The final day of the Texas (UIL) high school football state championships wrapped up the 2024 season on Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

The last day of the Texas high school football season saw thousands converge for the Class 5A Division I finals and the Class 6A Division I and II finals. The last game was the highest attended of the 12 championships with 36,120 people.

The three games on Saturday featured 81,113 fans.

Read below for recaps and final scores of each of the state finals Saturday.

Fort Worth North Crowley 50, Austin Westlake 14

For the first time 76 years, the city of Fort Worth has a state football championship in UIL’s highest classification.

Chris Jimerson Jr. has a unique role as the North Crowley quarterback.

The North Texas signee played varsity for four years and was a three-year starter for the Panthers.

In his final game at the helm, he guided the Panthers to a 50-21 win over Austin Westlake to secure the school’s second state championship. North Crowley rolled up 640 yards of total offense, the second most ever in 6A final history and only the third team to surpass 600 yards in 6A championship game history.

The state record is held by Allen’s 2013 team against Pearland with 670. Jimerson threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 63 yards and another touchdown.

“All props to my O-Line and my receivers for making plays,” Jimerson said. “It feels real good to put the ball out there and know that receivers are going to get it. It relieves a lot of stress off of me just know I don’t have to go make a play every time. We have a lot of weapons.”

How deep were the Panthers? 

Running back Cornelius Warren III, who recently decommited from UNLV after a coaching change, ran for 217 yards and didn’t get the Offensive MVP nod. Neither did Jimerson.

That honor went to Colorado signee Quentin Gibson, who had 7 catches for 181 yards and 3 touchdowns. He provided a pair of highlight-worthy catches with a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the game — a flea flicker from Warren to Jimerson to a wide-open Gibson, who traversed across the field in 15 seconds. 

He pointed to his ring finger as he crossed into the end zone — foreshadowing the outcome of the title game.

Gibson finished his season as the all-time DFW leader in touchdowns in a single season with 36, passing current Seattle Seahawk Jaxon Smith-Njibga, who had 35 in 2019 at Rockwall, which was the 6A record until tonight.

He also broke a tie with Cee Dee Lamb from Richmond Foster, who had 33 in 2015.

Gibson, who did the Deion Sanders touchdown celebration after his second touchdown, is now fourth all-time in UIL history for single-season touchdown catches.

North Crowley capped the year with a 16-0 record and improved to 42-2 over the past two seasons. This year, they knocked off nationally ranked DeSoto and Duncanville — members of the District of Doom — this season.

It was a meteoric rise for a program that had been rather pedestrian, or worse, most years since starting varsity football in 1998. The Panthers won a state title in 2003 but had losing records every year from 2006-2019.

Before the hiring of Ray Gates as head coach, North Crowley’s all-time record was 83-160.

Under the watchful eye of Gates, the Panthers are 42-2 and likely will be the highest-ranked public school when the SB Live/SI Top 25 poll comes out next week.

“I couldn’t have scripted this any better,” Gates said. “So much has come together to do what we were able to do in such a short amount of time.”

North Crowley is the first school from Fort Worth to win a state title in UIL’s highest classification since Arlington Heights won a title in 1948.

A big turning point came late in the second quarter. North Crowley was up 14-7 but Westlake had the ball inside the Panthers’ red zone. Running back Grady Bartlett ran the ball and the ball popped loose, but officials called him down by contact. Since it is the state finals, video reviews happen.

The call was overturned and North Crowley was given the ball at the 5-yard line. 

North Crowley then marched 95 yards on 12 plays and took 6:28 off the clock. Gibson capped the drive with a 44-yard touchdown that turned what could’ve been a 14-14 game into 21-7.

“That’s the good and the bad about replaying high school football in the finals,” Westlake coach Tony Salazar said. “It’s good when it goes your way and bad when it doesn’t. But obviously, they saw it and you live with it and move on. Our deal was just not responding on defense after that call and finding a way to get off the field and get the ball back to the offense again.”

Spring Branch Smithson Valley 32, Dallas Highland Park 20

One of the most decorated coaches in Texas history, in terms of wins, finally added a crowning achievement to his resume.

Larry Hill guided Smithson Valley to its first state title Saturday morning in a 32-20 win over Dallas Highland Park in front of 18,746 fans at AT&T Stadium.

Smith has led the Rangers to the semifinals eight times and into the finals four times, including last year, but had yet to post a win in the final game of the season.

The game pitted two of the winningest coaches in Texas football history against each other — Highland Park’s Randy Allen, who is No. 2 in wins and Hill, who is No. 9. 

“In my career, it is always the game someone else gets to win, and you begin to wonder if you’ll win it ever,” Hill said. “I’ve been to the finals five times now, and they are always quality teams or they are not in the finals. It’s a storied program, and there is no one I have more respect for than Randy Allen. The way he coaches and the way his staff runs the program, the way the kids play hard with class and the winning tradition. Before he retires he will be the winningest coach in the history of Texas high school football. He’s a friend; he’s someone I deeply respect … I’m just glad he lost today.”

Hill concluded his 32nd year with a state title in a game that featured six field goals, a defensive touchdown and a late rushing score that iced the win. 

