COLLEGE STATION -- Even with the championship up for grabs, only one team had a chance to go undefeated, and that was the Richland Rebels.
After losing to Arlington Bowie in the finals of the Coppell tournament, Richland won its last 11 games to get to the state championship. At a qualified only round robin tournament, Richland went undefeated against Arlington Bowie, Arlington, Arlington Lamar and Stephenville. At that point, one could tell that Richland would be a force in the tournament.
On the other side of the bracket, the Mesquite Skeeters went undefeated in the Mesquite ISD tournament. They shut out Naaman Forest in the finals. In pool play though, Beeville Jones, a team that is very efficient and dinks and dunks down the field nipped them; however, Mesquite used that as a motivating factor to come back and defeat Wichita Falls.
It would be a metroplex dominated day as 15 of the 32 teams in the bracket (and 15 of the 20 teams who participated) would participate in the championship bracket. As the day moved on, 6 teams advanced to the second and third round. 6 of the 8 teams in the quarter finals were from the Metroplex and all four teams in the semifinals were from the Metroplex.
For Richland, a pool with Tyler Lee would not prove to be tough as Richland dominated pool play going 3-0. The first game in pool play would be the toughest as the Richland Rebels defeated Rockwall Heath 47-20 in the first round. They would get past Coppell 44-37 and then Stephenville 40-34. Richland and Colleyville Heritage would meet in the semifinals, and Richland rolled past the Panthers 42-24.
Mesquite started the day with State Finalist Houston Stratford and rolled past them 34-14. Mesquite came back to defeat Lufkin 34-26. Mesquite would win the last two games with defense on the last play of the game. Mesquite held off a Garrett Gilbert drive and tipped a pass out of the endzone to defeat Lake Travis 42-36. In overtime, Mesquite defeated Arlington Lamar 34-33 when Lamar opted to go for two but could not convert.
That set up a highly anticipated metroplex final with Mesquite and Richland. Anton Arthurs scored three touchdowns and Justin Erickson caught two touchdowns to provide the offense as Richland defeated Mesquite 35-32. Although both teams scored 5 touchdowns, Richland converted all 5 extra points and Mesquite could only convert 2 of the 5.
For Mesquite, Darien McNealy and Marcus Trice scored a pair of touchdowns each while Brad Smithey added a touchdown. It would not be enough for Mesquite.
Mesquite was dominant the first half taking a 26-14 lead into halftime with possession, but Richland scored three straight touchdowns to take a two possession lead. Mesquite just did not have enough time to come back. Although they scored the last play of the game, the two point conversion to make it a one point margin was no good, and a triumphant Richland Rebel squad won the state championship.
It was a solid day for 3-5A teams as both Abilene and Richland represent 3-5A in the consolation and championship brackets respectively.