Gas
With gas being over $2.50 a gallon, no one really wants to take a road trip. If you are planning on going with multiple friends, try taking one car. At each refueling stop, have one or two friends pay the tab and alternate every time you stop for gas. Also, try stretching your gas by not having the AC on all the way and try to maintain speed. According to FuelEconomy.gov, not speeding can lower your gas mileage by 33 percent. While planning your trip, use a website like gasbuddy.com to look up gas prices along the way to your destination city.

Food
If you plan on having snacks on the road, buy them ahead instead of buying at every gas station. Bring a cooler along and stock it with your favorite drinks. For lunch and dinner, don’t just settle for fast food restaurants. Ask the locals where they prefer to eat. Most of the times they can recommend you to places they only know about. A locally owned diner will probably give you the best chance of getting the most food for just a couple of bucks. Yelp.com helps you find the best local places to eat.

Entertainment
Bring only a certain amount of cash for entertainment so you don’t tend to over spend and not have money left for other things. Try using cash instead of a credit card or debit card to help you stay on your budget. Most cities have little shops to buy souvenirs at a low price.

The goal for this spring break is just to have fun with your friends without spending all of your money even if it means staying in town.

The game ended that way as the Lady Pack was unable to score in the bottom of the seventh.

“We’ve got to be more selective at the plate,” Head Coach Heather Slaton said. “It’s the pitchers job to throw us junk to try and make us chase bad pitches. The hitters have to wait for a good pitch to hit. We were swinging at some stuff tonight we’ll leave alone later.”

The Lady Pack ended the game with two doubles from Lindsey Lyles and singles from Nicole Castillo, Blaire Reynolds and Kristie Hernandez.

Lufkin will travel to Conroe on Tuesday, with game time set for 6 p.m.

“I think the team played well,” Head Coach Heather Slaton said. Our record was 3/2 but overall I was excited that we got more field time in and I got an opportunity to see all the players at a position.”

The Lady Panthers follow their latest performance with a district opener 6 p.m. tomorrow at Morris Frank Park against arch rival New Caney Eagles. And Slaton feels that her team can always improve and their goal is to take each day and game one at a time.

“We still need to get comfortable in our own skin,” she said, “and we need to be able to communicate and make every game our best.”

Senior outfielder Patrice Hadnot said she believes the team needs to work on more basic skills at practice and come together as team more in order to play well when district starts.

The Lufkin Panthers started the game fired up pressuring the tigers all throughout the first half and defending their goal strong. The winning score came out of Julio Islas from a left throw in tipped by one of Tigers players with 10 minutes remaining in regulation. But after the refs ruled there was no goal, but the Panthers kept the pressure to end up in their first tie in 21 games.

“Our kids played very well tonight,” Lufkin head coach Russell Shaw said. “I thought both teams did.”

The Panthers managed to keep the pressure on the Tigers during over time hitting 2 shots on Post prom Luis Garcia.

“It was a tough game tonight,” captain Andrew Lees said. “We played really hard but they also defended well. We had the game in our hands, but the officials took it from us.”

The tie left the Panthers with a 4-2-1 district record and 3-3-1 for the tigers.

The Panthers will be back in action Friday night, playing the College Park Cavaliers at Jase Major soccer field.

The Panthers started the game fired up coming close to score five minutes into the match. The Panthers kept the pressure on but the Eagles replied back 18 minutes left of the first half scoring of a header from Paul Olascoaga with a free kick assist of Javier Velasquez to tae the 1-0 lead.

“The team didn’t play together tonight,” varsity captain Daniel Aguiñaga said.”We couldn’t connect on some passes and we ended up turning over the ball quickly which cost us some unexpected attacks.”

The Panthers managed to keep the pressure on the Eagles, but where shut out from a 35-yard out shot, hitting the top of the net shot by Daniel Israel Torres setting the final 2-0 final score.

“We struggled as team,” captain Andrew said. “It s no just because we couldn’t connect with each other, it’s just that the played a great game and we weren’t able to stop them.

The win set the Eagles to a  3-2-1 district record with a second place position and he Panthers with a 2-4 record and fifth place.

The Panthers will be back in action this Friday night on the road to Conroe for their next game.

