High School

5 takeaways: 5-stars fuel Duncanville past DeSoto in nationally ranked Texas high school football rivalry

Alabama commit Keelon Russell throws for 429 yards, 6 TDs thanks in large part to big day from nation's No. 1 receiver

Cody Thorn

Duncanville (Texas) wideout Dakorien Moore, an Oregon commit, carries the ball during the 2023 UIL 6A D1 state title against North Shore.
Duncanville (Texas) wideout Dakorien Moore, an Oregon commit, carries the ball during the 2023 UIL 6A D1 state title against North Shore. / Photo by Tommy Hays

DESOTO, Texas — DeSoto and Duncanville didn’t disappoint in a game that garnered national attention.

Duncanville, the nation's No. 1 team, got a big game from Dakorien Moore, the nation's No. 1 receiver, to roll to a 42-20 win over No. 11-ranked DeSoto at Eagle Stadium on Friday night.

Moore, playing both wide receiver and defensive back, put up a big game. The Oregon pledge hauled in four touchdowns in the first half and finished with 9 catches for 241 yards. 

The win keeps a district crown in play for the Panthers in what is arguably the hardest district in the state — 6A District 11. 

Duncanville's big picture

Duncanville has now won 6 of the past 7 games in the series but is only 7-11 against DeSoto dating back to 2004.

Duncanville only has a losing record against nine Texas schools over the last 20 seasons.

In matchups of five or more games, only DeSoto, Cedar Hill, Arlington Martin and Galena North Shore — all state championship teams, sometimes multiple — have winning records against the Panthers. 

Early fireworks

The connection between Duncanville quarterback Keelon Russell and Moore ended up putting the game out of reach in the first half.

The Alabama-bound Russell finished with 429 yards passing and 6 touchdown passes — including one in the final minute of the game to account for the final score. 

What made Russell number standout was how he got most of those yards — evading pressure and running enough to keep the play alive.

He often found targets open, whether it was Moore or Trenton Yancey or Ayson Theus or Zach Turner. 

The former SMU pledge now has 26 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. The 6 touchdowns in this game matched his career-high set two weeks ago against Waxahachie. His 72% completion rate in this win was close to his 75% season average. 

Late DeSoto rally derailed by high snap

Once down 35-6, the Eagles made it interesting in the fourth quarter. 

Myson Johnson-Cook scored on a 49-yard run, to trim the deficit to 35-20.

DeSoto’s defense got a stop and the Eagles got the ball back with a chance to make it a one-possession game. For a few plays, it looked like it could happen. Kelden Ryan connected on an 18-yard pass play to Dayton Singleton, which got the ball to the Duncanville 12-yard line.

Momentum had seemed to shift in favor of the home crowd. 

Then, it vanished on three bad plays.

A high snap went over the head of Ryan — a Virginia Tech pledge who is in his first year at the school after transferring from Fort Worth All Saints Episcopal — and he ran to get it. He picked it up and tried to throw it away, but he lost his grip and the ball bounced around on the turf again -- and backwards.

He fell on it but it ended up being a 26-yard loss.

DeSoto bounced back with a nice gain facing a second-and-forever but an illegal man downfield negated at a 15-yard gain.

Facing 2nd-and-36, Ryan threw a pass that was picked off by Jaylyn Manning. 

Rocky start

The first three drives for DeSoto provided a foreshadowing of some issues the Eagles faced all night.

An offside call by a tight end set up a 1st-and-15 situation on the opening drive and incomplete passes on second and third down led to a punt.

A holding call on 3rd down turned what was a first-down run by Ryan into a 4th-and-11 and a punt on the second drive.

On the third drive, Ryan ran for a 61-yard touchdown but it was called back to do an illegal block.

The yellow flags kept coming for DeSoto.

Drive No. 4 featured another offensive penalty and a defensive facemask call on a run by Russell helped set up the Panthers’ second touchdown.

Essentially, penalties plagued the Eagles — similar to the loss to North Crowley. 

The Panthers also limited the production of the Eagles’ rushing game in the first half and because of that, DeSoto had to switch to passing a lot in the second half due to the deficit. 

Texas A&M pledge Deondrae Riden Jr. was held in check with 39 yards in the first half. It was only his second game without gaining more than 100 yards. The other was a 7-carry, 51-yard, 2-TD effort against Mesquite but in the 71-0 win he didn’t need to play much. 

Appointment viewing

The hype built around this game led to traffic jams on the two-way street that leads to Eagle Stadium in DeSoto.

The struggle to find parking then led to struggles getting into the game. An IT issue at the gate meant the school district had problems scanning tickets — which had to be purchased online to gain entry.

Fans on the Duncanville side were still waiting to enter the game late in the second quarter. 

The game was broadcast locally by WFAA-TV and more than 150 media requests came to athletic director/head football coach Claude Mathis at DeSoto.

Add in a broken elevator and no one knowing the WiFi password in the press box, DeSoto will have things to clean up on and off the field. 

More Duncanville vs. DeSoto:

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-- Cody Thorn | @sblivetx

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Cody Thorn
CODY THORN

Cody Thorn is a veteran journalist who covers high school sports across the state of Texas and Missouri. He is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and has covered sports and news since 1999.

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