The biggest game in the state of Texas in Week 7 of UIL football happened at Stuart B. Lumpkins Stadium Friday night.
The matchup pitted two Class 6A-ranked teams — No. 1 Waxahachie vs. No. 3 North Crowley.
Both were 5-0 and tied for first place in District 11-6A.
As much as it lined up to be a battle to the end, it was not.
North Crowley rolled to a 42-17 win thanks to a solid running game, a quarterback that could not miss and a defense that kept South Carolina pledge Jerry Meyer III in check.
The Panthers (6-0, 3-0) had a pair of 21-0 scoring bursts that defined the game.
In the first half, G’yrell Smith ran for two touchdowns and Kiante Ingram had another rushing touchdown.
The Panthers led 21-7 at halftime.
“We had a great week of practice knowing what they were going to line up in,” North Crowley quarterback Jacob Torres said. “We just had to execute and we fought hard. We ran, we passed, and we just set them up for the next play.”
The Indians (5-1, 2-1) had a chance to trim into the lead late in the third quarter. Waxahachie got a stop and forced North Crowley to punt after three straight touchdowns on the three previous possessions.
Waxahachie engineered an 18-play, 89-yard drive that ended in a 23-yard field goal from Kohen Manis with 2:37 left. The Indians moved to the 6-yard line on a pass from Meyer to Jordan Smith, but an incomplete pass on third down set up the field goal.
Six plays later, the Panthers answered.
A pass interference call on an incomplete pass on 3rd-and-1 kept the drive alive. Ingram’s 35-yard score with 42 seconds left in the third quarter extended the lead to 28-10.
North Crowley scored on the next two drives to seal the win.
Torres, who was 11-for-11 passing for 100 yards, threw an 84-yard touchdown to Damarion Mays on the next drive for North Crowley.
Smith’s 60-yard run in the fourth made it 42-10.
Smith ran for 116 yards, while Ingram had 157.
Meyer III threw a touchdown pass to Matthew Scott with 1:54 left for the final points of the contest. Meyer threw for a season-low 112 yards.
The Panthers’ secondary, loaded with Division I talent, made it tough. He was 12 for 28 and his 42.9% completion percentage was his third-lowest in the last two years. In last year's loss to DeSoto, he completed only 38.5% of his passes. As a sophomore, he has a 42.4% completion rate in a close win over Dallas Skyline.
“I feel we were disrespected. We already knew who the No. 1 team in the state was,” said North Crowley cornerback Jerry Outhouse. “We had to come prove it.”
This season, the Panthers have beaten these former state champions or finalists in recent weeks: Aledo, Southlake Carroll, Humble Summer Creek and Duncanville.
How good does that make North Crowley?
“Best team in the nation, I'm telling you,” said Outhouse, a UCLA pledge.