Lamar Faces North Shore In Region Semifinal Tonight

HOUSTON, TX — The Lamar Texans will face perennial power Galena Park North Shore tonight at Rice Stadium in the Class 6A Division I Region III semifinal. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The winner of tonight's game will advance to the state quarterfinal to face the winner of Katy and Atascocita, who'll play Friday night at NRG Stadium at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal. Lamar is the only HISD team to advance beyond the first round.

Lamar is the designated visiting team, so it'll be easier for Texans fans to park on the visitors side and enter the stadium that way. The game can be heard for a price at TexanLive.com.

The Texans advanced to the third round last year as well, only to lose in a 28-27 heartbreaker to Atascocita, which went two rounds farther only to fall to eventual state champion Lake Travis.

Lamar (9-1) will need its best game of the year tonight against a very good North Shore team (8-3) whose only losses came to Westfield, Manvel and Atascocita. For Lamar, it will be leaning on its stingy defense that gives up only 10.7 points a game. The offense is posting 38.7 a game behind senior quarterback Ty Holden, who has thrown for 1,013 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Texans have a rather balanced rushing attack with Holden, Ta'zhawn Henry and Cameron Keener.

The state playoffs will conclude the weekend of Dec. 20-23 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys and annual home of the Texas high school football state championships.

Here's the slate of upcoming games involving Houston-area teams and other regional teams in their respective brackets.

Class 6A Division I Region III

• Katy (10-0) vs. Humble Atascocita (10-1) Friday 7 p.m. at Houston's NRG Stadium
• Houston Lamar (9-1) vs. Galena Park North Shore (8-3) Friday 7 p.m. at Houston's Rice Stadium

Class 6A Division II Region II

• Longview (11-1) vs. Klein Collins (11-0) Saturday 2 p.m. at Waco's McLane Stadium
• Lufkin (10-2) vs. Spring Westfield (11-0) Saturday 1 p.m. at Porter's Texan Drive Stadium

Class 6A Division II Region III

• Cy Fair (11-0) vs. Friendswood (9-3) Friday 7 p.m. at Houston's TDECU Stadium
• Langham Creek (10-1) vs. Humble Kingwood (6-5) Saturday noon at Houston's TDECU Stadium

Class 5A Division I Region III

• Cedar Park (11-1) vs. Manvel (11-0) Friday 7:30 p.m. at Waller's Waller ISD Stadium
• Temple (9-3) vs. Port Arthur Memorial (9-1) Friday 7 .p.m at Prairie View's Panther Stadium

Class 5A Division II Region III

• Hutto (11-1) vs. Fort Bend Marshall (9-2) Friday 7:30 p.m. at Cypress' Cy-Fair FCU Stadium
• College Station (10-2) vs. Port Neches-Groves (10-1) Saturday 1 p.m. at Humble's Turner Stadium

Photo and graphic by Scott McDonald/Patch Staff