Boys: Westlake 15, Boerne Champion 8
Westlake scored the first eight goals of the championship game and never gave Boerne Champion a way back in.
The Chaparrals shut out Champion for an entire half. The Chargers did not find the net until 4:30 remained in the third quarter, and by then the game was decided. Senior Luke Welton scored six goals and was named game MVP; sophomore Zephyr Gates added four. Goalkeeper Silas Chamas turned away chance after chance, and head coach Darci Carruthers called it the best defensive effort her team had played all season.
The title comes in just the fourth season Westlake has fielded a water polo team. The Chaps finish 31-1, ranked No. 4 in the country by MaxPreps, and they reached the final by beating Lewisville Hebron 16-9 on Friday — a game that was tied 3-3 after one quarter before Westlake pulled away. Welton had four goals and four assists in the semifinal; Laird Green scored three.
Boerne Champion, in its fifth straight state tournament, is still chasing its first championship. The Chargers earned their shot by knocking off two-time defending champion League City Clear Creek 17-12 in the semifinals, avenging a one-goal loss to the Wildcats in August and a 17-12 loss at last year's state tournament. Junior Julius Hoxhaj, the reigning Express-News Boys Player of the Year, scored six in the semifinal and four more in the final despite constant double-teams. Grant Perkins added three goals in the championship game, and goalkeeper Jackson Hankins made 13 saves against Clear Creek.
Champion coach Scott Slay did not sugarcoat the final — the Chargers had 28 shots to Westlake's 33, several of them off the crossbar — but he called Westlake one of the best teams he has seen in 25 years.
Girls: Hebron 10, Brazoswood 8
The girls final was everything the boys final was not: tight, physical and in doubt until the last two minutes.
Brazoswood struck 24 seconds in on a Therese Braun goal, and from there the two teams traded punches. It was 3-3 after one quarter and 4-4 at halftime. Brazoswood erased three one-goal deficits in the third quarter alone, with Hope Kadlecik, Larissa Bracken and Braun each answering a Hebron score. Six times the game was tied. Neither team ever led by more than two.
Hebron freshman Ryann Renfroe finally broke it. Her goal with 1:12 left in the third put the Hawks up 8-7, and she scored again with 4:32 to play to make it 9-7. Bracken pulled Brazoswood back within one at 9-8 with 4:15 left, but sophomore Lauren Waggoner's insurance goal at 2:41 and a shutdown final four minutes from the Hebron defense sealed it.
Senior goalkeeper Amber Cho made 13 saves and was named championship game MVP. Sophomore Abi Cho and Renfroe each scored three. Hebron, the No. 1 team in the MaxPreps national rankings, finishes 28-0 and topped 400 goals on the season. The Hawks had beaten Brazoswood twice in August, 8-6 and 9-5, and Amber Cho said getting the Buccaneers a third time — with a state title on the line — made this one special.
Hebron reached the final by routing San Antonio Clark 25-15 on Friday, the Cougars' first state tournament appearance.
Brazoswood (32-3), ranked No. 6 nationally, was chasing its second title after winning it all in 2024. Larissa Bracken led the Buccaneers with three goals in the final after an eight-goal semifinal against Richmond Foster, which Brazoswood won 15-11 behind seven unanswered third-quarter goals. Goalkeeper Claire Crisp had 13 saves against Foster and seven in the final. Coach Robert Brown's Bucs have now played in all five UIL girls state tournaments.
Foster, the other Houston-area semifinalist, bows out after its trip to San Antonio.
