By Michael Adams
madams@onthesidelinessports.com

Class 5A-Division II state semifinal

Who: Liberty Hill (10-4) vs. Port Neches-Groves (13-1)

When: 7 p.m., Friday

Where: Cy-Fair FCU Stadium, Cypress

Port Neches-Groves road to the semifinals

Region III final: PNG 24, Huntsville 14

Regional semifinal: PNG 30, Montgomery Lake Creek 27

Area playoff: PNG 51, Rouse 14

Bi-district playoff: PNG 37, Brenham 7

Liberty Hill’s road to the semifinals

Region IV final: Liberty Hill 28, San Antonio Pieper 14

Regional semifinal: Liberty Hill 49, Corpus Christi Flour Bluff 28

Area playoff: Liberty Hill 62, Mission Sharyland Pioneer 35

Bi-district playoff: Liberty Hill 43, Harlandale 26

The rematch

Friday’s 5A-Division II semifinal will be a rematch of the 2022 semifinal in which Port Neches-Groves defeated the Panthers 42-14. The game was a smashmouth football lover’s dream as both teams combined for 544 rushing yards.

However, the Panthers are healthy-ish this time around. Noah Long and senior Joe Pitchford both missed last year’s game and gives the Panthers multiple options in their Slot-T offense. In last week’s victory over San Antonio Piper, Long rushed for 144 yards and three touchdowns.

Liberty Hill’s semifinal history

Friday will mark the fourth-straight year Liberty Hill will play in a Class 5A semifinal since moving up from 4A in 2020, and the fifth time in the last six seasons.

The Panthers are 1-2 in the previous three semifinal games, beating Crosby in 2021 to reach the state championship game. In fact, this is the second time in that period Liberty Hill gets a rematch with a team that beat them in the previous semifinal. Crosby defeated the Panthers 62-61 in overtime in Liberty Hill’s first year in Class 5A.

In 2018, the Panthers defeated state powerhouse Carthage in the 4A-Division I semifinals to reach the championship game.

A battle of running games

In last year’s game, Port Neches-Grove dominated the line of scrimmage and amassed 292 rushing yards, with 292 coming from then-junior Isaiah Nguyen. The Indians are a balanced offense; however, PNG relies heavily on the running game.

The Indians have two running backs that have reached the 1,000-yard milestone this season. Nguyen has rushed for 1,835 yards on 272 carries with 13 touchdowns, while Blair Chatagnier has 1,063 yards on 118 carries with 15 touchdowns.

Liberty Hill’s defensive line will still be undersized against the Indians’ offensive front. However, the Panthers’ slot-t offense will be at full strength and has six players with more than 400 rushing yards, with two of them with 1,000 or more yards.

Seniors Ben Carter and Noah Long have gained 2,381 and 1,478 yards, respectively, and have a combined 50 touchdowns.

Similar starts

Both teams lost their season openers. PNG lost to Port Arthur Memorial 24-7, while San Antonio Wagner defeated Liberty Hill 49-17. The Indians haven’t lost since, and Liberty Hill lost three more games in the regular season.

One of the teams to defeat Liberty Hill was Rouse, which lost to PNG in the area round of the playoffs.

On the bright side, the Panthers have already righted one of their loses with last week’s victory over San Antonio Pieper.

That’s a lot of points

Liberty Hill scores a lot of points for being a running offense. The Panthers average 44.1 points per game, which is 10 more per game than their opponent on Saturday. That doesn’t mean PNG doesn’t have the ability to score. The Indians have scored 40-or-more points in six of its 13 wins.

If Saturday’s game turns into a high-scoring game, it benefits Liberty Hill.  The Panthers have scored 80-or-more points in two games this season. Last week’s 28-14 win over Pieper was the only time Liberty Hill has been held to under 40 points in the playoffs.