Photo: Brian McLean
BY BRIAN GOSSET
X – @gosset41
ARLINGTON – Only one Texas high school football player has rushed for 10 touchdowns in a single UIL state championship game all-time…Jayton senior Bode Ham.
Ham’s 9-yard TD run with 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter gave him a UIL 1A champ game record 10 rushing touchdowns as the Jaybirds beat Richland Springs 99-54 in the Class 1A D2 final on Wednesday at AT&T Stadium.
Jayton (15-0) goes back-to-back and secures its fourth title overall. Richland Springs (12-2) was denied its 10th title which would’ve made the Coyotes the third UIL school to win 10 championships.
Ham was voted both offensive MVP and defensive MVP. He finished with eight total tackles, seven solo tackles, three tackles for loss and one pass deflection. Along with his 10 rushing TDs, Ham gained 430 yards on the ground (third most) – 32 shy of breaking the 1A champ record, 13 total touchdowns (most), 118 passing yards and 63 yards on kickoff returns.
McLean’s Ben Crockett had nine and 12, respectively in 2018 vs Milford.
Ham mentioned that someone told him he tied the record and then he went over to tell coach Josh Stanaland that he wanted to go back in. Ham’s record-tying TD came from 34 yards out with 2:34 left in the fourth quarter. The Jaybirds defense was able to get Ham the ball back when Tucker Scott intercepted a pass and returned it 32 yards to the Richland Springs 15.
“It’s incredible. It’s a special group of kids,” Stanaland said. “To do what they’ve done the last two years – winning a state title is hard and then coming back the next year wearing a big bullseye all year long and getting back and doing it again. I want to make it abundantly clear that without a doubt we have the best kids in our division. We needed to win two state championships. I take no credit as the football coach, we have great leaders and I just steer the ship now and then. This is a player-led team.”
The Coyotes led for just 15 seconds when Billy Perry’s 6-yard run made it 8-0 with 8:38 in the first quarter. Ham connected 51 yards to Dayton Bleiker that tied the game.
Ham added touchdown runs in the first quarter of 51 and 33 yards while Perry caught a 30-yard pass from Ethan Deeds for Richland Springs. Jayton added two points and led 26-16 after the period following a minus-4 yard punt from the end zone that didn’t cross the goal line. Richland Springs had fourth-and-34 and lined up in the punt formation, but then tried to get an offensive play off before Deeds was pressured by a Jayton defender.
Ham scored three more times in the second quarter from 62, 50 and 22 yards. He had 260 yards rushing and five touchdowns at the intermission. He also threw a 32-yard TD to Colt Gentry as time expired for a 53-30 halftime lead.
Ham scored touchdown runs of 1, 34, 7, 34 and 9 yards in the second half to help break the record. His third touchdown pass came 35 yards to Bleiker with nine seconds left in the third quarter that gave Jayton a 85-46 lead. The Jaybirds totaled 605 yards on offense compared to 390 for Richland Springs.
The Coyotes were led in the passing game by Deeds (10-16-141-2) and Perry (4-10-115-2). Perry added 47 yards on four catches while Layne Ward had five grabs, 118 yards and a 76-yard TD pass from Perry in the fourth quarter – the second longest pass and receiving TD in 1A champ game history (1st – 78).
Deeds also made nine total tackles.
Sean Stanaland, Josh’s cousin, had a team-high nine tackles for Jayton along with a sack that resulted in an 18-yard loss.
“It’s some of the greatest memories I’ll have in high school,” Sean Stanaland said. “We won a state championship last year (Jayton beat Oakwood 54-8 for its first title since 1985) and we had a great group of seniors. We wanted to make history and go back-to-back and we knew we had a target on our back. Anything shy of that, it would’ve felt like it was a letdown for the season. We had to work hard to replace those roles from the seniors and everyone stepped up and filled those gaps. It’s really amazing that I can say we went back-to-back in football. It feels accomplished that I got to win my last game.”
