Aledo rolls to Texas high school football championship behind backup tailback: 'I had to set the tone'

Hawk Patrick-Daniels goes for 3 TDs in 2023 UIL 5A Division I state championship

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - If Hawk Patrick-Daniels didn’t wake people up last week, he surely did on Friday night at AT&T Stadium.

The Aledo running back had his best game of the season carrying the ball in the semifinals last week for the Bearcats.

A week after a career day in the semifinals, he did one better by scoring three times to help lead Aledo win Texas high school football state title No. 12 in a 51-8 thumping of Smithson Valley in Class 5A Division I.

“Yall awake now?" he posted on Twitter/X after his 29-carry, 203-yard, 2-touchdown semifinal showing. "Or do I gotta keep showing yall what im really about ?”

Aledo defeats Smithson Valley: Live Texas high school football championship updates recap

Well, Patrick-Daniels ran for a season-high three touchdowns on 16 carries and 186 yards and filled in the role as the go-to-ball carrier with Ray Guillory out again.

“We knew he has that capability,” Aledo coach Robby Jones said. “We’ve had other people there with Ray back there and we were able to put Hawk out of the slot and use his speed there. But he’s been pretty good at running the ball the last couple of weeks. Going out and competing.”

The victory helped Aledo win state title No. 12 — all since 1998. This win was No. 30 in a row for the Parker County school.

Photos by Tommy Hays

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Photo by Tommy Hays

Photo by Tommy Hays

Photo by Tommy Hays

Photo by Tommy Hays

Photo by Tommy Hays

The next closest schools to the Bearcats are Carthage and Katy with nine championships.

However, the start wasn’t ideal for the Bearcats (16-0), who gave up the first three scores of the game.

Smithson Valley (14-2) jumped ahead on a safety and then a pair of field goals from Clayton Amaya.

The 8-0 lead lasted until Patrick-Daniels’ second touchdown with 9:36 left in the second quarter.

He had a 23-yard score with 1:28 left in the first quarter. That was the start of a 51-0 surge to close the game.

“I knew I had to set the tone,” said the Incarnate Word pledge. “I knew everybody’s head was down and me personally, my head was down too. I knew I had to be the person to spark us and that is what I did. And then everyone else motivated and everybody started to score touchdowns and celebrate. I felt like me sparking it up gave us a chance.”

Following his back-to-back scores, TCU commit Hauss Hejny threw the first of his two touchdown passes to Kaydon Finley. The 6-foot-2 sophomore outran the Rangers defenders for a 69-yard touchdown.

“My little brother was here for a game a couple of weeks and I was on the field looking up thinking ‘Dang, I can’t wait to score a touchdown on this field,” said Finley, the son of former Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley. “I did it; it feels great.”

Aledo built a 24-8 lead at the break.

Look: Aledo routs Smithson Valley to win Texas 5A Division 1 state football championship

Hejny added a 29-yard touchdown to Colton McCoy in the third quarter before Patrick-Daniels’ third score made it 38-8.

Hejny capped off his banner career with a 10-yard touchdown run with 2:20 left in the third.

He threw for 202 yards and ran for 77 more. That showing gave him more than 1,000 yards on the ground for the second straight year.

For his career, he passed for more than 5,000 yards with 50 touchdowns and ran for more than 2,400 yards in 41 games.

“He’s the best quarterback in Texas,” Finley said. “He’s a great leader. He is the one that took me when I was a little, little 14-year-old as a freshman. He showed me the way to work hard and how to be a great teammate.”

-- Cody Thorn | @sblivetx