The Cooldown: Week 16

State championship week is finally upon us. For the first time in quite a while – it hasn’t happened in the seven years I’ve been with Inside High School Sports – there won’t be a Houston area team playing on Saturday at the state championships.

However, the Houston area is sending two teams to state who have never been to state before. Columbus has been to the playoffs 39 times in school history and has won at least 10 games in each of the past five seasons. The Cardinals are headed to state for the first time after rocking Edna in the state semifinals.

On the other end of the spectrum, Richmond Randle has played football for just three seasons. The Lions have a chance to join Shadow Creek and Katy Paetow as schools to win a 5A state championship in its first few seasons of existence before moving up to 6A. I don’t know for certain that Randle will move up to 6A, but it is a common theme among new schools in the area. Like Columbus, Randle also won its state semifinal game in blowout fashion.

While two new faces will be heading to Arlington next week, two familiar faces won’t be. North Shore looked surprisingly uncompetitive in a 35-10 loss to Westlake, while Summer Creek lost a 34-31 heartbreaker to Austin Vandegrift. Those two games reshaped the look of state Saturday as we know it.

Though I just offered quick-hitter style recaps for most of the big games last weekend, let’s do an advanced recap of state semifinal weekend, preview the two state championship games involving and name a pair of POTWs.

Randle advances to state after drubbing Boerne

The third quarter was the key to propelling Randle to its first state championship appearance.

The Lions boat raced Boerne, 42-7, but Randle held just a one-score lead at halftime. Then, Randle ripped off 21 unanswered points to pull away in the third quarter. That all but dashed any hopes Boerne had of making it back to Arlington.

Keilan Sweeny was a Swiss Army Knife once again. Sweeny threw a touchdown, caught a touchdown and ran for a touchdown. His three pass attempts were all completed for 76 yards, he ran four times for 21 yards and added five catches for 67 yards. Quarterback Tyler Skrabanek had a great night as well. He completed 18 of his 27 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns.

That’s the result of trying to stop Landen Williams-Callis. He was under 100 yards for the second consecutive week, with 13 carries for 49 yards and a score, and two catches for 23 yards. That’s why Randle is so dangerous. Williams-Callis is one of the most talented running backs in the state, and it might not be hyperbolic to say in the country as well, regardless of classification. If an extra effort is made to stop him, well, look out for Sweeny and Skrabanek.

The Lions also had a stellar night defensively. Boerne quarterback Hank Hendrix completed less than half of his passes for just 128 yards, a touchdown and an interception. As a team, Boerne had 22 rushes for 26 yards. Randle has had a dominant defensive line all season, and it will need to be dominant again in the state championship against a South Oak Cliff team on the verge of a dynasty. But, more on that in the state championship preview below.

North Shore falls short of state against Westlake

North Shore is on a 7-year run the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in Texas’ highest classification. And it’s perhaps funny that, though we’ve rarely seen a run like this, it is running concurrently with Duncanville.

Those two programs have played for a state championship in five of the past seven seasons – the same five seasons. Since 2018, those two have played each other for the state championship every year except 2020 and this season, 2024. In each of those years, those two lost in the state semifinals.

When I say these teams are on a rare run, I mean it’s rare to see a school make it to at least the state semifinals seven years in a row, the state title game five years in that span, and win multiple state championships. Both North Shore and Duncanville have done that. So, not seeing these teams play at state this year is a little weird. It’s simply been the norm since 2018.

While Duncanville lost a thriller, North Shore got knocked out by a Westlake team that is the only team other than Duncanville to beat the Mustangs in the playoffs in the past seven seasons. North Shore losing is one thing, not being very competitive is entirely different. Westlake took the fight to North Shore from the opening kick and never looked back in its 35-10 win.

Star quarterback Kaleb Bailey finished just 12-of-23 passing for 153 yards, a touchdown and an interception. That’s far below his typical numbers in every category, and he was surprisingly inefficient. Bailey typically completes around 70% of his passes, if not north of that number. He also added 19 carries for 95 yards.

Quanell Farrakhan had a strong close to his lone year on the Eastside with five catches for 69 yards and North Shore’s only touchdown of the day. Reese Wise shredded the North Shore secondary to the tune of 207 yards on just 10 pass attempts, eight of which were completed. Just like the Todd Dodge golden days when the Chaps won three-straight state titles (including the one year Westlake ventured into the 6A-I bracket and beat North Shore), they got the job done with a dominant defense.

North Shore now enters an offseason with some questions to ask and holes to fill. These Mustangs have become a dynasty with three state championships and five title game appearances in seven years. But this particular team fell in the state semifinals and loses talent in just about every area. Bailey and Farrakhan are graduating. So, too, is running back D’Andre Hardeman and receiver Cameron Smith. Those four accounted for the vast majority of North Shore’s offense. Devin Sanchez is graduating as well; he’ll play at Ohio State next year, so the Mustangs lose their best defender, too.

Next season will be a new era on the Eastside for coach Willie Gaston and his staff. How North Shore rebuilds and attempts to return to the state championship game will be one of the top storylines of next season. Bailey, Farrakhan, Sanchez and the rest of this team deserve a lot of praise. But perhaps uncertain times – or maybe unknown is a better word to use – are coming for North Shore.

