Celina throttles Kilgore, wins 9th Texas high school football championship

Celina cruised past Kilgore 55-21 on Friday, leaving no doubt in the UIL 4A Division I state football championship game.

It marks a whopping nine Texas state titles for Celina, but its first in 20 years.

The game was one of 12 throughout a jam-packed weekend of Texas state finals at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

For exactly one quarter and one play, this game looked like it was going to be neck-and-neck for four quarters.

Celina scored its first two touchdowns on long passes from Bowe Bentley to Ethan Rucker, going up 13-7 less than seven minutes into the game before its PAT was blocked. In between them was Kilgore’s opening score, a rushing touchdown by Isaiah Watters. Kilgore took its only lead of the game at 14-13 on the first play of the second quarter when Javon Towns took a screen pass from Kayson Brooks to the end zone.

After that, it was all Celina.

Braden Johnson hit two field goals as the second quarter wound on to put the Bobcats up 16-14 and 19-14, and they went up 27-14 with 41 seconds left on a pair of passing scores. Colton Rodriguez caught a 50-yard touchdown from Bentley, who subsequently got a conversion on a play-action pass to Wyatt Villarreal.

Any hope of a Kilgore comeback was quickly quashed when Kilgore punted on its first drive of the second half and Celina caught fire. Rodriguez scored his second touchdown catch of the game with 7:26 left in the third quarter, and the Bobcats scored three more touchdowns before the quarter was over to go up 55-14 with 1:09 left therein. First on an interception-return touchdown by Luke Biagini, then on a touchdown run from Harrison Williams, and third on a touchdown pass from Bentley to Villarreal. Rucker added to his big night around the five-minute mark of the third quarter with a diving interception on defense.

Kilgore did get one more touchdown in before the night was over on a nice reception by La’Keyleon Graves from Brooks to win the fourth quarter 7-0.

Bentley was named the offensive player of the game with 265 yards, five touchdowns, and zero interceptions on 9-14 completion. His five touchdowns passes tied him for second on the 4A state championship record list. Biagini was named the defensive player of the game, totaling nine tackles and half a sack in addition to his pick-six.