Day 2 of Texas high school football championships: Albany, Malakoff, Gunter win titles
Day two of the Texas high school football state championships at AT&T Stadium is underway. Here are the things to know from day two of the title games on Thursday.
Gunter topples Tidehaven, wins Class 3A D2 State Championship
Perfection is becoming all too normal for the Gunter Tigers. The Class 3A D2 powerhouse won another state championship, besting Tidehaven 30-14 at AT&T Stadium on Thursday in front of 9,282 fans.
“Going 16-0 is absolutely incredible,” head coach Jake Fieszel said. “I’m super proud of our kids. All year long. There was a lot of battles that we had to fight through. ... I think that just shows the character of this team.”
No. 1 ranked Gunter (16-0) hasn’t dropped a game since the 2021 state championship 49-35 loss to Franklin. With the back-to-back championship win, Fieszel and company extended the team’s streak to 32 wins.
Senior quarterback Walker Overman, who won the Offensive MVP, passed for 149 yards and a touchdown on 10 of 15 passing. He thrived on his legs, rushing for 177 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.
“You’ve got to play physical,” said Overman, who called his offensive line the best in the state. “ ... We’ve got to be the most physical team always.”
Defensive end Major Thornhill, a junior, won the Defensive MVP award, tallying eight tackles, three tackles for a loss, a sack and a tipped pass that led to an interception. He credited the coaches game plan for the second half defensive shutout.
“Just believing in our team and having confidence in each other,” Thornhill said of the team’s mentality. “Knowing that we’ve got each other’s backs. We’re going to do it for each other.”
To start the game, Tidehaven (14-1) punched Gunter in the mouth behind Baylor commit Joseph Dodds. After the teams traded punts, Tidehaven went on an eight-play, 69-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead.
Dodds broke loose for a 43-yard gain and two plays later Tide quarterback Kale Russell hit Dodds with an 11-yard scoring pass with 4:03 left in the first quarter. That woke Gunter up leading to 17 unanswered points.
Preston Tarpley was good on a 27-yard field goal, and Brock Boddie had a pair of two-yard TD runs as Gunter vaulted to a 17-7 lead with 4:18 left before halftime.
Dodds countered taking a sweep left and dashing, untouched, for a 61-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 17-14 with 3:18 left before the intermission. Dodds finished with 166 yards rushing on 22 carries.
Gunter then scored 13 more unanswered points while holding Tidehaven off the scoreboard for the entirety of the second half.
Overman completed a touchdown pass to wide Cannon Lemberg, who found a hole and raced 68 yards to the house. Lemberg finished with a team high 99 receiving yards on five receptions.
“[Overman] is the best football player, in my opinion, in 3A,” Fieszel said. “He is electric. He’s tough. He’s smart. And he loves his teammates. He’s an all around football player. He never lost a football game for us. Won two state championships. I can’t say enough good things about him. He definitely left his mark.”
Overman capped the scoring and punched in a 1 yard touchdown run, the final score of his high school football career.
“He’s the best quarterback in the state, in my opinion,” Thornhill said. “I’m glad to have him as a teammate.”
Fieszel mentioned the 2023 Gunter football team is a “tough, resilient” group.
“They love each other,” Fieszel said. “They played for each other. They kept fighting. I can’t express how proud I am to coach them and to be a part of this. And to finish the job tonight. Extremely humbled and proud of the effort tonight.”
Tidehaven made its first state championship appearance since the 1980 season. In that championship contest, Tidehaven tied 0-0 with Pilot Point. The program last won a state title in the 1967 season.
Malkoff defeats Franklin to win Class 3A D1 State Championship
Franklin was making its fourth consecutive appearance at the state championships and fifth in the past nine years with two titles under its belt. Malakoff was at state for only the second time and was seeking its first championship.
Both teams were stellar on defense, but Malakoff was able to scratch out enough points for the Tigers to take a 14-7 win over the Lions in the Class 3A Division 1 Championship on Thursday in front of 10,299 fans at AT&T Stadium.
“Just so proud of these kids,” Malakoff head coach Jamie Driskell said. “These last two games, they’ve showed so much grit just to give us a chance at the end there. We played two great teams with Brock and, of course, Franklin. Our kids just found a way.”
Fannin was looking to lead his team to a three-peat. He said the title game was exactly what a championship game is supposed to look like.
“Two good football teams playing each other,” Fannin said. “It was a dogfight. It was a physical football game.”
Malakoff (16-0), No. 2 in the final Class 3A Division 1 state poll, took over after a Franklin punt and its first possession lasted eight plays and covered 77 yards. Quarterback Mike Jones tossed a perfect pass down the right hash to Chauncey Hogg for a 32 yard score to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 6:00 left in the first quarter.
No. 8 Franklin (14-2), was primed to tie the score on its ensuing series after driving 68 yards in 12 plays, but a big hit by Malakoff’s Kayland Davis at the one yard line forced Devyn Hidrogo to fumble into the end zone where Bubba Hicks recovered it for the Tigers for a touchback with 0:06 left in the first quarter.
“That was probably the play of the game, to be honest with you,” Driskell said. “You wouldn’t think it would be in the first quarter, but that was huge.”
That’s the way the game stayed 7-0 until the half as both defenses took turns shutting down the opposing offenses.
Jones and Hogg connected again for a 41-yard touchdown on Malakoff’s initial drive of the second half to up the lead to 14-0. Jones, the Offensive Most Valuable Player, finished with 140 passing yards completing 10 of 14 and rushing for 103 yards on 21 attempts.
Franklin did answer this time around, however, when Jayden Jackson carried it in from five yards out to cut the lead to 14-7 with 3:57 left in the third quarter, but the Lions were unable to complete the comeback.
Franklin had one last chance to tie or go ahead late in the game facing a fourth and seven from the Malakoff 15 yard line. Quarterback Cort Lowry tossed a lateral to R.J. Fulton who threw the ball too far out of bounds for Landon LeBouf to haul it in and Malakoff was able to run out the clock.
Parker Poteete was the Defensive MVP for Malakoff. Poteete recorded 13 tackles, six solo, and had one assisted tackle for a loss.
Jayden Jackson rushed for 117 yards on 27 carries for the Lions. Jackson was the Offensive MVP a year ago when Franklin defeated Brock 17-14. Brock defeated Malakoff in the semifinals last season.
Malakoff returned the favor this year when it defeated Brock 38-31 last week to reach the title game. Malakoff’s only other appearance at state was in 2018 when the Tigers lost 35-21 to Grandview.
Albany defeats Mart again to claim 2A D2 state title
It had been a year ago to the day when Albany and Mart met in the 2022 Class 2A Division 2 state championship. History repeated itself in 2023.
Albany scored 21 second-quarter points and rode a strong defensive effort to down the Panthers 28-10 on Thursday afternoon at AT&T Stadium to take back-to-back titles before 8,257 in attendance.
It was the ninth championship appearance for Albany (16-0), No. 1 in the final Class 2A D2 state poll, and the fourth state title. The Lions also repeated as state champions in 1960 and 1961 in Class 1A.
No. 2 Mart (15-1) was seeking its ninth state championship in 15 title game appearances. The Panthers have made it to the championship game in six of the last seven seasons, winning in 2017, 18 and 19, but none since.
“They were a better football team today,” Mart head coach Kevin Hoffman said. “They’ve been ranked number one all year for a reason. We’ve been ranked behind them all year for a reason.”
The Mart defense played well early, not allowing Albany a first down in the first quarter. The Panthers took a 3-0 lead on a Armando Chavez 38-yard field goal with 6:51 left in the opening frame, but Albany got rolling in the second period.
Adam Hill, the game’s Offensive Most Valuable Player, scored on a 52-yard run and a two-yard pass from Chip Chambers, the latter with 11 seconds left before the intermission to put Albany up 21-3. Branson Beal made a nice catch and run for a 37-yard TD from Chambers in between the two scores from Hill.
Beal’s TD was set up by a fumble recovery by Lanxton Viertel at the Mart 41. The Panthers were driving at the time to possibly take the lead before the gaffe.
Albany scored 21 points in the second quarter a year ago as well when the Lions defeated Mart 41-21.
Neither team could muster much offense in the second half. Mart closed to within 21-10 on a seven-yard touchdown run by J.D. Bell with 8:27 left in the game, but the Panthers couldn’t get any closer against Defensive MVP Zane Waggoner and the rest of the Albany defense.
Waggoner had nine tackles, with three going for 20 yards in losses, and two quarterback hurries.
Hill, who finished with 132 yards rushing on 24 attempts and had the one catch for a two-yard TD, put the game away with a five-yard scoring run with 49 seconds left.
The last time Mart had been held under 20 points in a game came in Week 3 of the 2019 season in a 20-16 loss to Franklin. The Panthers hadn’t been held to under 20 points in the playoffs since a 49-14 loss to Canadian in 2014.
Hoffman said there’s “no doubt” that Mart will be back in the state championship next season and said they’ll be wearing gold medals after the 2024 season concludes.
“We have a target on our back every year,” Hoffman said. “So, I’m just going to make that target bigger.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 4:30 PM.
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