With a pair of wins, Dallas City FC and the Fort Worth Vaqueros locked up their final spots in the playoffs for the Lone Star Conference in the NPSL. The single-elimination semifinals to be played this Thursday with the final scheduled at the highest remaining seed next Saturday. Dallas City beat the Laredo Heat 1-0 in a must-win-game for Laredo, and the Vaqueros beat Katy 1895 FC 4-0, making Dallas City's game against Katy on Sunday irrelevant to the final standings.

At the top of the conference, the Midland-Odessa Sockers earned the top seed courtesy of a forfeit by Tyler FC. That forfeit resulted in a 3-0 victory being awarded to the Sockers, allowing them to pass the Denton Diablos, who fell to second. As Tyler only had one win on the season, it was a victory the Sockers were probably going to earn. Fort Worth's win puts them in third place with no way for Dallas City to catch them despite DCFC's 3-1 win over the Vaqueros last Wednesday or their game Sunday against Katy.

With the playoff pairings set, the Denton Diablos will host Fort Worth and Dallas City will travel to Midland to play the Sockers. Both games will be Thursday night, with the Diablos-Vaqueros game starting at 7:15 at the UNT Soccer Stadium. The Sockers-Dallas City game will be at 7:30. The time and location of the final will depend on the participants.

Dallas City won courtesy of a 79th-minute goal by Jose Lopez, who had only subbed into the game nineteen minutes earlier for Mark Santibanez. The goal was assisted by Kristian Quintana.

The Vaqueros won via two goals in each half. Anthony Powell assisted Cameron Brown and Flavio Guzman in the first half, and then Rio Ramirez fed JJ Oteze in the second half. Brown set up Bobby Edet in stoppage time for the final tally. Fort Worth's 4-0 victory is the tenth on the season for Katy, who only have one win and play their last game of the season against Dallas City on Sunday.

Both games could be competitive. Dallas City and Midland tied, 2-2, in McKinney on May 24, but the Sockers won comfortably, 3-0, at home on June 1. Fort Worth won both meetings between the Vaqueros and the Diablos, but it was early in the season, and Denton was the only team to beat Midland, a convincing 4-0 win in West Texas on June 13.