Photos by Pat Carrigan / Championship game coverage brought to you by Ja-Mar Roofing & Sheet Metal
Benjamin ran just 17 plays on Wednesday afternoon in the 1A Division II State Championship.
Grayson Rigdon scored on seven of those and also had a strip sack that his teammate Brody White returned for a touchdown.
It was a dominant performance as Benjamin blew away Loraine 68-20.
Grayson’s dad Jamie, the defensive coordinator for Benjamin, said he believed Wednesday morning left no doubt who the best player in six-man football is after Rigdon finished with 255 rushing yards on ten carries and 88 passing yards on two completions.
“Can we stop talking about who the best player in the state is,” Jamie said. “Can we just say [Grayson] is the best player in the state, and everybody feel good about it. Let’s not kid ourselves.”
Wednesday capped off a memorable season for Benjamin as the Mustangs earned their first state title by 45-ing all but one of their 15 opponents, a 61-30 victory over Loraine the first time the two teams met.
Benjamin head coach Nathan Hayes said he was proud of the effort that his players and coaches put in all year long.
“I know these guys made it look easy at time today and during the season, but it’s not,” Hayes said. “It was a lot of hard work. A lot of dedication. A lot of teamwork. A lot of coaches’ time put into it. Just so much work and effort from these guys.”
The backbreaker for Loraine came just before halftime. With Benjamin already up by 18, Rigdon strip-sacked Loraine quarterback AJ Williams. Brody White picked up the loose ball for Benjamin and returned it 58 yards for the score to give Benjamin a 46-20 halftime advantage.
SCOOP N SCORE COMING IN!!!🍨
Benjamin Mustangs 🐎: 46
Loraine Bulldogs 🐶: 20@uiltexas | #TXHSFB | BSSW: 📺 pic.twitter.com/PhQ3Aj2uXz— BallySportsTXHS (@BallySportsTXHS) December 14, 2022
White said Rigdon made his job easy on the play.
“I saw Rigdon not the ball out, and I felt like a shortstop fielding the ball,” White said. “I just heard the crowd going crazy. There was no thinking. It was just muscle memory.”
Benjamin made quick work of Loraine after halftime, scoring on all three of its offensive plays.
Rigdon broke free for touchdowns of 60 and 23 yards on the ground before airing it out to center John Wolfarth for a 49-yard touchdown to seal the game.
Wolfarth said he felt all the eyes of AT&T Stadium on him as he looked to find the end zone for the winning score.
“I was kind of nervous just trying to catch the ball,” Wolffarth said. “I knew we had one more touchdown to go but it was kind of nerve-racking at the same time.
THE TOUCHDOWN TO BECOME CHAMPIONS!!! 🏆
Benjamin Mustangs 🐎: 68
Loraine Bulldogs 🐶: 20@uiltexas | #TXHSFB | 📺:BSSW pic.twitter.com/PX36jTq849— BallySportsTXHS (@BallySportsTXHS) December 14, 2022
Across the field, Loraine’s first-ever title game did not end as the Bulldogs hope it would.
Loraine head coach Jake Popham said that his team’s gameplan for Benjamin didn’t play out as well as they hoped it would.
“When you come to the state championship, you expect to play a great football team and you saw that tonight,” Popham said. “We thought we had a good game plan coming in. We just didn’t execute it as well as we wanted to and that was the difference in the ball game.”
Despite the end result, Loraine got off to a hot start as Williams scored touchdown runs of 60 and 13 yards on Loraine’s first two possessions.
He was Loraine’s best offensive player on the night, finishing with 109 rushing yards and 86 yards passing.
However, every time Loraine scored, Benjamin had an answer.
In the first quarter, Rigdon had touchdown runs of 50 yards and four yards, while White barreled into the end zone from two yards out to give Benjamin a 24-14 lead after ten minutes of play.
Loraine got a big score just 30 seconds into the second period as Jadrian Limones found Zannon Perez in the corner of the end zone for a five-yard score, but the rest of the quarter belonged to Benjamin.
White went 39 yards for a touchdown on a pitch pass from Rigdon just one play after the Loraine touchdown before Rigdon added a six-yard score following a stop by the Benjamin defense on fourth down.
The scoop-and-score by the Benjamin followed as the Mustangs pulled away to end the game before the midway point of the third quarter.
After Loraine scored 20 points in the opening 11 minutes of the game, the Mustangs shut them out the rest of the way, including two forced fumbles.
Jamie said his team’s defense is one for the record books as they gave up just 118 points all season.
“I’m not going to say this is the best defense ever because I don’t want to disrespect people who played before us, but I tell you, you got to show me a better one,” Jamie said. “Our defense has been resilient. This has been a group effort. Put anyone you want up against us, it speaks for itself.”
In Loraine, the Bulldogs set a goal a year ago that they would make it to the state title game this year.
Despite the result on Wednesday, Popham said he and his Loraine squad will remember the day and their accomplishment forever.
“It couldn’t be a bigger deal for our community,” Popham said. “This is something that every kid goes to bed when they’re young thinking about. Yeah, it didn’t work out the way we wanted to, but at the end of the day, we’re where we wanted to be, we’re just not on the right end of the podium.”
Meanwhile, for Benjamin, this year was one for the ages.
Before the season got underway, Jamie asked his players to raise their hand if they’d ever won a playoff game.
Since Benjamin hadn’t won a playoff game since 1987 before this year, Grayson was the only one that could raise his hand.
Now, all the Mustang players and coaches can say they are state champions.
White said it has been a special journey that he and his Benjamin teammates will always remember.
“It’s still surreal, but we expected nothing less,” White said. “We set our goals and had high expectations and we went out and achieved them. I couldn’t be any prouder of our team and our coaches for the season we had.”
Offensive MVP: Grayson Rigdon, Benjamin
Rigdon rushed for 255 yards and five touchdowns and also was 2-2 passing for 88 yards and two more scores.
Defensive MVP: Nicholas Stovall, Benjamin
Stovall was a menace in the Loraine backfield all game long, finishing with 7.5 tackles, including four tackles for loss.
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