Photo by Brian McLean
BY NOLAN RUTH
X – @RealNolanRuth
ARLINGTON— Two top 10 winningest head coaches in the state of Texas went head-to-head on Saturday in the 5A Division I state championship game between Larry Hill’s Smithson Valley Rangers and Randy Allen’s Highland Park Scots.
Hill became the head coach for a struggling Smithson Valley program in 1993 and quickly turned it into a contender. However, the Rangers were never quite able to reach the pinnacle of high school football. In four previous state appearances, Smithson Valley was 0-4.
Randy Allen, on the other hand, has been coaching since 1981 with prior stops at Brownwood, Ballinger and Abilene Cooper before coming to Highland Park in 1999. Under his leadership, the Scots returned to their traditional dominance that was seen in the mid-20th century. Highland Park has won four state titles under Allen.
Two coaches with old-school styles of approach made for a tight contest that did not see an abundance of big plays, but rather methodical drives down the field with Smithson Valley coming out on top 32-20 with the help of its special teams.
It is the first state championship for Hill in his coaching career, and the first in the history of the Smithson Valley program after decades of always being the bridesmaid and never the bride.
“We’ve been close a lot,” an emotional Hill said in his postgame press conference. “We’ve had eight trips to the semifinals, four of those into the final itself. It’s just always someone else who wins it. You know, my dad used to tell me ‘Son, you just keep pitching those washers. You gotta get it around the hole enough and one of these times that sucker is going to flip over and roll in there.’ – Dad, today it did.”
Kicker Trent Amaya went 4-5 on field goals in the game with his longest coming from 35 yards away. He was also 2-2 on extra points for a total of 14 of the Rangers’ 32 points.
The first two field goals came in the first quarter after Highland Park took a quick lead on a 49-yard pass from Buck Randall to Cannon Bozman.
Randall then did it again with a 76-yard touchdown pass to Benton Owens. Finally, Smithson Valley found the end zone with a defensive touchdown when Julian Colunga jumped the route and ran 23 yards for a pick-six, making the score 14-13 after one quarter.
The interception drastically changed the course of the game, and though Colunga only added a tackle to his stat line, the big play was enough to earn him Defensive MVP honors in the game.
The Rangers scored again in the second quarter when quarterback Cade Spradling connected with Brody Day from 24 yards out.
Spradling, who plays both quarterback and linebacker, earned Offensive MVP honors with his performance. He completed five of 12 pass attempts for 61 yards and a touchdown, but really made the difference on the ground, rushing for 147 yards on 25 carries and the final touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Amaya then added his third field goal of the game before Sutton Stock hit a pair of field goals for the Scots to make the score 23-20 at halftime, in favor of Highland Park.
The Scots never found the scoreboard again as the Smithson Valley defense buckled down and got the stops necessary to give the offense a chance. Amaya finished his day with his fourth field goal in the third quarter, and Spradling put the stamp on the win with a four yard keeper in the fourth quarter, bringing the final score to 32-20.
