Twelve games over four days decided the 2022 Texas high school football state champions.
Dallas County saw three teams take home titles in South Oak Cliff (5A Div. II), DeSoto (6A Div. II), and Duncanville (6A Div. I). But Aledo (5A Div. I), about 20 miles west of Fort Worth, and Gunter (3A Div. II), about 50 miles north of Dallas, also brought titles home for the DFW region.
Below will be roundups of the 3A to 5A state title games, not including South Oak Cliff’s 5A Division II state title win that The Dallas Express already recapped.
5A Division I: Aledo 52, College Station 14
Aledo crushed College Station on Saturday in the Class 5A Division I championship game to win its record 11th UIL state title.
In its fifth state championship game in six seasons, Aledo (14–2) avenged a 20-19 loss to College Station (13–3) in the 2017 5A Division II state title game.
Junior quarterback Hauss Hejny, the game’s offensive MVP, opened the scoring with a 31-yard touchdown run.
Two touchdown runs from junior two-way player Davhon Keys, a three-star recruit, and a couple of touchdown passes from Hejny to senior wide receiver Jalen Pope (one for 7 yards, the other for 49) gave Aledo an insurmountable 35–0 halftime lead.
Hejny finished with 175 yards passing and two touchdowns while running for scores of 31 and 59 yards and racking up 146 yards on the ground.
Aledo finished with 497 yards of offense compared to College Station’s 214 and led 52-0 in the fourth. If not for a pair of late College Station touchdowns, the final margin would have been one of the widest in state championship history.
The title is Aledo head coach Tim Buchanan’s eighth in his career, giving him a perfect 8-0 record as a head coach in title games.
“Call me eight-time-Timmy,” he said after the game.
Buchanan left the head coach position from spring 2014 to fall 2019 to focus on his athletic director responsibilities. Buchanan dropped his athletic director title and retook the head coach position in the fall of 2019, winning his seventh title as head coach in 2020.
4A Division I: China Spring 24, Boerne 21
Thomas Barr connected on a 20-yard field goal as time expired to give China Spring a second straight state championship on Friday.
China Spring (15-1) had to come from behind, overcoming a 21-0 deficit to win. The team drove 59 yards on the final drive in just over three minutes to set up the game-winning field goal.
Boerne (15-1) went six straight drives without points after jumping to a 21-0 lead 15 minutes into the game.
Boerne quarterback Jaxon Baize threw two long touchdown passes to brother Braden Baize (five catches for 139 yards and two scores) in the first quarter.
But China Spring quarterback Cash McCollum’s two touchdown passes on either side of halftime put the defending champs back in the game.
McCollum finished 14-of-22 passing for 144 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for 38 yards. Tristan Exline scored a 66-yard touchdown to tie the game at 21-all in the third quarter.
4A Division II: Carthage 42, Wimberley 0
Carthage (16-0) won its ninth state championship and fifth in the past eight years with a rout of Wimberley (15-1) on Friday. Carthage is second only to Aledo for most state championships by a single school.
Carthage quarterback Connor Cuff threw 50- and 82-yard touchdown passes to Noah Paddie in the opening quarter, adding a 1-yard scoring run as time ran out in the first quarter to spark the dominant victory.
Cuff finished 14-of-22 passing with 299 yards and four touchdowns and was the game’s offensive MVP. Paddie had eight receptions for 191 yards and two scores, tying a 4A state title game record in receiving yards.
3A Division I: Franklin 17, Brock 14
Cort Lowry kicked the game-winning 20-yard field goal as time expired to help Franklin secure the win over Brock on Thursday.
The game came down to the final kick after a goal-line stand from Brock (11-5) kept Franklin out of the end zone.
Jayden Jackson, the game’s offensive MVP, led Franklin (16-0) with 146 yards rushing on 24 carries and one touchdown on the ground. Franklin ran the ball 53 times to control the clock throughout the contest.
Brock’s offense outgained Franklin 299-246, with Reid Watkins gaining 76 yards on 14 carries. Tyler Moody went 9-for-17 through the air for 133 yards passing with one touchdown and an interception.
The title is Franklin’s second straight state championship after claiming the Class 3A Division II trophy last season.
3A Division II: Gunter 42, Poth 7
Ashton Bennett led Gunter with 87 yards and two scores on 13 carries, earning offensive MVP honors, as Gunter (16-0) routed Poth (14-2) to claim the program’s third state title and become just the second team in Gunter history to finish the season undefeated.
Offensively, Gunter put up 42 points and 464 total yards against a Poth defense that had allowed less than 10 points per game this season.
Gunter quarterback Walker Overman went 11-for-16 for 124 yards with 53 yards on the ground in the win. In addition to Bennett’s two scores, Ivy Hellman added two touchdowns on the ground, while Ethan Sloan had one.
Gunter’s defense held a Poth offense that averaged 43.6 points per game to just one touchdown, 243 yards, and ten first downs.
Poth ultimately got on the board with 16 seconds remaining as quarterback Zane Raabe found Gabriel Silansky for the touchdown.
Raabe completed 7-of-12 passes for 111 yards with one touchdown, two interceptions, and just 53 yards on the ground. As the team’s leading rusher, Raabe had totaled over 1,800 rushing yards this season.
2A-1A State Title Game Results:
2A Division I: Hawley 54, Refugio 28
2A Division II: Albany 41, Mart 21
1A Division I: Westbrook 69, Abbott 24
1A Division II: Benjamin 68, Lorraine 20
