Aledo overpowers Crosby to record 10th state championship.
Cougars keep pace early, but Bearcats power their way to record 10th crown
ARLINGTON — Crosby’s reward for taking down four consecutive undefeated playoff opponents was the chance to topple history in Friday’s Class 5A Division II championship game at AT&T Stadium.
Aledo wouldn’t let its own opportunity falter, though.
The Bearcats stand alone in University Interscholastic League history with 10 state championships after a 56-21 win over Crosby in front of 10,684 fans at AT&T Stadium, which was limited to no more than 17,000 fans this week because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Aledo has won three consecutive state titles and eight in the last decade. Crosby joins Houston-area teams La Marque (2010), Manvel (2011) and Fort Bend Marshall (2018, 2019) in coming up short against the state’s Class 5A dynasty.
Aledo has DeMarco Roberts to thank this time. He galloped to six rushing touchdowns on 31 carries for 254 yards. Roberts, who has signed with Lamar, was two touchdowns shy of former Aledo great Johnathan Gray’s 5A record eight against La Marque in the 2010 title game. Aledo coach Tim Buchanan said Roberts actually hoped to reach the total considering who held the record.
“He was huge,” Crosby coach Jerry Prieto said of Roberts, adding the 5foot-8, 160-pound tailback is worthy of the game’s Offensive MVP award he received. “It’s tough. There’s a lot of different things to try to take away from them offensively. Man, that kid plays a whole lot bigger than he is. Obviously, you see on it on film and everything like that but we saw it in person today.”
Much of the focus for Aledo is on receiver JoJo Earle (Alabama) and rightfully so. After Crosby opened the game’s scoring with Deniquez Dunn’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Jaylen Herman, Earle’s 74-yard touchdown catch-and-run came three plays later. Earle also gave Crosby’s defense fits taking snaps in the Wildcat formation.
Aledo’s 21-0 run in the second
quarter told the tale, too. The two biggest plays of the day for the Bearcats, though, were Clay Murador’s 21-yard run on fourthand-12 off a fake punt and Cap Mooney’s interception in the first half.
Crosby’s defense earned its only stop of the day against Aledo before Murador’s back-breaking run. The fake punt led to Roberts’ 5-yard touchdown and 21-14 lead with eight minutes left before halftime. What could’ve been a three-and-out ended as a five-minute, 12-play drive.
Knowing Crosby’s ability to block punts, Buchanan told the sophomore kicker Murador to take the ball left if he saw the rush coming. Buchanan calls Murador the fastest player at school.
“That was probably the play that changed the game,” Buchanan said.
Mooney’s interception came on Crosby’s next offensive possession.
Then, Roberts made Crosby pay with his third touchdown run of the game and a 28-14 Aledo lead. Roberts’ fourth score gave Aledo the 35-14 halftime lead.
Before the Aledo onslaught, Crosby went toe-to-toe with the Bearcats, scoring on its first two drives. Dunn’s touchdown pass came from an 11-play, 75-yard drive with five first downs.
Crosby’s next drive was kept alive when Aledo was penalized for roughing the punter. Receiver Irvin Paige’s 43-yard circus catch set up running back Reggie Branch’s 2-yard touchdown run and gave Crosby a 14-7 lead with 5:02 left in the first quarter.
Roberts and Aledo’s offense kept pace and eventually outpaced the Cougars.
Dunn made sure Crosby would at least get one more say
with his 7-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. Branch is the other 1,500-yard passer for the Cougars this year, but he was used all over the offense while Dunn took snaps under center Friday.
Prieto mentioned Dunn playing
with a lingering ankle injury from the regional semifinals against Huntsville and spirit at the end of Friday’s game as examples of the kind of player he is.
“There’s never been a doubt in my mind he’s going to get out
there and he’s going to make plays,” Prieto said. “He’s a special player and a special competitor. He wants the ball in his hands and he wants to make plays when he goes out there and he does. He keeps fighting. He’s up there pumping kids up on the sideline. Two minutes left in the game, we’re down 56-21 and he’s still a positive role model on the sideline for us.”
A remarkable season ends with a state runner-up trophy for Crosby. The Cougars hoped for the first state title in their 97-year history, last playing for it all in 1960. The wins over previously undefeated Texarkana, Huntsville, Fort Bend Marshall and Liberty Hill make this a team to remember.
“It felt good winning the games and sending teams home,” Dunn said. “Again, we worked hard for it. It all made sense in the end. We grinded our tail off. We had a bad COVID outbreak that kind of set us back. We missed a whole bunch of workouts to work out with each other.
“We still found a way to put in the work and just us coming together and making a long playoff run was special for the community and us as a whole. We enjoyed the run that we had.”