ground as the Panthers destroyed Keith, 64-6 Friday night at home.

The game ended with some bad blood as the Bears left the field without shaking hands after Southside took a pair of second-half timeouts to try and get some more points on the board.

Panthers coach Chris Raymond explained afterwards that the three-way time between Bibb County, Southside and Dallas County for the final two region playoff spots compelled him to run up the score.

“It wasn’t really about running up the score. With the race we got going for the playoffs, there’s a whole lot of confusion.

We don’t know whether it’s going to be based on points or overall win-loss record. There was a whole lot of stuff going on,” Raymond said.

As it turns out, the Panthers’ playoff hopes died with last week’s goal line interception against Jemison.

The pick preserved a wild win for Jemison, giving them second place in the area and sending the Panthers of Southside into a three-way tie with Bibb County.

Other than beating Keith Friday night, the Panthers no longer controlled their destiny.

The teams went down to the tiebreaker named “L” by the AHSAA.

It reads, “The team whose defeated opponents have the most victories if all teams involved in the tie plan an equal number of games.”

Essentially, Southside needed Selma High to beat Wilcox Central and Maplesville to lose.

Neither happened.

Dallas County’s opponents finished with two more wins on the season than Southside’s and with five more wins than Bibb County, which was crushed by Chilton County Friday night. That tiebreaker gave Dallas County the third seed, meaning that Southside and Bibb, with identical 4-3 region records were then tied for the fourth seed.

At that point, despite Bibb County’s overall record of 5-5, the teams revert back to the first tiebreaker, head-to-head action.

Bibb beat Southside and thus earned the playoff spot.

For Dallas County, the third seed and playoff berth is a huge plus in a year many considered to be a rebuilding one in the Hornets.

“Our kids have fought hard all year long,” Dallas County coach Rick Bush said. “They knew what they had to do down the stretch. That’s a credit to our kids.”

Though the Hornets are young this season, Bush said the senior class wanted no excuses.

“The senior class wanted to maintain the program at that level,” Bush said.

While Southside and Bibb waited nervously Friday night, Thursday’s win left the Hornets sure of their position.

“We knew we were going to be in regardless going into last night,” Bush said on Saturday. Maplesville’s upset win cemented their position.

After going into the playoffs with three straight losses last year, the Hornets have a two game winning streak going into the playoffs this year.

Bibb will play at Trinity next Friday while Dallas County will travel to Geneva.

In other area playoff news, Selma High will play at Daphne in the 6A playoffs and 1A Maplesville will travel to Millry.

In the AISA, the playoff bracket had not been placed on the Web site as of press time, but CCA, Morgan Academy and Meadowview are all in the playoffs.

Morgan will host a first-round Class 3A playoff game. Meanwhile, Central Christian Academy will be at Autaugaville Academy, while MCS will be at Clarke Prep

For Southside, the season ends surprisingly, despite a 7-3 record they have to watch as two teams they beat this season, Dallas County and Selma, go on to the playoffs.

“There’s a whole lot of mess,” Raymond said Friday night before finding out whether or not his team was in the playoffs. “I feel like we should be in. I think we’re the second-best team in the area behind Demopolis. Jemison and Bibb County, we should have won both of those games. But I guess it just didn’t fall our way. We put ourselves in the situation we are in. I guess we’ll just have to live with the decision.”