Celina’s wait is over; Bobcats steamroll Kilgore for ninth UIL state championship

It had been nine years since the storied Celina football program had played in a state championship game and 17 years since the Bobcats had won a state title. All that changed on Friday, Dec. 20.

Celina, the top-ranked team in the final Dave Campbell’s Class 4A Division I state poll, opened a comfortable lead in the second quarter and coasted to a dominant 55-21 win over No. 6 Kilgore in the 4A DI title game before 16,267 at AT&T Stadium.

Celina (16-0) claimed its ninth state title to pull the program into a third-place tie with Katy and Richland Springs for most championships all time. Kilgore (13-3) was making its third appearance at state and has one state title win which came in 2004.

“This is a great group,” said Celina coach Bill Elliott of his squad. “Since last spring they’ve done everything that we’ve asked them to do. They deserve this.”

Celina and Kilgore traded scores early as the Bobcats got a pair of scoring passes from quarterback Bowe Bentley, the Offensive MVP, to Ethan Rucker for 34 and 60 yards. Kilgore answered with a 12-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Watters and took a 14-13 lead with 11:47 left in the second quarter when Javon Towns took a swing pass in the right flat from quarterback Kayson Brooks and raced through the Celina defense for a 20-yard TD.

“It’s just surreal watching the Cowboys play here and just hoping that we could make it here in December,” said Bentley, who finished nine of 14 passing for 265 yards and five touchdowns, one touchdown shy tying the Class 4A title-game record. “It’s been a childhood dream to win a state championship, but getting that many touchdown passes is pretty cool...I was hoping I was going to get six.”

But the Celina defense put the clamps on after that and the offense had chances to blow the game wide open. The Bobcats had two drives deep into Kilgore territory, but had to settle for a pair of Braden Johnson field goals of 35 and 22 yards, the latter with 2:16 left before halftime that upped the score to 19-14.

A three and out by the Bulldogs gave the ball back to Celina at midfield with just over a minute left and the Bobcats took advantage. On the third play of the possession, Bentley found Colton Rodriguez behind his defender down the left hash mark and hit him for a 50-yard touchdown.

A two-point conversion pass from Bentley to Wyatt Villarreal pushed the lead to 27-14 with 41 seconds remaining before the intermission.

“Celina did exactly what we wanted to do,” said Kilgore coach Clint Fuller, whose team gave up more points in a game since allowing 56 to Lindale in the fourth round of the playoffs in 2020. “They came out and put pressure on us early. One mistake led to another and in games like this things can snowball on you in a hurry.

“It wasn’t our best night, but hats off to Celina. They’re a great football team and they played great tonight, but things just didn’t go our way.”

Celina did blow the game wide open in the second half as Bentley added scoring passes of 63-yards to Rodriguez and 21 yards to Villarreal. Defensive MVP Luke Biagini had a 27-yard Pick Six and Harrison Williams scored on an eight-yard run.

Elliott said it was “so special” to live and coach in Celina and that the expectations of excellence doesn’t stop with just the football team.

“I’ve lived in Celina for 32 years,” said Elliott. “My family has grown up there, my boys have played and coached there. It’s the expectation that our whole community puts on our kids in everything we do.

“Our band just won state, cheer has won state and it’s just the things we do at Celina with those expectations that pushes us to be great.”