Every year it’s the same old thing. Who would win if the Division I state champ played the Division II champ?
Sometimes the match ups are intriguing. Like, what if this high-powered offense had to play that tough defense. Or, we’d like to see that legendary coach against that legendary program. Maybe it’s star power on state championship teams or just to see if Cinderella can conquer one more foe.
High school football season ended last weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington with 10 newly crowned state champions in 11-man football.
As a way of extending the season one more week, here’s our Christmas wish — a hypothetical game of each class’s state champions. It’s like the Little League World Series finale is the United States Champion against the International champion.
But this is Texas, and we’re ALL Texans. So here are the match ups, each with a prediction.
And to go old school, we’ll put each game at a site that’s neutral and about even in distance — the way coaches used to decide on the site for a state championship game. We’ll have five games in four days at four different sites, just to mix things up for media and earn those extra airline miles.
5A State Finale
Who: Aledo vs Highland Park
Date: Friday, 4 p.m.
Site: AT&T Stadium
This may be the most intriguing of all the hypothetical high school Super Bowl match ups and mainly for one reason — the game is at AT&T Stadium.
John Stephen Jones was the toast of the Metroplex after he guided the Highland Park Scots to a 16-7 win over giant-killer Temple for the Division I title. The celebration after the game at Jerry World may have been the longest in the history of state championships since the state championships were all moved to the same site.
Jones celebrated with his grandfather (Cowboys owner Jerry Jones) and dad (Cowboys GM Stephen Jones) and it seemed the entire Highland Park community got access to the field.
The Scots were topsy-turvy on the year with some impressive wins but two head-scratching losses to Waxahachie and Wylie East. Highland Park did take down 2015 state finalist Mansfield Lake Ridge and perennial power Denton Ryan on the way to the title
Aledo, on the other hand, stomped teams all year long until pulling off the 24-16 win over Corpus Christi Calallen for the Division I state title. Aledo outscored its opponents by an average of 55-17 this year.
Although Aledo mustered just 191 yards of offense in the state title game, its defense stifled a Calallen offense.
Aledo is a been there, done that kind of team. The Bearcats have won seven state championships in school history, including a mind-boggling six since 2009. They pull out a tight one in Jerry World and keep the streak alive of the undefeated Division II teams beating the larger schools in these mega matchups.
Aledo 24, Highland Park 21 (OT)
