The Wylie East Raiders punched their ticket to state in 7-on-7 football.

Competing in the Colt Classic State Qualifying Tournament in Arlington last Friday, June 2, the Raiders were one of three teams to qualify for state. They capped off a perfect tournament by defeating North Forney 36-19, their fourth win of the day after beating Carrollton Smith, Arlington Sam Houston and Mesquite in pool play.

Head coach Marcus Gold was happy to see his team’s results in the tournament, knowing that the kids will feed off the success early in the offseason.

“I told the kids that we get one chance to play and go to state and they capitalized,” Gold said. “7-on-7 isn’t like real football at all, so we don’t practice it a whole lot, but the kids are really going to be excited by winning something. It will give us some energy and excitement in the offseason.”

It wasn’t all easy for the Raiders, who barely edged out Mesquite 19-18 in their first pool play game of the day, but the team quickly regrouped with better performances as the day went along. The team had 7-on-7 offseason work with Community, Princeton and Royse City last month to help prepare for the competitive games this season.

“It’s crazy because I don’t think we’ve lost a game in 7-on-7 this year,” Gold said. “We told them after the first game [in the tournament] that we weren’t performing to our standards, and they stepped up and did what they had to do.”

Wylie East will head to the state tournament in College Station June 23-24.

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