(The Dallas Examiner) – The South Oak Cliff Golden Bears arrived in Arlington as one part of the Southern Dallas County Triple Threat geared to dominate the UIL football state championships, Dec. 16 at AT&T Stadium.
The day began with Golden Bears appearing in their third straight UIL State Class 5A Division II state championship game.
Despite SOC’s best efforts, the team came up short and lost to Port Neches-Groves High School from Southeast Texas 17-20 in front of 33,913 fans. SOC fell short of a three-peat as they won the championship in 2021 and 2022. Last year, the Golden Bears defeated PNG 34-24 to win back-to-back titles.
Many predicted the football team would win its third straight championship, but the PNG wasn’t having any of it.
SOC scored the first touchdown when running back Danny Green Jr. rushed for three yards to make it 7 to 3 SOC.
The Golden Bears led 10 to 9 at halftime. In the third quarter, Green rushed for another 44 yards on a single play that led to another touchdown making it 17 to 9.
Knowing his team was behind, PNG head coach Jeff Joseph knew his team needed a trick play to get his ball club going and take the lead. PNG scored 11 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to take the lead and never looked back. One of the key plays included an onside kick PNG’s special teams recovered giving them an extra offensive position to do its damage.
When SOC got the ball back, they could not convert effectively on first down to get the ball down the field to score again.
A key pass interference call by the referees against SOC’s cornerback against the Indian’s receiver near the goal line gave PNG the extra push they needed to go up by 11 points and keep a distance from SOC coming back with limited time left on the clock.
With the score 20-17 with PNG with the lead and less than three minutes left to play, SOC had chances to come back offensively but seem frazzled in the end not being able to convert far enough on first downs to tie the game, making the final score 20-17 PNG.
“We just fell a little short, but we played and fought hard,” SOC Head Coach Jason Todd said. “We can’t win them all, but we will definitely be back.”
Todd said he is still proud of his team and what they did was historic.
“I’m mad because the kids think they let me down, but they didn’t,” Todd said. “I think us being back in the state title game is the biggest story in Texas high school sports history. The fact that we won back-to-back state titles is wonderful, and if we had won a third one today it would be monumental. But it is still the greatest story ever told because you have kids from the inner city and people assume that they are not smart enough. They are not disciplined or well coached and for us to do what we have done with these kids when a lot of outsiders see us as outcasts. For these kids to do what they have done and me and my staff and what we have done, needs to be written in a book. And there needs to be a movie about these kids and what they overcame to get here.”
Offensively, SOC struggled with quarterback William Little only passing for 54 yards and was 5 of 12 in his attempts with one long pass of 25 yards. The running game was strong but wasn’t enough as the team only had just over 100 yards total rushing from all sources.
This is PNG’s first title since 1975.
PNG Head Coach Jeff Joseph wasn’t going to allow his team to walk away without a title this year after losing to SOC last year in the state title game.
“We talk all the time, but we also put in the work, and you get what you work for, and these guys have proven that if you buy into the mentality and put in the work it pays off,” Joseph said.
As far as SOC, Todd believed his team would return next year.
“We will be back,” he stated. “Once again, SOC football is the greatest story ever told in Texas history.”