THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Levelland High School Athletics

SNYDER — Chris Gerber rolled around in pain in the second quarter after a seven-yard sack by Iowa Park’s Zane Petering until he decided we wasn’t going to let whatever pop in his knee slow him down. He got up, limped his way back to his center and fell back down. He tried again before accepting the fact his injury was far worse than a stinger. It was the end of a decorated high school career for the senior Levelland quarterback and for the Lobos themselves in what became a 41-28 loss Friday in the Class 4A Division II area round. Gerber walked off the field at Tiger Stadium in Snyder under the belief he had a torn ACL. But, even with some aspirations to play college ball like his big brother that became tougher to obtain, the loss hurt more. “I wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Gerber, who threw for 101 yards and ran in the Lobos’ first touchdown before needing crutches postgame. “This team has probably gone through more than any other team in this area. I just want people to know that. We fought through everything and went through the worst just to get where we were. Everything came earned.” Levelland (8-3) finished its season with a district championship and built for the future with modest expectations at the start of the season. But it just could not compete through the stretch with a Hawks team that dealt with its fair share of injuries through non-district play. Iowa Park (7-5) established its full-strength running game early and the Lobos lacked answers. Things got worse without their most productive offensive players — one of two quarterbacks in the area to pass and throw for at least 1,000 yards through the regular season. Brendin Fallon ran for 160 yards and three touchdowns while the tandem of quarterback Trent Green and fellow running back Cirby Coheley added another 151 ground yards and a score. The writing appeared on the wall even before Gerber went down facing a deficit of 21-14 inside the final two minutes of the first half. Iowa Park ran 40 plays through the first 24 minutes to the Lobos’ 25 and averaged 7.7 yards per play toward a 28-14 lead. Levelland had turned the ball over three times and remained in striking distance only because Isiah Salazar returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 14-14 with four minutes left in the first quarter. Fallon’s second touchdown of the night at the 11:31 mark of the second quarter gave Iowa Park a permanent led. That was the start of a 27-0 run through the halfway mark of the third period. Senior running back Tristan VanZandt scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns for the Lobos toward 157 yards on 16 carries to make the score less lopsided. “That’s why we play sports,” Levelland coach Curtis Lowery said. “That’s why we do these things. To learn life lessons and attack everything in life the way they’ve attacked this season.” Gerber can take those lessons to heart immediately. “I had the best time with this team,” he said. “Something I’ll take from it is just, we worked from nothing, absolutely nothing, to something. Once we lost that big senior class two years ago, we were just lost. We did OK last year, but we made it a goal to win the district championship goal, and we followed that goal. We worked for it every single day.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Levelland High School Athletics

GERBER INJURED IN LEVELLAND’S LOSS TO IOWA PARK

MIKE GRAHAM

Lubbock Online | 11/25/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Levelland Athletics