Angleton, Summer Creek continue Waco woes for the Houston area

I’ve covered at least a dozen games in Waco in the past five seasons, and if my memory is correct, I believe the Houston area team I was covering won one of those games – Summer Creek, last year.

Save for that one occasion, the bad luck continued Saturday as Angleton and Summer Creek each lost one score games. Those two games went very differently.

Angleton never led against Smithson Valley. The Wildcat defense was stellar again, as it has been all season. Maurice Hightower picked off two passes to cap off his high school career. That performance helped hold the Rangers to just 14 points early in the fourth quarter, when Cam Brown returned a fumble for a touchdown to make it a one-score game.

Four minutes of game time later, Travon Waddy ran in a short touchdown, and Bryce Duron connected with Wesley Jackson on a two-point conversion to tie the game with five minutes left. An Angleton offense that looked dead in the water all game did just enough to give themselves a chance to win the game.

It wasn’t quite enough. Cade Spradling housed a long touchdown run to give Smithson Valley a 21-14 lead that would prove to be the final score. Summer Creek didn’t have the same problems.

Unlike Angleton, the Bulldogs led for most of the night. Blake Thomas connected with Caleb Williams III for a touchdown, then Thomas ran for a touchdown himself to give Summer Creek a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Vandegrift returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and it was back-and-forth from there.

Ultimately, the Summer Creek defense couldn’t get a stop in time. The Bulldogs did force a punt late in the game, but left their offense with under 20 seconds to drive 90 yards with no timeouts. That proved to be an impossible task.

That isn’t to discredit the Summer Creek defense – a unit that had been a strength all season. The Vipers won this game 34-31; they scored under 34 points only twice this season: an opening night 31-14 win against Dripping Springs and an Oct. 4 win, 28-0 against Round Rock McNeil. The Vipers lowest playoff output prior to the state semifinals was 47 points in a 47-7 win against San Antonio Harlan.

Summer Creek is losing talent, like quarterback Blake Thomas, but returns some weapons, too. Holden Miller should be one of the more reliable receivers in the area next season as a senior. With North Shore and Atascocita having to do some retooling of their own, 23-6A could be up for grabs next season.

Player of the Week

My player-of-the-week award is pretty obvious at this point, with just two area teams moving on. However, this player-of-the-week award is well earned by a guy who could’ve earned this recognition sooner.

For the second straight week, Keilan Sweeny threw a touchdown pass and recorded a rushing and receiving touchdown. His second hat trick in as many weeks – and Randle’s berth in the state championship – makes Sweeny my player-of-the-week!

State Championship Preview

The 5A-II state championship game will feature two very different programs. Richmond Randle is at the end of its third-ever football season. South Oak Cliff has played for the 5A-II state championship in more consecutive seasons (four) than Randle has been playing football (three).

South Oak Cliff, also referred to as SOC, opened in 1952. In 2021, SOC became the first team from Dallas ISD to win a state championship since 1958. Now, the Golden Bears are a dynasty, with a chance to win three state titles in four seasons.

As a fun note, SOC coach Jason Todd pointed out on X/Twitter, each HFC in this game coaches in a district that has a school named after a relative. Randle High School is named for coach Brian Randle’s father, Dr. Thomas Randle.

South Oak Cliff will be the favorite in this game. Coach Todd has built a dynasty at SOC — four straight state appearances affirms that. But Randle is an elite squad in its own right. The Lions are 15-0. Of those, 13 wins came by at least three scores. The two that didn’t were two of Randle’s last three games: a 28-14 win against Brenham in the third round, and a 21-14 overtime win against Iowa Colony in the regional finals.

South Oak Cliff, meanwhile, has won every game by at least 28 points dating back to the start of district play. SOC faced North Shore, Duncanville and Longview – all 6A programs – in non-district, losing big to North Shore and Duncanville and beating Longview 45-44 on the road.

With the weapons Randle has, I think the Lions keep it close and score a decent amount of points, but SOC is the favorite for a reason.

The 3A-I state championship game is a similar dynamic to that of the 5A-II game. Malakoff, though not a dynasty like SOC, won the state championship last season and has won its last 31 games. Malakoff’s last loss came against Brock in the state semifinals in 2022.The Tigers have state championship pedigree.

Columbus, though not a new school like Randle, is playing in state for the first time ever, like Randle. The Cardinals are 13-1 with a 37-36 loss to a Hitchcock team loaded with talent. I can’t say this with complete certainty, but that Hitchcock team might be even more talented than this Malakoff squad, or anyone Malakoff played.

Malakoff had a few close calls as well. The Tigers beat Madisonville, a 4A-II team, by a point back in week two, Winnsboro by seven points in the regular season finale, Jefferson by 10 points in three, and Paradise by 12 points last week.

Columbus, meanwhile, beat that same Madisonville team in week four, 62-35. That next two-closest games Columbus played were against Yoakum and Bellville (14-point wins in each). Quarterback Adam Schobel, a TCU signee, has the Cardinals offense playing at one of the most efficient levels in the state. Columbus has scored less than 40 points just twice this season: the loss to Hitchcock and in a 37-0 win against Hempstead.

Columbus, despite playing in its first-ever state championship, is the favorite to win the 3A-I state title.

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