COLLEGE STATION — The Pflugerville High football team had a strong showing at the state 7-on-7 tournament last weekend. The Panthers went 4-2 overall and reached the quarterfinal round of the championship bracket before being eliminated by San Antonio MacArthur 39-19.

“This is the first time we’ve been to state in a good four to five years,” Panther quarterback Alex Dean said. “We wanted to get in and show off our passing game. For us to make it was really big.”

The Panthers kicked things off with two wins on Friday, beating Lewisville 33-26 and El Paso Chapin 34-29 to open pool play. Pflugerville lost to Pearland Dawson 33-25 at the end of the day but their two wins were good enough to get them into the championship bracket. The Panthers started Saturday’s bracket by beating Rockwall 35-28 in overtime and then knocking off Friendswood 38-34 to reach the quarterfinals. Dean believes that the team showed everyone in attendance as well as any teams they might meet in the future that Pflugerville is more than just a running team.

“It affects us a lot,” Dean said. “Teams will have to respect our passing game instead of putting nine or 10 guys in the box. We showed we can go spread and we can throw the ball around.”

The Panthers quickly fell behind against MacArthur and were never able to catch up. Brahma quarterback Clinton Killough connected on a scoring strike to Collin Bode to put MacArthur up 7-0. On Pflugerville’s opening possession, Dean was intercepted by Jonathan Kim who returned the ball for a second straight Brahma score putting them up 14-0.

Killough threw one more touchdown pass before Pflugerville found the scoreboard. Dean engineered a seven-play drive to start the second half that culminated in a touchdown pass to Julian Ward, trimming MacArthur’s lead to 20-7. The Panthers were down 33-7 before they scored again, but their two late touchdowns were too little to salvage the game or the day.

“I put a lot of responsibility on myself,” Dean added. “I couldn’t figure out some of their coverages and I don’t think we were 100 percent prepared.”

Pflugerville reached the final game thanks to a win over Friendswood and a fine defensive play by Davonte Boussard. The Panthers led the Mustangs 38-34 with less than a minute to play when Friendswood quarterback Peter Maetzold threw a strike to Keith Canada to set the Mustangs up on Pflugerville’s goal line. On the ensuing play Maetzold fired the ball to Panther safety Alex Dean who just missed making a game-ending interception. The dropped pick gave Friendswood one last shot and again Maetzold went to the end zone and this time his pass was caught, by Boussard to wrap up the win.

“It just happened,” Boussard said after the game. “It felt good to win the game for the team.”

Sammy Flowers had an incredible game for the Panthers against Friendswood, catching all five of Dean’s touchdown throws.

Pflugerville started play in the championship bracket by beating Rockwall. Dean opened the game with a touchdown pass to Jordan Moon. The extra point was good on a pass to Storm Woods putting the Panthers up 7-0. Dean completed touchdown passes to Ward and Flowers but Pflugerville still trailed 28-20 late in the second half. On their final possession of the second, Dean found Moon on a long pass that moved the ball to the Yellow Jacket goal line. Two plays later he found Kyle Hoffman in the end zone for the score. He converted the extra point on a pass to Woods, forcing the game into overtime.

On the first play of their first overtime possession, Dean threw a strike to Flowers for a length-of-the-field touchdown. His pass to Moon was good for the extra point and the Panthers led 35-28. Pflugerville’s defense held tough on Rockwall’s possession, stopping them on three plays to seal the win.

Dawson 33, Pflugerville 25

The Panthers trailed 20-6 at intermission, but Dean hit Flowers for a score on their first possession of the second half to trim the deficit to 20-13. After a Dawson score Dean found Woods for a touchdown then burned the Eagle defense for a 45-yard touchdown to Flowers to cut their lead to 27-25. Pflugerville could not quite complete the comeback as Dawson drove the length of the field and scored a touchdown on the final play of the game.

Pflugerville 34, Chapin 29

Dean threw two touchdowns to Moon and another to Woods to put the Panthers up 21-13 at halftime. Chapin battled back to tie the contest at 21-21 before Dean found Carlos SantaCruz for a score that put Pflugerville up for good. Dean and Woods hooked up one more time to conclude the Panthers’ scoring.

Pflugerville 33, Lewisville 26

The Panthers trailed 19-13 at halftime but Dean hit Moon for a score on their opening drive of the second half to put them up 20-19. Lewisville came back to take a 26-20 advantage but again Pflugerville was ready with an answer and on fourth down Dean threw a jump ball that Flowers grabbed in the middle of three Farmer defenders for the score. Dean and Woods hooked up for the extra point and the Panthers led 27-26. After the Pflugerville defense stopped the Lewisville offense, Dean added one more touchdown throw, hitting Moon for the game’s final score.