Here are five thoughts from the first round of the Texas high school football playoffs.
Duncanville QB remains out
Duncanville played its third straight game without standout quarterback Maximus The Great Denson, but the three-time state champion still beat Temple 35-14 in the first round of the Class 6A Division I playoffs.
Senior J’Coryon Rivers once again got the start at quarterback and threw for 170 yards and two touchdowns. He got help from TCU pledge Ayson Theus, who ran for 53 yards and a touchdown, and star receivers Trenton Yancey and SMU pledge Zach Turner combined for seven catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns.
Duncanville coach Reginald Samples wouldn’t say at the end of the regular season if Denson was hurt or why he was out.
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“He had some issues we had to take care of,” was all Samples would say.
Rivers has completed 60% of his passes while throwing for 573 yards and five touchdowns, with no interceptions, in the last three games as Duncanville has averaged 32.7 points. Duncanville (8-1) has won seven in a row since losing to Waxahachie and will next face Rockwall-Heath, an 8-3 team that averages 40.7 points on the season.
Frisco ISD nearly perfect
Damarian Robinson ran for 221 yards and four touchdowns and Jailon Hicks recovered a fumble with 1:37 remaining to seal West Mesquite’s 28-24 comeback win over Frisco on Friday. That was all that kept Frisco ISD from going a perfect 5-0 in the first round.
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Frisco ISD got dominant wins from Lone Star (49-6 over North Mesquite) and Panther Creek (49-7 over Carter), while Reedy beat Carrollton Creekview 24-3 and Wakeland held off Carrollton Newman Smith 28-12.
Frisco led 21-14 going into the fourth quarter before Robinson scored on a pair of 9-yard runs to give West Mesquite a 28-21 lead with 9:38 remaining.
Carroll dominates once againTrophy season: See photos from Southlake Carroll’s bi-district showdown with Crowley 20 imagesView Gallery
Southlake Carroll is considered a prohibitive favorite to end a 13-year state title drought this year. It looked the part Thursday night while extending a winning streak that has spanned nearly three decades.
Angelo Renda continued to show why he should be considered one of the greatest quarterbacks in Carroll history, accounting for three touchdowns and 276 yards of total offense in a 35-0 rout of Crowley in a Class 6A Division II bi-district playoff game.
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Carroll has won 28 consecutive first-round playoff games, a streak that started in 1997 and has included a bi-district win every year since 2000. Carroll (11-0) will play San Angelo Central next as it continues its quest for its first state title since 2011.
Renda, a three-star Pittsburgh pledge who is one of the 10 players on the watch list for the MaxPreps National Player of the Year award, has thrown for 3,148 yards and 31 touchdowns for an 11-0 team that has yet to be challenged. He is on pace to throw for 4,579 yards if Carroll were to play 16 games and make it to the state title game, and he is chasing the school record of 4,822 yards that was set by Chase Wasson in 2002.
Carroll is close to having two 1,000-yard receivers, as Ohio State pledge Brock Boyd is already there with 1,006 yards and junior Blake Gunter is 28 yards away with 972. They have combined for 25 touchdown catches after they each caught a scoring pass against Crowley.
Carroll, ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 11 nationally, is winning by an average of 43.6 points. Its closest game was a 35-7 win over Hebron that was stopped early in the third quarter because of lightning, and for a full game, no one had played Carroll closer than 35 points.
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Carroll improved to 39-4 all-time in first-round games, but as great as Carroll has been in its playoff openers, it has been just as good at making deep playoff runs. Carroll has reached at least the fourth round eight years in a row, including finishing as the state runner-up last year.
DeSoto extends playoff streak
DeSoto entered the playoffs with at least three regular-season losses for the first time since 2015. But if Thursday is any indication, this is a team that is capable of making a deep playoff run for the sixth straight year.
DeSoto routed Copperas Cove 63-6 in the first round as SaRod Baker ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns on just nine carries and four-star USC pledge Ethan “Boobie” Feaster had five catches for 101 yards and scored two touchdowns. It was the 20th consecutive season that DeSoto won its bi-district playoff game, with its last loss in that round being 17-14 against Plano in 2005.
It was the ninth time in 10 years that DeSoto scored more than 40 in the first round, and its last two wins have both been 63-6. DeSoto, which will play Longview next, won state titles in 2022 and 2023 and was a regional finalist in 2020, 2021 and 2024. Longview beat DeSoto 50-14 in last year’s regional final.
AdvertisementSouth Oak Cliff’s legendary chapter
South Oak Cliff coach Jason Todd posted a message on X on Friday to remind his followers of how much SOC has accomplished recently.
“People will never understand the Grind. And some will never understand this moment in history we are living in. This isn’t only a SOC thing this is a big chapter in Texas Football History being written everyday. And my players and coaches are the authors. The BOOK of SOC!!!!” Todd’s post read.
South Oak Cliff beat Crandall 49-18 in the first round of the playoffs Thursday as Jayden Williams threw for 293 yards and four touchdowns, Torrin Teague had four catches for 155 yards and three touchdowns and Levon Morton and Mikail Trotter combined to run for 258 yards and three touchdowns. It was SOC’s ninth consecutive win and gave the team at least 10 wins for the fifth straight year.
South Oak Cliff is trying to reach the Class 5A Division II state championship game for the fifth straight season, and is looking for its third state title in that span. The schools that have played in five consecutive state finals since 2000 are Aledo (2016 to 2020), Austin Lake Travis (2007 to 2011), Southlake Carroll (2002 to 2006).
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