The game started out slow when the ball was held mainly on the Panthers side of the field. At the end of the first half, the score remained tied at 0-0.

At the start of the second half, the Panthers played with more intensity connecting several passes, controlling the game and dominating on the field.

“We wanted to put more pressure on them in the second half,” head coach Antonio Encarnacion said.

After 13 minutes of play, Kendall King received a long pass that she quickly gained control of and used her speed to stay ahead of the Tiger’s defenders where she sent a wide shot in that bounced off the left post and into the net for a 1-0 lead.

The last goal of the night was scored by Lufkin’s Esperanza Palacio only eight minutes after King’s first goal. A corner kick was kicked by Lufkin defender Caitlin George who sent the ball into the box to Palacio who then received the ball and took a shot that went high into the net to end the game with a 2-0 score in favor of the Panthers.

“We started playing our game which paid off with two goals,” Encarnacion said.

In the first round of district play, Lufkin suffered a loss to Conroe that they believed they shouldn’t have given up.

“We lost to Conroe the first time we played them,” senior captain King said. “The score of the last game didn’t truly show the better team, which was ours. We got to show that this game when we outplayed them and won.”

Lufkin moves in district with a record of 4 wins, 3 losses. Their next game will be at the home of the College Park Cavaliers on Friday.

Lufkin showed their intensity when Diana Hernandez scored their first goal of the night within the first 15 seconds of the game.

“I think that early goal helped us really control the game,” Lufkin head coach Antonio Encarnacion said.

The second goal of the night was scored by Darcy Jackson, and it wasn’t much longer until Amanda Rosales added a third goal from a free kick ending the first half 3-0.

During the second half Hernandez and Rosales managed to each score their second goal of the night followed by Kendall King who scored the last goal of the game to end it with a score of 6-0.

After Friday night’s success, the Panthers traveled to New Caney to start off the second round of district games despite rain and even snow.

The game started off slow with heavy wind and with the rain picking up; however, Lufkin’s Moriah Philips was able to put a ball in the net to end the first half in the lead.

During the second half Philips scored her second goal to put the Panthers ahead 2-0. Although New Caney was able to score a goal off of a corner kick, it wasn’t much longer until Lufkin’s Esperanza Palacio scored one more goal ending the game with a score of 3-1.

“We set a goal to win the rest of our games to have a better seating in the playoffs and I believe we are one step closer to our goal now.” senior captain Kendall King said.

The Lady Panthers will be playing home against Conroe on Friday for their senior night.

According to senior grade Principal John Ball, the reason the school stared using the “Boot” was because cars on campus had unidentified drivers or unpaid tickets.

“Unidentified drivers are students who are driving to school and are parking in school property,” Ball said, “and the owner of the car is nowhere to be found, so the “Boot” helps us find the driver of the car.”

Using the device has lowered the number of students driving to school without a parking tag, and is getting them to pay their outstanding tickets, according to Ball.

He added that the school has not received any kind of negative attitude toward the school having to use the “Boot.”

Ball said students may be wondering how to prevent getting the boot on their vehicles and getting in trouble.

“(Students need to) be a legal driver and obey all parking rules,” he said. “Tickets are still being issued and the ‘Boot’ does not change the rules. Students need to think of what they are doing every morning before deciding to drive to school illegally.”

According to LHS parking lot guard Bryan McCarty, the students may not be the only one responsible for “Boots” being placed in their cars.

“Parents are aware of their teens driving to school illegal,” McCarty said, “yet they allow them to do so.”

McCarty said that about three to four tickets are issued each day with about one unidentified driver a week.

She has also done background guitar on two “Idols” albums–Carrie Underwood and Adam Lambert–and at 24, Orianthi is one of the top female guitarists. Orianthi is breaking free from just being known as Michael Jackson’s guitarist and starting her own music career.

“Believe”, her debut album, was released in late 2009. The first single, “According to You”, reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Last month, Orianthi released her new video, “Highly Strung” featuring her hero, Steve Vai. Her powerful guitar solos and catchy lyrics will have you rocking out with your imaginary guitar. Orianthi is truly talented and will prove playing guitar is not just for guys anymore.

According to Director Johnna Walker, what is needed from the girls as they enter into competition season is “hard work, dedication, and a positive attitude.”