Carthage shuts out Wimberley, Bulldogs win 9th state championship in last 15 seasons

The success that the Carthage high school football team has had over the past 15 seasons under head coach Scott Surratt is nothing short of remarkable.

Coaches always say that its almost impossible to make it to a state championship game, much less win it.

Surratt and Carthage might be the exception.

Surratt and his Bulldogs were attempting to win their 9th state title during Surratt’s tenure and Carthage got it done, dominating Wimberley 42-0 in the Class 4A Division 2 championship on Friday afternoon before 15,039 fans at AT&T Stadium.

“I don’t really give it much thought,” said Surratt on his success at Carthage. “When you’re in the moment like we’ve been and in a grind, we play longer than anybody except the NFL, you don’t really think about those things. But later, hopefully...tonight, tomorrow or at the end of your career...hopefully we can add some more to it.

Surratt took over the Carthage program in 2007 and now sports a 206-29 overall record in 16 seasons and a 71-7 mark in the playoffs.

Carthage has 10 state championship appearances and the Bulldogs only loss came in their first trip in 1991. Since then Carthage is 9-0 with additional titles in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Wimberley (15-1), No. 6 in the final 4A D2 state poll, could do little right and top-ranked Carthage (16-0) could do little wrong from the get go. The Texans nine full possession ended in four turnovers, two punts and turnovers on downs three times.

Carthage quarterback Connor Cuff, a Louisiana-Lafayette baseball commit, took home offensive Most Valuable Player honors completing 14 of 22 passes for 299 yards and accounted for five touchdowns. Cuff opened the game with bombs of 50 and 82 yards to Noah Paddie, the latter put the Bulldogs up 14-0 with 4:38 left in the first quarter.

Paddie, who’s headed to Texas A&M to also play baseball, equaled a Class 4A state championship game record for receiving yards with 191 yards on his eight catches. The mark was previously reached by another Carthage receiver, Mekhi Colbert in 2017 against Kennedale.

Paddie had actually eclipsed the mark by one yard, but lost a yard on his final catch.

“This was really a special game and I think we both (Noah Paddie) came out and played well to wrap it all up,” said Cuff. “These are special times. Ultimately we completed the goal we had and completed it in really good fashion.”

Cuff added a one-yard TD on a quarterback sneak to end the first quarter and had scoring passes of 12 yards, to Kydarious Matlock, and 2 yards, to Viencint Cabada, in the second quarter to build a 35-0 lead at the half.

Carthage is the 15th team to post a shutout in a 4A state title game and the first since 2003 when Atlanta defeated Marlin 34-0.

“They controlled the line of scrimmage, for the most part, up front,” said Wimberley coach Doug Warren. “You watch hours and hours and hours of film on these guys and try to find some cracks, but there’s not very many and they close them up in a hurry.

“You can’t come into a game and have the turnovers that we did against a very, very good football team. You really have to play clean against a great team like that.”

This was the Texans’ fourth trip to a championship game, winning titles in 2005 and 2011.

Defensive MVP Jakerrian Roquemore was instrumental in two of the four turnovers by Wimberley. Roquemore came out of nowhere to pick off a Texans’ pass at the Carthage 36 to kill a drive early in the second quarter.

Then on Wimberley’s next drive, Roquemore wrestled the ball away from Texan receiver Tru Couch after Couch had picked up 40 yards on a pass from Cody Stoever down to the Bulldogs’ 10. Zsema’d Williams picked up the ball and returned it 44 yards to the Wimberley 48.

“Rocquemore, the reason that he doesn’t have 80 catches is because he’s a great safety on defense as well,” said Surratt on his senior defensive back/receiver who also had two catches for 67 yards. “He’s a very special athlete and a special young man.”

Wimberley’s best drive of the day came to open the second half. The Texans ran 15 plays, marching from their own nine to the Carthage 12, but Kadadriane Bell picked off a Stoever pass in the end zone to end the threat.

Sophomore James Morrow’s fumble recovery at the Carthage 23 halted Wimberley’s opening drive of the game.

Linebacker Deiontae Marry led the Bulldogs with 8.5 tackles on the day. Matlock led Carthage in rushing with 82 yards on 10 carries. The Bulldogs had 444 yards of total offense to 239 for Wimberley.

Johnny Ball led the Texans with 97 tough yards rushing on 23 carries with Stoever throwing for 127 yards completing 10 of 25. Couch had five catches for 93 yards.

“I thought that it was a dominating performance from the word go,” said Surratt. “I’ve always told my kids that you’ll always be remembered by your senior year, I remember mine.

“Now they can add to the list of the nine that are state champions. They’ll be known as one of the best teams, if not the best, that we’ve ever had here.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 4:44 PM.