La Vega entered the Class 4A Division I state championship game on the strength of being one of the most dominating teams in its class this season. The Pirates had a chance to add to their multiple state titles of this decade.
But the Carthage Bulldogs could say the same.
In a game with dramatic momentum shifts worthy of the state-title round, Carthage made the plays late in the second quarter and throughout the third that tilted the contest in its favor.
The Bulldogs strung together four straight touchdowns to roll past La Vega for a 42-28 victory on Friday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.
Carthage (16-0) celebrated its seventh state championship and fifth of this decade.
Meanwhile, La Vega (14-2), which previously won state titles in 2015 and 2018, fell a game short in its quest to claim back-to-back crowns.
Pirates coach Don Hyde didn’t spend any time on moral victories in his postgame press conference.
“At La Vega High School, the goal is to win a state championship,” Hyde said. “We didn’t get that done today. So we’re going to start when we get back from Christmas, go to work on doing it next year. When you sit up here and you’re not successful in this final game, it just lights a fire in you even harder to go harder the next year.”
The Carthage offense, which piled up 496 total yards, landed a couple of haymakers in the third quarter and refused to let La Vega regain the momentum.
Bulldogs quarterback Kai Horton went over the top of the Pirates defense and hit wide receiver Kelvontay Dixon in stride for a 63-yard touchdown. The strike gave Carthage a 28-14 lead less than two minutes into the second half.
Dixon finished with seven catches for 120 yards and three touchdowns to earn offensive player of the game.
Hyde said Dixon’s ability on the outside made it difficult for the Pirates to draw up a scheme to stop the Bulldogs. That came into play later in the third quarter.
La Vega was trying to stop another Bulldogs drive when Carthage running back Mason Courtney converted a fourth-and-one from his own 46. Courtney got to the edge and streaked his way to a 54-yard touchdown and a 35-14 advantage.
“I think it was a huge play,” Carthage coach Scott Surratt said. “The block by Kel Williams, the receiver to spring him on that was unbelievable. Mason had a big game for us and that was a huge play in the game to get us up (three) touchdowns.”
Courtney rushed for 229 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries.
Carthage began turning the momentum late in the second quarter.
Bulldogs defensive back Miles Halton broke up a pass by La Vega quarterback Landry Kinne on fourth-and-three from the Carthage 31. It initially appeared that Halton intercepted the pass at the 18, but a review showed it was incomplete and the Bulldogs gained 13 yards of field position with exactly two minutes left before the break.
Carthage used it as it went 69 yards to score a touchdown with three seconds remaining in the second quarter.
Horton took the shotgun snap with about 10 seconds left in the period and found Dixon near the goal line. The Bulldogs receiver eluded two La Vega defenders long enough to fall into the end zone and put his team ahead 21-14.
“If you don’t at least cheat to him … then he’s going to do a great job and make a lot of plays on you,” Hyde said. “And even when we did that he made a lot of plays on us. Right there before the half we had him double covered. … They threw it to him and he caught it for a touchdown.”
Dixon’s score just before the end of the second quarter gave Carthage its first lead of the game after La Vega controlled the early stages.
Pirates running back Elisha Cummings darted through a hole on the left side and sprinted in for a 19-yard touchdown that gave La Vega the initial 7-0 lead with 2:53 left in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs responded on their next possession by driving 54 yards in seven plays. Horton got the march started with a 25-yard completion to Dixon. Courtney finished it with a five-yard touchdown run to tie the contest at 7.
La Vega running backs Jar’Quae Walton and Cummings teamed up to give La Vega the lead back.
First, Walton broke loose for a 50-yard run deep into Bulldogs territory. On the next play, Cummings started to his right, then reversed field and found wide-open space on the left side. He cruised in for a 15-yard touchdown and a 14-7 edge with 9:13 remaining in the second quarter.
But Carthage hit back by scoring 28-straight points.
Horton got the surge started when he threw a well-placed fade pass to Dixon for 22 yards that tied the game at 14 midway through the second quarter.
“They’re a really good football team offensively,” Hyde said. “We knew we were going to have our hands full. We tried to take away some things in the passing game and as a result they were able to run the football on us. They put us in a bind and anytime you’re in a bind, it’s no fun to coach defense.”
La Vega put together a four-play, 80-yard touchdown drive midway through the third quarter to cut Carthage’s lead to 14 points. Cummings broke multiple tackles and eventually found open field for a 58-yard run to the Bulldogs’ 12. Walton did the rest with a 10-yard run and the two-yard touchdown with 4:45 left in the third.
Kinne capped La Vega’s scoring when he eluded the Carthage defense for a 21-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.
Cummings (136), Walton (75) and Kinne (71) combined to gain all but three of La Vega’s 280 rushing yards.
“Our kids played hard,” Hyde said. “We played a really good football team today and they got the best of us.”
— WACOTRIB