Austin Westlake, North Crowley set to meet for Texas 6A-I state title after huge upsets

High school football season in Texas has finally reached its crescendo, with the state championship matchups locked in for next weekend.

The remaining bracket has some surprises, but arguably none are bigger than what we’ve seen in Class 6A-Division I. Duncanville, the No. 1 team in the state and No. 2 program nationally in the On3 Composite High School Football Team Ranking, is out. The Panthers, who have rolled over competition all year long, finally ran into their match on Thursday night against North Crowley.

Those Panthers jumped out to a 15-0 lead early in the second quarter after a pair of touchdowns and 26-yard field goal. Duncanville responded with 21 unanswered points to take the lead early in the third quarter. The teams traded touchdowns over the next quarter and a half, with North Crowley taking a 36-27 with a little more than three minutes left in the game.

Alabama Five-Star Plus+ quarterback signee Keelon Russell led a quick drive that got Duncanville within 36-34 with 3:00 left to go and three timeouts still at their disposal.

Crowley was eventually able to run out the clock after a couple of first downs, scoring one of the biggest upsets in recent Texas high school football playoff memory. It also avenged last season’s 52-10 semifinal loss to the same Duncanville squad.

Next weekend’s state championship game with mark the first time since 2020 that Duncanville won’t be playing on the final weekend of the season. And it also ends their attempt for a third straight 6A-I title, something done only once in the past two decades by Allen from 2012-14.

North Shore goes down on the other side of the bracket

The title game will also be the first that doesn’t feature either Duncanville and Houston North Shore since 2020 after the Mustangs were upset by Austin Westlake in a 35-10 blowout.

North Shore rolled to a 13-0 record coming into the game, having dominated its regular season opponents before winning each of their playoff bouts by 14-plus points. They boasted one of the state’s top defenses all season, but couldn’t slow down Westlake’s offense early on. The Chaparrals jumped out to a 21-3 lead in the first half after scoring on three consecutive possessions.

The Mustangs cut it to 21-10 with four minutes left to go in the second quarter, but never scored again as Westlake tacked on two more scores. The Chaps will now look to win their first 6A-I title since 2020 after winning at 6A-II in both 2019 and 2021.

“We weren’t going to lose to them for the third time in a row,” quarterback Rees Wise told the Austin-American Statesman. “We played offense, defense, special teams all together. That’s how we came out on top.”