Port Neches-Groves pulls off Texas high school football title upset, brings trophy 'back to the 409'

PNG rides fourth quarter rally to avenge 2022 championship-game loss to South Oak Cliff in UIL 5A Division II

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - It was perceived to be a coronation of the Dallas-Fort Worth “Metroplex” teams entering the final day of the UIL state football championships.

However, before the second of three games kicked off, a team from the “Golden Triangle” area of Texas already crashed the party.

A resilient team from Port Neches-Groves knocked off two-time defending state champion South Oak Cliff, 20-17, to claim the UIL Class 5A Division II title Saturday at AT&T Stadium. The Indians, fueled by a throng of supporters that made the multi-hour trip from Southeast Texas, rallied from an eight-point deficit entering the fourth quarter with 11 unanswered points.

It was the Indians’ first state championship since 1975. The win also avenged a loss to the Bears in last season’s title contest.

Port Neches-Groves dethrones South Oak Cliff: Live score, updates of Texas high school football championship (12/16/2023)

“It’s great to have it back home,” PNG senior cornerback Reid Richard said. “Especially for us, we haven’t won a state championship in (nearly) 50 years, so it’s great to bring it back to the 409 (area code).

“We have a saying that, the last person that leaves (town) has to lock up Port Neches. Everybody’s coming out and supporting us and they want to win it just as bad as we do, so it’s really great.”

SOC seemed to come into Saturday’s game with momentum, having won 12 straight following early-season losses to Duncanville and DeSoto. That included convincing postseason wins against other contenders like Melissa, Lucas Lovejoy and Frisco Emerson.

The Bears appeared to be pulling away midway through the third quarter when Danny Green Jr. broke off a 44-yard touchdown run to put SOC up by eight, 17-9.

PNG, however, refused to back down and kept coming after the defending champs. The Indians, though, weren’t able to reach the end zone.

With less than eight minutes left, PNG had the ball at the Bears’ 1-yard line, but a false start penalty pushed things back and the drive eventually stalled. Instead of going for a TD, PNG coach Jeff Joseph elected to use his kicker, senior Gio Oceguera, who had already booted three field goals.

Oceguera - selected the Most Outstanding Player on offense - then made it a fourth field goal, which set a record for most field goals in a title game, to get the Indians within five, 17-12. But the most impactful kick on the day came immediately afterward.

Joseph and his staff decided to go for an onside kick, and the gamble worked. Max Scroggs, a junior linebacker who was selected as the Most Outstanding Player on defense, was there to make the recovery, getting the Indians the ball right back.

“Our thought process then was, ‘let’s make sure we get points,’ and then heading into the kickoff, we had struggled covering kicks in the first half a little bit with some of those sky-kicks that we tried to do,” Joseph said. “So they were getting field position anyway and the risk-reward, it just weighed itself to where we had played with the short field a lot on defense throughout (the game), so we went ahead and played for the win and let’s go attack this thing and try and make a play and we were able to.”

Look: Port Neches-Groves edges South Oak Cliff to win Texas 5A Division 2 state football title

Finally, with 3:32 remaining in the game and on the eighth play of the drive following the recovered onside kick, Shea Adams - a senior receiver who played quarterback earlier in his career at PNG - lined up behind center in the wildcat formation on third-and-goal from the 1.

At first, he appeared to go up the middle, following his blockers, but at the last instant, Adams veered to his right and found open space to complete a 2-yard TD to give the Indians the lead.

“We worked that play a couple of weeks ago,” Adams said. “Then whenever we called it, I was supposed to jump up and (go) over the top, but they didn’t have anybody outside so (I went to the right). … It was an unreal feeling to walk into the end zone right there.

“We were obviously frustrated about not being able to get there and score (touchdowns). But at the end of the day, we were still getting points up on the board and we know our defense isn’t going to give them much, so we were fine with it at the end of the day.”

PNG then added two more points as tailback Isaiah Nguyen ran it in for the three-point lead. Nguyen was another key reason for the Indians’ win as he rushed for 111 yards on 19 carries.

“Tough as nails, and I think after (Saturday), he probably ran for 2,000 yards on the year, and he’s a fighter, he’s a battler,” Joseph said of Nguyen. “To be honest, I didn’t know what we had in Isaiah last year and early (this) year, but the more we gave him the ball, the more we realized that the guy was competitive and he was going to get it done and he plays with a ton of heart like everyone else on our team.”

The Indians then needed to make one more defensive stand and they did, holding the Bears on downs with 24 seconds remaining.

Instead of a “Metroplex” team taking the first of three titles on the final day of the 2023 season (with area teams Duncanville and DeSoto playing later on Saturday), it was PNG (15-1) bringing the hardware back to the “Golden Triangle.”

“I got more text messages this week than you would believe from people in our area, just ’Good luck,’ and ‘Bring it home,’” Joseph said. “People that represent Southeast Texas types of messages, and for us, it’s nice to do that but we all play for each other and I speak for them, it’s about our team and our community really, so they went out and represented our community extremely well (Saturday).”

Photo/video by Tommy Hays

-- Buck Ringgold | buck@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveTX