Eastern Hills shows fight, but stellar season ends against No. 1 Celina

It wasn’t a sound-the-alarm, late-in-the-game upset alert, but Fort Worth Eastern Hills had something brewing early Friday.

Facing nine-time state champion Celina — which had that sticker on the back of all its helmets — the Highlanders were already in a tough spot. But head coach Devvin Anderson’s squad put up a valiant effort in hopes of unseating the defending Class 4A Division I champion at Pennington Field.

However, the top-ranked Bobcats (12-0) shook off the slow start and rolled to a 70-22 victory in the area playoff game, their 28th straight win, and advanced to the regional semifinals against the winner of Saturday’s game between Decatur and Paris.

“They are the No. 1 team in the state, and if you make mistakes, they are going to capitalize,” Anderson said. “I was telling my group, we got 18 sophomores that are playing, so it’s great for them to get that experience playing a team like that. A team that, if you make a mistake, they are going to grow from.”

The Highlanders finished the year 6-6, marking the second time under Anderson that the school has seen that many wins.

The school opened in 1959, and there have been only 10 teams for the Highlanders in that span that won more than seven games in a season.

Anderson has guided Eastern Hills to 25 wins in five years — but it’s progress. Before his arrival, you had to count back eight seasons before the Highlanders won a combined 25 games.

This is only the third time since 2000 that Eastern Hills won six games in a season, which is the high-water mark in that quarter-century.

Anderson praised his seniors, who were eighth-graders when he was hired. He said he still remembers talking to them about playing for him.

“This group trusted me,” he said. “Second round of the playoffs, six-win season, a couple of overtime games that could’ve been a seven-win season. I’m very proud of them.”

One senior who stood out was senior wide receiver Jamarion Hardemon, who had a pair of touchdowns for the Highlanders.

His first grab helped turn a 13-0 game into something that was kind of interesting.

Celina scored on its first two drives, touchdown passes by Oklahoma pledge Bowe Bentley.

The Highlanders answered early in the second quarter. Sophomore Chris Johnson’s run on fourth down kept the drive alive. Then, a facemask penalty on Celina moved the ball to the 15.

The next three plays were an incomplete pass and two rushes for 0 yards.

Then, some of the youthfulness that Anderson talked about showed up. Facing a fourth-and-10, an illegal substitution made it fourth-and-15. Then, a lineman jumped early.

Now, fourth-and-20 from the 25. Against the state champs.

Not an ideal situation.

Sophomore Kenny Durst took the snap, rolled back and then ran to his right. He threw a pass into double coverage, but Hardemon jumped up and tipped the pass, then caught it as it fell down and walked into the end zone for a touchdown.

“That kid’s a playmaker,” Anderson said. “That’s a wonderful play. That’s a ‘SportsCenter’ play. He’s been making plays like that for us all season. Jamarion is a wonderful athlete.”

Then, as quickly as the Highlanders got in the game, they were out of it.

Celina scored five touchdowns over the final six minutes of the first half and turned the 13-8 lead into a 49-8 lead.

LJ Taylor ran back a pair of punts for touchdowns, Jacob Brown had a pick-six, and Bentley ran for a pair of touchdowns — the latter on a fourth-down attempt.

Hardemon had a second touchdown in the third quarter, and Durst hit senior Jade Gipson, a linebacker, for the 2-point conversion.

Johnson, who was a 1,000-yard rusher, had a 32-yard touchdown run on the final play of the third quarter.

The 22 points Eastern Hills scored were the second-most against Celina this season. The Bobcats’ defense had yielded only 14 points the past four games.

Late in the game, freshman Kamron Patin came in at quarterback, and sophomore Darwin Hanks got some carries at running back for the Highlanders.

While 14 seniors played their last game, there’s some brightness in the future for the Highlanders.

“We put a couple of good drives together, so we got something to grow on,” Anderson said.

This story was originally published November 22, 2025 at 12:24 AM.