Senior linebacker Brandon Templeton is certainly a believer as he played a key role in Saturday’s area football playoff win over Dallas Carter. It was a game where the defense held court.

“We’ve just practiced hard the last two weeks,” Templeton said, following the Lobos’ 17-7 victory at Hanby Stadium. “I can tell how we practice if we’re going to have a good game. I knew if we practice hard this coming week, we should play well again in our next game, too.

“We just kept our head in the game. Our defensive line is doing pretty good, where we can see everything.”

Linebacker James Stephens led the Lobos in tackles with nine, including one sack and three tackles for losses. Templeton and Keaton Daniels each and eight tackles, while free safety Tony Rivera had six, end Kendall Peoples five and interior lineman Frank Brocato added four tackles. Peoples’ tackles also included one sack and three tackles for losses, while Brocato’s defensive numbers included one sack and one tackle for a loss.

It was the best defensive performance this season by the Lobos as they held Carter to 82 total yards offense. And, it came on the heels of a 45-0 bi-district shutout of Garland the previous week. Neither run-oriented Garland or Carter were able to gain 100 yards on Longview’s defense.

“We just had really good practices and we were real intense,” said Daniels, who also came up with his fourth interception of the year. “It was a very physical game, and we were ready for them. We studied film on them and knew what they were going to do.

“With their coach being from John Tyler (Allen Wilson), we kind of knew what they were going to do offensively. It was sort of similar with all the different running backs.”

However, after a 427-yard offensive performance against Garland, the Longview offense struggled. Twice, being denied on fourth down calls with the ball ending just inches from the goal line. A Joel Armstrong 5-yard run late in the fourth quarter finally put the game away on a third-and-goal option bootleg call.

“We just had trouble doing it (scoring),” Armstrong said. “We just trusted our defense, that’s why this is a team sport.

“We really messed ourselves up. We had a couple of bad exchanges, bumped into each other a couple of times ... mental errors kept us out of the end zone.”

Armstrong put the Lobos up for good, after trailing 7-3, with a 43-yard catch-and-run by Jerrel Williams in the second quarter. It was the tailback’s first receiving touchdown. The senior quarterback then tallied with 4:18 to play in the game with his 15th rushing TD of the season.

“I was getting rushed (on the first touchdown), and I was looking around, and he (Williams) was the number one receiver on that play,” Armstrong explained. “He just beat the linebacker one-on-one.

“I was hungry for that (second) touchdown all day. The offense held up, and I just came through for them. It was a big touchdown for us.”

Longview, which improves to 9-3, now turns its attention to Spring, a 28-26 winner over Leander on Friday. The Lions are 10-2 on the year. The Region II, Class 5A, Division II regional semifinal is set for 7 p.m., Saturday at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston.

Longview strong safety Keith Johnson, who was injured Saturday, remained in Baylor Hospital in Dallas Sunday under observation, according to Longview coach Pat Collins. Collins spoke to Johnson’s mom and dad, as well as a spokesperson from the hospital on Sunday. A representative from LISD was also at the hospital Sunday evening. No further details were available.