Photos by Stan Martin / Championship game coverage brought to you by Ja-Mar Roofing & Sheet Metal
Something special is brewing in South Oak Cliff.
The Golden Bears clinched their second-straight state championship with a 34-24 win over Port Neches-Groves on Friday evening in the 5A Division II State Title Game. It was the first time ever a Dallas ISD school has won back-to-back titles.
Golden Bear head coach Clifton Todd said after Friday night, his current players have laid the foundation for a potential run of titles in South Dallas.
“The senior class that’s leaving South Oak Cliff this year is the best senior class to ever play football at South Oak Cliff,” Todd said. “They’ve won 12 straight games; they’ve played in over 14 playoff games. These guys have laid the groundwork for future classes to come behind them to keep going. Now, it becomes a tradition, an annual thing.”
A year ago, South Oak Cliff became the first inner-city school to win a state title since San Antonio Roosevelt in 1995. Now after back-to-back titles, Todd said it’s further evidence that inner-city schools can compete at the highest levels of high school sports.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Todd said of winning at inner-city schools. “[But] if you work hard and get your right administration and get people to buy in and believe in you, anything is possible.”
But before there was any talk of the future or of setting an example for other schools across Texas, the Golden Bears first had to find a way to win on Friday.
Trailing 17-5 late in the second quarter, South Oak Cliff went on a 26-0 run over just 12 minutes of game time to turn the contest on its head.
Todd said his team’s response was a testament to the resiliency of his players.
“With the way this season has been, it was the way we would’ve envisioned for it to end: it would be a test of character from being down,” Todd said. “We’ve been down a few times this year, but one thing I’ll say about our kids and our coaches is we always find a way to claw ourselves out of a hole that we dig ourselves into.”
Golden Bear quarterback William Little played a big role in the comeback. He beat Port Neches-Groves several times on Friday with his deep ball, finishing the night with 235 yards and a touchdown on just nine completions.
Defensively, Manny Muhammad put an exclamation point on proceedings late in the third quarter, intercepting a pass from PNG quarterback Cole Crippen and taking it 41 yards to the house to put the Golden Bears up 31-17.
🚨 PICK 6 FOR THE BEARS 🚨
The @TexasFootball commit @Returnof7 puts more defensive points on the board!!! 🤯
@SOCGoldenBearFB 🐻: 31@pngindians_com 🟣: 17@uiltexas | @dallasathletics | #TXHSFB | 📺: BSSW Extra pic.twitter.com/QYjj0QPswy— BallySportsTXHS (@BallySportsTXHS) December 17, 2022
Muhammad left South Oak Cliff briefly in the spring of 2021 to go to IMG Academy before returning for the 2021 season. After the events of Friday night, Todd said that it was the perfect way for Muhammad’s Golden Bear career to end.
“Manny was great to this program,” Todd said. “We haven’t lost a playoff game since he came back. He’s a two-time state champ. He can go to a lot of colleges and do a lot of great things, but they are going to always say he’s a two-time champ at South Oak Cliff and that’s going to live forever.”
But while South Oak Cliff celebrated back-to-back titles, Port Neches-Groves was left wondering what could have been in its first trip to a state title game since 1999.
PNG head coach Jeff Joseph said that while he was proud of his team’s effort, the Indians didn’t play a clean enough game on the night to win.
“We battled; we had tough kids that played hard,” Joseph said. “We made too many mistakes, especially in that third quarter to win a game like that where you’re playing against a team with that many talented guys. But we kept fighting and that’s who we are.”
But while the game didn’t end as they would’ve hoped, the Indians started proceedings off with a bang. After just 68 seconds, Crippen found Landon Guarnere in behind the South Oak Cliff defense for a 53-yard touchdown to give Port Neches-Groves an early lead.
AND JUST LIKE THAT‼️ THE INDIANS ARE ON THE BOARD!😤
WR @GuarnereLandon was WIDE open for the 50+ yd TD call!
@SOCGoldenBearFB 🐻: 0@pngindians_com 🟣: 7@uiltexas | #TXHSFB | 📺: BSSW Extra pic.twitter.com/plA8VTFyJr— BallySportsTXHS (@BallySportsTXHS) December 17, 2022
The Golden Bears looked set for a quick response, but three straight runs for minimal gain inside the five yard line caused them to settle for a 21-yard field goal by Diego Varela.
The Indians tacked on a field goal of their own at the start of the second quarter after a successful 39-yard attempt by Andres Sandoval. However, South Oak Cliff got two points back on PNG’s next possession after Golden Bear linebacker Brandon Jones sacked Crippen in the end zone for a safety.
After a slow couple possessions, the offenses woke up again at the end of the half. Isaiah Nguyen ripped off a 59-yard run before Shea Adams scored for the Indians on a three-yard scamper on the ensuing play.
Unfazed, the Golden Bears answered with a touchdown of their own on a jump ball pass from Little to his receiver Trey Jackson. That 16-yard connection cut the Port Neches-Groves lead to 17-12 at the half.
But after a tight first half, South Oak Cliff blew the game open in the third quarter.
Little connected with Rickey Evans for a 54-yard gain on the first offensive play of the half, but the Golden Bears ended up settling for Varela’s second field goal of the afternoon after failing to produce anything else on the drive.
PNG then had a disaster of a punt attempt as the ball sailed over Crippen’s head and into the end zone. Crippen had little choice but to bat it behind him for a game-tying safety.
The Golden Bears kept the momentum rolling following the safety as Little scored on a quarterback keeper from three yards out to give South Oak Cliff its first lead of the game.
William Little coming up BIG to give THE GOLDEN BEARS THE LEAD!!
@SOCGoldenBearFB 🐻: 24@PNGIndians 🟣: 17@uiltexas | @DallasAthletics | #TXHSFB | 📺: BSSW Extra pic.twitter.com/uyfoiR70HS— BallySportsTXHS (@BallySportsTXHS) December 17, 2022
Muhammad then added his pick-six on a play that also saw Crippen leave the game due to injury. With Crippen out, the Indians could only muster a late consolation touchdown after South Oak Cliff had already gone up by three scores following Varela’s third field goal of the game.
But despite the loss, Guarnere said Joseph’s impact in his first season as head coach was evident as the Indians went on a run that the city of Port Neches-Groves will talk about for decades to come.
“I just want to thank Coach for coming in and turning this whole program around,” Guarnere said. “Nobody in our city thought we had a chance at any of this but really we made history.”
Meanwhile, for South Oak Cliff, while Friday night will go down in the football record books, Todd said it means much more than that to him and his players.
It’s an accomplishment they’ll get to cherish the rest of their lives.
“I tell them all the time, people fade away, things change, but those memories will last forever,” Todd said. “When they get to be my age or older, they’re going to think back on some of these times and realize how special they were.”
Offensive MVP: QB William Little, South Oak Cliff,
Little wasn’t the starting quarterback for the Golden Bears in the preseason, but he showed why he was on Friday night, throwing for 235 yards and a touchdown while adding seven yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Defensive MVP: DB Manny Muhammad, South Oak Cliff
Muhammad had the pick-six in the late third quarter that gave the Golden Bears a two-possession lead heading to the fourth quarter. He finished with two total tackles in addition to his interception.
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