The Rangers (14-2) became the first San Antonio-area school to take home a state title since Cibolo Steele won the Class 5A Division II crown in 2010.

Highland Park (14-2) struck first with a 49-yard touchdown pass by Buck Randall to Cannon Bozman in the first quarter. Trent Amaya kicked a pair of field goals to keep the Rangers close.

A 73-yard touchdown by Randall to Benton Owens extended the Scots’ lead to 14-6 with 2:19 left. Highland Park got the ball back with a chance to take a two-score lead, but Julian Colunga stepped in front of a pass intended for Brandon Lilly and ran it back for a 23-yard touchdown.

The Rangers pulled within a point and early in the second, Offensive MVP Cade Spradling connected with Brody Day for a 24-yard touchdown. The score with 8:58 left gave the Rangers the lead for the first — and last — time. 

Spradling had a 4-yard touchdown run with 3:39 left to ice the win.

Hill praised the quarterback/linebacker who ran for 147 yards and a touchdown, threw for 61 yards and a touchdown and was tied for second on his team with five tackles.

“He’s had other opportunities to win but fell short, and we are happy we are the team that could get it done for him,” Spradling said of giving Hill his first title. 

Amaya kicked four field goals to tie a UIL record for most in a championship game. He missed his fifth attempt in the fourth — from 24 yards — that would’ve set the new record.

Incidentally, the four field goals have happened four times in UIL history and in back-to-back years too. Port-Neches Groves’ Gio Oceguera booted four to help the Indians win the Class 5A Division II finals last fall.

Smithson Valley gave up only 49 yards rushing on 24 attempts by the Scots — forcing them to pass 35 times. Randall threw for 216 yards with two touchdowns but was intercepted twice and sacked three times. 

“Smithson Valley controlled the ball; we weren’t able to that, as far as running the football and sustaining drives,” Allen said. “We had momentum early in the game, and we let it slip away from us. I could never get anything going offensively in the second half to turn the momentum.”

The Rangers had 64 yards passing but ran for 297 yards with Brad Sowersby rushing for 152 to lead the team. He and Spradling combined for 47 of the 51 carries. 

“We didn’t sign anybody (to play in college) a couple of weeks ago, and we aren’t leading in the area or the state in anything,” Hill said. “We are just a bunch of grunts playing hard, and they play for an old grunt coach. I think there is still a place for old-school football.”

Smithson Valley beats Highland Park to win Texas Class 5A Division 1 state championship: Live updates recap

Austin Vandegrift 24, Southlake Carroll 17

Another Austin team kept Southlake Carroll from winning state title No. 9

Carroll lost to Austin Westlake in the 2020 state championship game and lost facing Austin Vandegrift in the second game Saturday in front of 26,247 fans. 

The state title is the first for the Vipers (15-1) and comes after a runner-up finish in 2022 to DeSoto.

Vandegrift held Southlake to a season-low 17 points and handed the Dragons (15-1) their first loss of the season and only the fifth in the last five years. 

Vandegrift built a 21-7 lead in the first half and then held off a Southlake rally in the second. Brendan Fournier ran for a score and caught a touchdown for the Vipers, while George Farley hauled in an 84-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.

His connection from quarterback Miles Teodeck — the Offensive MVP — was the longest-ever touchdown catch in Class 6A history.

The Vipers essentially made Southlake’s offense one-dimensional by taking away the rushing game, giving up 53 yards on 17 carries.

That led to Southlake passing the ball 38 times, and the Vipers picked off two passes and forced a fumble on another completion — a valiant effort without leading tackler Hollister Stephens, who was hurt on the first play of the game and came into the postgame press conference on crutches.

The Vipers defense forced a turnover on downs late in the fourth, clinging to a 24-14 lead. Southlake got down to the 1-yard line with 2:52 to play, but a 4-yard loss on a run stopped by Adam Scott and three straight incomplete passes followed that essentially iced the win.

“What’s amazing about that it wasn’t like, ‘Oh my gosh, we need to stop this,’ because this is the first time we’ve been here,” Scott said. “We’ve been doing this all year. Coach prepares us every single week to make those big plays that we ended up having to, but once we got off the field, it really started to set in that we have a very good chance to be a state champion.”

Southlake coach Riley Dodge said he felt the team needed a touchdown on that drive, which would’ve pulled the team within 24-21. 

Vandegrift punted the ball back and Southlake got a field goal from Gavin Strange from 47 yards out with 1 second left. 

The onside kick didn’t work and the game ended.

“It hurts. You put a lot into it, right?” Dodge said. “These kids put a lot into it. The staff puts a lot into it. Our families put a lot into it. Just trying to look at it in the sense of giving God the glory for it. Man, we’re very, very blessed to be here in this and have the opportunity to compete on this stage. You know, obviously, you have to give the glory when you win and you got to give glory when you lose, right? Obviously, it hurts, no matter what.”

Teodecki was named the Offensive MVP after completing 14 of 17 passes for 248 yards for the Vipers — despite playing with a hurt finger in the finals. 

Austin Vandegrift beats Southlake Carroll for 1st Texas high school football title: Live updates recap