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West Orange Stark Denies Celina 9th Title

West Orange-Stark (15-1) vs. Celina (15-1)
Texas High School Football Class 4A DII State Championship
4:00 p.m. Friday, NRG Stadium, Houston

NRG Stadium - The Mustangs from West Orange Stark won the Class 3A Division II Championship with a 22-3 over the Celina Bobcats.   West Orange Stark is now 3-3 in state championship games.  They also won in 1986 and 1987.  They were the runner up last year and in 1988 and 2001.   The Bobcats were denied their chance to become the first school with 9 state championships.  They fall to 7-3-1 in championship games.   They won titles in 1974, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2007.

West Orange-Stark Head Coach Cornell Thomas said that he knew Monday during practice that they would win the football game calling it, "probably the best Monday workout practice we have had all year."

Celina took the opening drive and drove all the way to the West Orange-Stark 3 yard line where they fumbled the ball away.   Starting quarterback Conner Pingleton was hurt on the drive and was out for the rest of the game.  The Bobcat offense never seemed to recover from the loss.

Celina Head Coach Bill Elliott when asked about the loss of QB Conner Pingleton, "It's  huge blow to you.  When he's such a big part of our offense.  When you lose him, it's a huge letdown mentally.  Defense rallied - fought their tail off all night.  It was just hard against their defense without having Conner out there to get anything going offensively." 

The teams traded punts before Celina recovered a fumble at the West Orange-Stark 11 yard line.   Because the ball spent all the time thus far on Celina's side of the field, the Bobcats were able to get a field goal out of it to take a 3-0 lead.   The Mustangs were driving when the first quarter ended.

The teams traded punts to open the 2nd quarter.   West Orange-Stark was able to get things rolling then and went on a 70 yard drive and quarterback Jack Dallas scampered in from 4 yards out.   After the 2 pt conversion, the Mustangs led 8-3 with  6:12 left until halftime.

West Orange-Stark was able to get on the board again before halftime with a 2 play 58 yard drive.   Running back Jeremiah Shaw  scored on a 21 yard run to make the score 14-3 with 3:54 remaining.  That is how the half ended.

The Mustangs dominated the first half in terms of statistics.  The Bobcat offense could not get going without their quarterback.  For the half, WOS had 14 first downs to Celina’s 3.    Celina was 1 of 7 on 3rd down conversions and 1 of 2 on 4th down.

West Orange-Stark opened the 2nd half with a 70 yard drive.  Offensive MVP and birthday boy, Jack Dallas scored on a 30 yard run on a 4th down play to put the Mustangs up 22-3.   There was no more scoring in the game.  The defenses played great.   Celina came up with a big stop in the 4th as they forced a turnover on downs at their own 1 yard line.  

Jack Dallas commented after the game, "The whole team won this game. Every player on the team had a job and to win this game every player had to execute it."

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Postgame Video ** Premium Content

Game notes:

 

  • Celina High School (293 miles) vs. West Orange-Stark High School (114 miles)
  • None of West Orange-Stark’s wins have come by fewer than 10 points
  • West Orange-Stark defense only allowed 11 ppg including 5 shutouts
  • Celina offense had scored more than 40 points in every game since the start of September.
  • Celina defense held opponents under 14 points 9 times
  • Total Offense  Celina - 212   WOS - 369
  • 3rd & 4th downs  Celina 3 of 15    WOS - 6 of 14
  • WOS QB Jack Dallas   139 yards passing  39 yards rushing  2 touchdowns

Attendance: 13,635

Players of the game:
Offense- #3 Jack Dallas
Defense- #40 Steven Tims

Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
Celina 3 0 0 0  - 3
West Orange-Stark 0 14 8 0  - 22

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