Woodland Park coach Chad Drummond paused before entering the locker room after the game.

Drummond searched for the perfect words to tell his No. 7-seeded Panthers after their 33-31 loss to No. 10 seed Sterling in the opening round of the 2A playoffs.

Did he find them?

“Not adequately,” Drummond said. “It’s hard when you put everything you have into something and it comes up short. Those guys gave everything they had this year. That’s the toughest part of coaching. Looking into the faces of your players after a hard loss and trying to find something meaningful to say.”

Woodland Park trailed Sterling 33-24 with 3:01 left in the fourth quarter. On Woodland Park’s final drive, the Tigers forced a fourth and 11 from the Woodland Park 20 before the Panthers burned a timeout.

As Drummond guided the players during the break, Marqus Schoenberger also offered a brief message to his teammates.

“Fellas, we can’t quit,” Schoenberger said. “There’s still time. Let’s go!”

Out of the timeout and on a fake reverse, Schoenberger threw a dime to Parker Shreeve who was uncovered and took the reception 80 yards for the touchdown to cut the lead to 33-31 with less than a minute left in the fourth.

“It’s been incredible to watch how Marqus has grown,” Drummond said. “As a sophomore he was fighting for that (quarterback) spot. He’s the heartbeat and the soul and the spark that makes us go.”

The Panthers’ onside kick attempt was recovered by the Sterling, effectively ending the game. But Drummond said this was “far from a failed year.”

Woodland Park finished the regular season 9-0 and won six games by double digits.

Entering the postseason, the Panthers earned a 34-6 win against La Junta to earn their ninth win of the year and showed no rust after building a 10-6 lead against Sterling in the first quarter.

But the Tigers took a 12-10 lead after Hunter Diamond lobbed a 23-yard pass to Kaden Maikowski with 5.9 seconds left in the second.

“(At halftime) I told them that we needed to get a stop and get a little momentum going,” Drummond said. “We kept getting close, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. The defensive stop we had would have been a chance to get ahead of them, but Sterling did their jobs too and we had to punt.”

In the second half, the good news for the Panthers was the Tigers struggled to stop Woodland Park’s offense.

Schoenberger found Shreeve on an 18-yard pass for a touchdown and later in the third, Trey Reed went untouched up the middle for an 80-yard rushing score for Woodland Park.

But the bad news? The Tigers’ offense kept pace with the Panthers.

Sterling matched Woodland Park’s 14-point third quarter with two scores of its own and Diamond scored twice on rushing touchdowns to make it 26-24 heading to the fourth.

“The offense did a phenomenal job out there,” Drummond said. “I’m happy with how we performed out there. You can’t defend everything in football. You have to pick a couple of guys and say you’re going to remove them from the game and see if somebody else can beat us. It turns out Hunter had a great day.”

Drummond spent more than 20 minutes in the locker room with Panther players after the game, showering them with praise and told them they changed the culture of Panthers football.

“That group of boys in there have changed the face of Woodland Park football and the way Woodland Park football has been seen,” Drummond said. “I’m grateful for them and what they’ve accomplished in their career.”