In a down-to-the-wire thriller, the London Pirates edged the Orange Grove Bulldogs 38–35 Thursday night. They spoiled the Bulldogs’ shot at a share of the UIL 3A-DI District 15 championship, while boosting their own playoff positioning.
Orange Grove came up empty on its opening drive, and the Pirates quickly capitalized. Quarterback Alex Manning connected across the middle with Maddox Jennings, who took it all the way for a touchdown to give London a 7–0 lead.
The Bulldogs responded with a powerful drive of their own. Ander Schmidt broke through a wide-open hole for his first touchdown of the night, tying things up at 7–7 at the end of the first quarter.
London struck again through the air to open the second. Manning found Jennings for another highlight grab in the end zone, putting the Pirates back on top 14–7. Schmidt continued his strong performance, scoring his second touchdown to tie the game at 14, but London would take a 21–14 lead into halftime.
The back-and-forth battle continued through the second half, with both teams trading scores. As the clock expired, London kicker Jay Lambert drilled a game-winning field goal to lift the Pirates to victory — and deny Orange Grove a piece of the district crown.
After the win, London quarterback Alex Manning — the night’s Player of the Game with four passing touchdowns — credited his team’s balance on both sides of the ball.
“The main thing going into tonight was to get as many scores as we can on offense, take advantage of the drives, and our defense helped us out a lot,” Manning said.
London finishes the regular season 6–4, while Orange Grove ends 8–2. The loss keeps the Bulldogs from sharing the district title but sets both teams up for postseason play.
Assuming Edna and Goliad win on Friday, the final playoff seeding order would be 1-seed Edna, 2-seed Goliad, 3-seed London and 4-seed Orange Grove.
