The Pirates escaped with a 30-25 win Friday over Plano East at Kimbrough Stadium.

PESH, which was coming off a bye week, faced a banged up Wylie team, and was able to match the Pirates almost score for score.

Pirates head coach Bill Howard said, “It was a good win. Plano East had their backs against the wall and they were going to do everything they could.”

Howard said his team came out a little flat and were surprised by the Panthers.

“We weren’t as sharp in certain areas as we wanted to be.

We have some kids doing a great job blocking and doing the little things right. That’s what it takes to be a good team,” he said. “In all three phases of the game, we were not on our A game. Our kids have been fighting some tough teams every week, and we need a week off to heal.

We had some kids who played hurt that gutted it up. From that standpoint, I’m extremely happy with our kids.”

In other District 8-5A action, Plano West beat Dallas Jesuit 49-21. Allen shocked Plano 56-23 at Clark Stadium.

McKinney Boyd had a bye.

The Pirates face a tough road with Plano West and Allen coming up.

After a much-needed bye week, they face the Wolves at home on Oct. 31. They wrap up the regular season at Allen on Nov. 7.

Allen leads the district at 3-0. They had an early bye week and have three games remaining. Plano and Wylie are 3-1.

The Wildcats have McKinney Boyd, then a bye week, and then finish with Jesuit.

Wylie needs one more win to seal the deal for a playoff berth.

Plano West is 2-2 with losses to Plano and Allen. They face Plano East on Friday.

Jesuit (1-2) has a glimmer of postseason hope. Plano East (0-3) and McKinney Boyd (0-4) would need a miracle to advance.

According to UIL enrollment numbers, Plano (5215) and Allen (4837) would go into the large school Div. I bracket.

Wylie (2745) and Plano West (4229) would be Div. 2 teams. A Pirate win over the Wolves would provide an edge in Div. 2 playoff seeding.

On Friday, Wylie held a tenuous 21-17 lead following a Plano East field goal early in the fourth quarter.

The Pirates picked up some short-lived breathing space on Noah Cheshier’s 2-yard touchdown run around the right end with about eight minutes remaining in the contest.

Plano East then took advantage of a short field following a shallow Wylie kickoff. Starting at their 42-yard line, they ate up yardage in big chunks with gains of 24, 18 and 15 yards on consecutive plays. The Panthers D’Lyle Washington punched it in from a yard out and quarterback Brandon Wesley converted the two-pointer with a strike to Rodney Thompson to make it 28-25 with just under seven minutes to go.

The game tightened even more after Wylie was forced to punt on fourth and 17 from the Panthers 40-yard line.

Jerod Monk’s 38-yard punt was downed by Chad Cole at the Panthers 2-yard line.

With five minutes to go and 98 yards in front of him, Wesley stepped under center. The snap shot between his feet and went out of the back of the end zone for the safety.

After getting PESH’s free kick, Wylie’s ground game chewed up the remaining time on the clock.

Running back Nick Knott repeatedly exploded through holes created by Wylie’s offensive line of Heath Smith, Elias Umana, Paul Finnie, Caleb Moore and Michael Boyefio. Knott had 12 carries for 168 yards and three touchdowns.

Plano East drew first blood on a 31-yard pass from Wesley to Denzelle White.

Wylie responded with an eight-play, 81-yard drive, which concluded with Knott cruising in 5 yards out.

Zac Ohannessian tacked on the extra point for the 7-7 tie with 5:28 remaining in the first quarter.

Knott scored again with 6:48 to go in the half, scoring from the Panthers’ 26-yard line while dragging several defenders the final five yards.

Monk engineered an impressive drive late in the first half, but the Pirates walked away empty handed. They opened the second half with a lost fumble.

Howard said, “Both of those kept Plano East in the game and kept their hopes alive.”

The Pirates threw one interception and fumbled a surprising three times, but recovered two of those. Plano East, which has had trouble holding onto the ball in previous contests, managed to exit without a single turnover.

The Panthers tied the game at 14-14 on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Wesley to Gabe Carter with 4:36 to go in the third quarter.

Wylie answered immediately to take a 21-14 lead, when Knott erupted for a 47-yard touchdown.

Linebacker Izzy Eziakor had a team-high nine tackles. He also broke up two passes. Nose guard Nikita Whitlock tallied seven tackles, five of those for loss, and hurried the quarterback once. Cornerback Daniel Jordan had eight tackles and one pass breakup.

Altogether, the Pirates defense held Plano East to 333 yards while restricting their running game to 97 yards.

JV Black

The JV Black outlasted Plano East 26-14. The victory pushed Wylie’s district record at 3-1 (4-4 overall).

Running back Bryan Williams tallied touchdown runs of 20, 10 and five yards. Receiver Jermaine Merdock added a 28-yard touchdown reception plus a 2-point conversion, both via quarterback Joe Rivas. Receiver Ben Smith made some big plays as did running back Dickson Dickson. Luke Burns and Jamal Jones were solid on the offensive line.

Defensive back Chester Harris claimed an interception. Standouts among the linebackers were Matt Sandoval and Armando Cervera. Other defensive standouts were linemen Garrett Leonard and Josh Phelps and defensive backs Beau Cobb and Dillon Chandler.

The Pirates also got solid special teams performances by Austin Day, Mike Robb and Jag Deol.

JV Gray

The JV Gray hit a roadblock against Plano Clark and fell 27-14. They drop to 2-2 in district (3-5 overall). The game was off to a promising start when Trent Malone recovered a fumble for touchdown early, but the Cougars rattled off 27 unanswered points before Wylie scored again.

Offensive standouts were receivers Logan Holster, Jordan Hawkins, and Trevor Fredericks as well as running back Vincent Bryant. Defensively, Malone was joined by Eric Dukes, Mahlon Griffin and Anthony White as standouts.

Freshman Blue

The Raiders Blue squad is chasing a district championship with nary a loss in district play. They topped Plano Clark 27-14. Turnovers proved costly for the Jaguars, who could do nothing against the stellar Wylie defense.

The Raiders offense moved the ball well. Bryan Thomas, Brandon Young and Michael Lyke combined for over 200 yards rushing. Thomas and Young had two touchdown runs each. Young was also a factor along the offense line, which created openings for Wylie runners. Receivers Tanner Allen, Robbie Petty and Cade Calhoun each had several catches. Drew Feurbacher was three for three on point after attempts.

The Raiders defense continually frustrated Clark. Steven Armstrong and Aaron Meekins each recovered fumbles. Feurbacher and Sean Watts each had a pick. Hayden Tallant and Kyle Fuller each tallied a sack and Thomas applied tremendous pressure on the quarterback.

Freshman White

The Raiders came up short 21-20 to Clark. It was Wylie turnovers that gave the game away.

Wylie’s first points came from a 60-yard punt return for touchdown by Tyler Brandon. Brenden Kuykendall scored on a two-point conversion to give Wylie an 8-6 lead early.

Wylie was down 14-8 at the half, and Clark then padded its lead 21-8 early in the second half. The Raiders scored on a short run by Herschel Fortier to narrow the margin and scored again on a run by Ricky Castaneda late in the fourth quarter.

Still down by one point, the Raiders defense made a tremendous stop to get the offense back on the field.

However, time expired before they could score again.

The first defensive group put forth an outstanding effort, and the offensive line dominating the line of scrimmage.

Fortier ran the ball well, and Hunter Villarreal did a great job running the offense and completed several key passing plays.