State Championships at Jerry World, Game 1...

For the first time ever the UIL in Texas decided to have all of the 11-man state football championships all in the same place. And, in the state with probably the nicest high school football stadiums in the country, the championships were held at the nicest one of all, Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, or as many know it, Jerry World. While I'm not a Dallas Cowboys fan, I know I have gushed about the stadium before, but this is truly the nicest football stadium I've ever seen, and for a high school football player I can't think of a cooler place to play than this.

Now, I know there have been high school games here for a couple of years, but most of them are the bigger schools, the Class 1A & 2A schools just don't bring in big enough crowds to make it a really viable option, so this year when the UIL made it so all the games would be played at Cowboys Stadium, I thought it was a really great idea even if the smaller games were going to be played in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday.

The first game was the Class 1A Division I game, with Stamford playing Mason. When I showed up to the stadium I noticed that the southwest corner had a bunch of tents set up and a whole slew of people tailgating. This was perfect, we were running a fan story and this way I was going to be able to get it out of the way and even sent with plenty of time before the start of the game.

The game started out kind of slow, Stamford couldn't get much done on their first drive, then Mason took the ball down and marched down to score on their first drive. One the next possession the Bulldogs completed a long pass for a touchdown and it looked like the offense may be starting to click. Things were going back and forth but Mason was a machine. Things were still kind of close in the second half despite a couple of stalled drives and a turnover. Then Mason went and blew things open pulling away from a big lead.

But, to Stamford's credit they never gave up and continued to fight. After a few big plays and some nice touchdown drives it was looking like a long shot but Stamford had played themselves back into the game. Then Mason get the ball back and drove down for a touchdown, and in the process killing most of what was left on the clock. It just wasn't meant to be for the Bulldogs this year. The good thing about them though, is they are young team and with the quarterback that they had they should be back next year for another deep run to the playoffs.