KHS, CELINA SOCCER PLAYOFF DOUBLEHEADER | Friday in Sulphur Springs; Henderson boys vs. Gainesville

In the first round of the University Interscholastic League’s Class 4A, Division I boys and girls playoffs, both Kilgore High School teams played Lufkin Hudson, at Jacksonville’s Tomato Bowl.

In the second round, both teams played Sulphur Springs, in Athens at Bruce Field.

The trend will continue on Friday.

Both Kilgore High soccer programs, girls and boys, will face Celina on Friday. Coach Daniel Garcia and the Lady Bulldogs (18-3-1) will meet Celina (24-1) on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Sulphur Springs (1000 Houston Street), and the boys game, also pitting Kilgore’s Bulldogs (20-3-1) against Celina (16-2-3) will follow, likely around 7:30.

Henderson beat Mineola in round two in Longview on Tuesday, and will face Gainesville on Friday at Forney.

These are third-round games, also known as the regional semifinals.

The winners will advance to the regional finals next week. For Kilgore’s boys, that would be playing either district rival Pine Tree (17-4-2) or Community (13-3-2). Those two programs meet tonight in the other semifinal, at Forney’s City Bank Stadium.

The winner of the Kilgore-Celina girls game will face either Mabank (15-10) or Lindale (15-5-1); that game is tonight in Athens.

Now, coach Jorge Cardenas’ Henderson Lions (13-6) are in the 4A, Division 2 playoffs, which means Henderson and Kilgore won’t face each other, no matter how long they play; they’re in the two different divisions of Class 4A, so they could BOTH play for a state championship, technically.

The Lions shut out Mineola on Tuesday night at Lobo Stadium, 4-0, and will face Gainesville (15-3-3) next. That’s Friday night at 7:30 at City Bank Stadium in Forney, right after Pine Tree meets Community. Tickets are $5 each for adults, $3 each for students.

The Henderson-Gainesville winner will advance to the 4A-D2 regional final to take on either Sunnyvale (15-5) or Center (14-4-1). Center, of course, is one of Henderson’s 16-4A district rivals.

These notes from the two boys games involving Kilgore and Henderson: Kilgore faced Celina in the 4A, Division 1 state football championship; Celina won that game. Henderson met Gainesville in Commerce in a neutral-site regular season football game, and Henderson won. So both of Friday night’s soccer playoff games aren’t really rematches, but are matchups of the same schools in different sports, in the postseason.