ARLINGTON, Texas — The Mart Panthers fell short against the Albany Lions in the rematch of last season's 2A state title game — the final score was 28-10.
Mart was able to muster a good drive and they would march down the field for a field goal to get the first points of the game. But the offense would struggle to find their groove and the Albany Lions took advantage.
"There's only one team that's happy when this thing is over. There's about 100 teams in our division and in each division that wish they could play here," said Panthers head coach, Kevin Hoffman.
"We've been fortunate enough to do it six out of the last seven years."
There were notable injuries going into the game for Mart, but Hoffman knows that his team left it all out on the field.
"We're not going to use those as excuses — Eeverybody's banged up this time of year," Hoffman said.
"Thought our kids played hard, thought our players played their guts out. But Albany got us again for a second year in a row."
For six of the last seven seasons, the Panthers have been in the title game and despite the loss, Mart is confident that they will be back at Jerry's world.
The Panthers finish the season with a 15-1 record and now we reset as they will look to win title number nine in 2024.
