Here are five thoughts from Week 10 of the Texas high school football season.
The District 8-6A title will be decided in the final week of the regular season, when South Grand Prairie plays Arlington Bowie at 7 p.m. next Thursday at UT-Arlington’s Maverick Stadium. Both teams are undefeated in district play, but Bowie had to mount a second-half comeback this week to improve to 6-0 in 8-6A.
Bowie trailed Arlington Lamar 31-21 in the second quarter and 38-35 going into the fourth quarter but rallied for a 45-38 victory. Bowie took the lead for good on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Bibbs to Deontae Tennison with 9:30 left, and Bibbs finished with three touchdown passes and Denzel Ponder ran for 188 yards and three scores.
South Grand Prairie (8-0, 6-0) took care of business and beat Haltom 30-6 as Daylon Brooks was 14-for-15 passing for 246 yards and three touchdowns. It continued a dominant season for SGP, which has outscored the opposition 411-101.
High School Sports
Next week, SGP will try to win a district title for the first time since 2003, when it was a co-champion, and it will try to keep Bowie from winning a second straight district championship. South Grand Prairie’s last outright district title was in 1992.
North Forney had perhaps the most dramatic comeback of the night, rallying from a 49-28 third-quarter deficit to beat Longview 56-55 in a huge game in District 10-6A. The win left North Forney in a three-way tie for first with Forney and Rockwall-Heath, with Forney and Heath playing each other in Week 11.
Senior quarterback Legend Bay accounted for 377 yards and five touchdowns in the win, and his 1-yard touchdown run with 9:05 remaining gave North Forney a 56-49 lead and completed a run of 28 consecutive points. Longview scored with 3:29 left to make it 56-55, but it missed the extra point attempt.
Longview still clinched a playoff berth when Rockwall lost 47-41 to rival Rockwall-Heath. Longview and Rockwall could still finish tied for fourth, but Longview has the tiebreaker because it beat Rockwall 35-21.
Plano clinched its second playoff berth in eight years by beating Prosper Rock Hill 21-16 on Friday. Plano has finished its regular season and is 6-3 and guaranteed its first winning season since 2017, when it was 7-4.
The last five years have been a struggle for the state’s ninth-largest school, as Plano was 14-34 in that span. Plano is headed to the playoffs this year despite having a minus-67 point differential.
Chance Culley was the star Friday, running for 123 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries to give him 1,318 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season. Plano will be the No. 2 seed from District 6-6A in either the Division I or Division II playoffs, with its bracket to be determined by if Plano West makes the playoffs.
With one week left in the regular season, Wylie has a one-game lead over Garland and Garland Naaman Forest in the battle for the fourth and final playoff berth in District 9-6A. But things are a long way from being decided.
Wylie lost to both Naaman Forest (38-24) and Garland (35-27), and to make matters worse for Wylie, it has to close district play against rival and district champion Wylie East. Garland, meanwhile, plays North Garland and Naaman Forest finishes against South Garland.
McKinney North suffered one of the more shocking losses in Week 10, falling 49-46 to Frisco Heritage on a 36-yard field goal by Nolan Fitzgerald with six seconds left. Heritage led 46-27 early in the fourth quarter, only to see McKinney North score 19 straight points, tying it 46-46 on a 45-yard field goal by Sebastian Infante with 2:45 left.
That was Heritage’s first win in District 5-5A Division I, but McKinney North still has a shot to make the playoffs.
Frisco’s 40-21 loss to Frisco Reedy on Friday kept McKinney North alive. That leaves Frisco one game ahead of McKinney North, and those teams play each other in the regular-season finale next week, meaning the winner will earn the district’s final playoff berth.
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