High School

TAPPS Champion Argyle Liberty Christian Sent Home as Texas High School Football Area Round Delivers Shocks

2 Top 25 showdowns, DeSoto's revenge win and Henrietta's unique trip to Coppell highlight Week 12

Cody Thorn

Woodville was in the Class 3A Division II finals last year, but got knocked out of the playoffs in the area round this year.
Woodville was in the Class 3A Division II finals last year, but got knocked out of the playoffs in the area round this year. / Tommy Hays

Two round of the Texas high school football is completed.

Now, the blitz with four weeks of football ending at Jerry’s World in Arlington starts with the regional semifinals this week.

With Thursday being Thanksgiving, there won’t be the traditional Thursday night games, but there will be a smorgasbord of games starting early Friday to Saturday night, including doubleheaders in some locations. 

Let’s look back at what Week 12 — otherwise called the Area games — brought us. 

Off the bat, two teams that were in the finals last year got sent home early. That’s the second week that has happened when Austin Vandegrift beat Austin Westlake — last year’s Class 6A Division I runners-up, in the bi-district game.

Down goes TAPPS champ 

Over the past two years, Argyle Liberty Christian has been a state champion, winning Division II in 2023 and then taking home the Division I crown last year.

Jason Witten’s Warriors saw the season come to an abrupt end with a loss to Plano Prestonwood Christian Academy.

The Loions broke a 14-14 tie by scoring 20 points in the second quarter to roll to a 49-34 win on Friday.

Argyle Christian had won the last four meetings in this series.

Luke Glass threw a 13-yard touchdown to AJ Morreale to break the tie and then the Lions got a turnover. Morreale picked up a fumble and ran it back to the Liberty Christian 21-yard line. Running back William Taylor followed with a TD run on the next play to make it a 2-score game.

Prestonwood Christian improved to 5-4 with the win, while the state champs ended the year 8-4.

Glass threw for 194 yards and had a 99-yard scoring strike to Tyler Shaw in the first quarter. Taylor ran for 243 yards and two scores. 

Baylor pledge Quinn Murphy threw for 363 yards and 4 touchdowns for the Warriors.

Rare company

Woodville was the Class 3A Division II runner-up last year, but got bounced with a 59-56 loss to Edgewood on Friday.

Trevor Golightly scored a touchdown with less than a minute left to help the Bulldogs post the close win. Edgewood scored at least 14 points in each quarter.

Golightly scored 3 times on the ground and ran for 109 yards. In the air, he threw for 285 yards and 2 more touchdowns.

Edgewood has won 8 in a row now and improved to 10-2.

It’s pretty rare company for the East Texas school.

According to the Texas High School Football History website, the Edgewood program started playing in 1928. In that time, there have been only two other teams in school history with double-digit wins. The 2012 team had 10 wins, while the 1946 squad had 11 wins.

State-ranked clash 

A pair of games featured Top 25 matchups from our SB Live Top 25 Texas poll.

In one, Dickinson held on for a 28-21 win against Pearland in a battle of undefeated teams. Read about it here.

In the other game, No. 16 Fort Bend Ridge Point lost 31-7 to No. 20 Galena Park North Shore. 

Tony Guillory had a pick-6 for the Mustangs’ defense. On offense, running back Hezekiah Johnson ran for 110 yards and two scores. 

Revenge win 

Coming off a dominating 2023 season, DeSoto was pretty much considered a lock to have a chance to repeat in 2024. 

However, the Eagles lost 50-14 to Longview in the Class 6A Division II quarterfinals. 

This time around, the two met earlier and the Eagles flipped the results. Behind an offense that generated nearly 700 yards of total offense, DeSoto won 60-28.

RB SaRod Baker had 22 carries for 371 yards and 5 touchdowns in the win for DeSoto.

Panther Creek falls without Webb 

Frisco Panther Creek lost a shootout with undefeated Springtown, 49-41. 

The Panthers were playing without Texas Tech pledge Donovan Webb, who was a do-everything-type of player for the Frisco school. 

Webb led the team in rushing yard (788), rushing touchdowns (14) and was second in receiving yards (423) on offense. On the other side of the ball, he had a team-high 82 tackles. His father posted on Facebook, Webb was dealing with a high-grade 2 quad strain and playing with the injury was not worth the risk.

Jon Anthony Lardizabal ran for 292 yards and 5 touchdowns for the Porcupines in the win, improving to 12-0.

Unique send off 

When playoff football starts, the pride in small-town Texas shines. Often, teams will get a send-off as they venture off to their neutral site games.

That usually involves either the police department or the fire department providing the lights and siren escort out of town. 

For Henrietta, it was a little bit different.

The trip to Buddy Echols Field in Coppell from the north Texas town included a bevy of horses running alongside the bus.

Linebackers & Recruiting Coordinator coach Zack West shared send-off the Bearcats before beating Callisburg, 48-21.

Henrietta is the only team in District 6-3A Division II still playing and they are now 8-4 on the year. Last year, Henrietta was 3-7.

The roster for the Bearcats is Cruse Coleman, a running back/defensive back. The sophomore has 2,450 yards rushing with 35 touchdowns and has 58 tackles.

His dad, Ross Coleman, is a PBR Hall of Famer and helped with the send-off.

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Cody Thorn
CODY THORN

Cody Thorn is a veteran journalist who covers high school sports across the state of Texas and Missouri. He is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has covered sports and news since 1999.

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