TYLER — You can forget about that magical mathematical mystery tour the TVCC Cardinals were going to have to take to make it to the Southwest Junior College Football Conference playoffs.
It doesn’t matter anymore.
The No. 17-ranked Tyler Apaches took care of that, holding off a hard charge by the Cardinals in a 36-33 win at Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium Saturday.
TVCC (3-5, 1-5 in SWJCFC) is now left with no more conference games and just one more non-conference contest on the schedule: next week’s season finale against Arkansas Baptist. The homecoming matchup is set to start at 3 p.m. at Bruce Field.
Tyler (6-2, 3-2) clinached its first playoff spot since 2004. Blinn, ranked No. 1, and No. 2 Navarro, are also in and play each other this Saturday in Corsicana.
The Cardinals, who trailed by as much as 16-0 in the first half, had a chance to tie the game on an attempted 55-yard field goal by Jaimie Salazar at the end of the game. Salazar’s attempt, however, came up short as time expired.
“We had a lot of good things happen,” TVCC Head Coach Brad Smiley said. “We had the opportunity to make some plays and we didn’t capitalize.”
Chad Winbush, who entered the game as the conference’s second-leading rusher, carried the ball 24 times for 233 yards. But Winbush was unable to find the end zone, and TVCC was playing without his backfield mate, Josh Johnson, who is expected to miss the rest of the season with a broken jaw suffered last week in the loss to Kilgore.
After spotting the Apaches a 30-19 lead at the half, the Cardinal defense stiffened and allowed only six more point the rest of the way.
Garrett Beal’s second touchdown pass of the night, to Darnell Williams, cut the lead to 36-26 with 12:27 left in the game. The lead went to just three on Bo Walker’s second touchdown run, from 1-yard away, two minutes later.
The final TVCC drive was hampered by three penalties, including consecutive false start infractions.
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NO. 17 TYLER 36, TVCC 33: Game over
Loss to Apaches officially ends Cardinals’ hope of sneaking into conference playoffs
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