Over the course of January, TexasFootball.com presents The TXHSFB 303, a deep dive into the hidden storylines in the 2016 Texas high school football season. Have an idea for an angle? E-mail DCTF managing editor Greg Tepper.

Today: The highest scoring Texas high school football games in 2016

In general, Texas high school football coaches aren’t picky. They’re not into style points. Whether it’s a pretty win or an ugly win, coaches will take it as long as it goes in the left side of the ledger.

But let’s be real: not all wins are created equal. And some will leave even the most stoic Texas high school football coach shaking his head.

Some games just go off the rails from a scoring perspective, doing away with the whole idea of defense altogether and just letting it all hang out. Fun for defensive coordinators? Hardly. Fun for fans? You bet.

So let’s take a look at the highest-scoring Texas high school football games in 2016 — that’s to say, the games with the most combined points between the two teams.

Here are the highest-scoring 11-man games from 2016:

Points	Class	Game	Date
168	2A DI	Bells 94, Celeste 74	Week 9
162	Private vs. 3A DII	Tyler T. K. Gorman 91, Ore City 71	Week 3
155	4A DI	Levelland 82, Decatur 73	Week 13
153	4A DI	Andrews 77, Levelland 76	Week 3
150	3A DII	Paul Pewitt 89, New Diana 61	Week 11
147	2A DI	Freer 86, Three Rivers 61	Week 7
145	5A	Mansfield Lake Ridge 87, Dallas Samuell 58	Week 13
143	3A DII vs. 2A DI	Beckville 77, Pineland West Sabine 66	Week 2
140	2A DI	Normangee 78, Moody 62	Week 9
138	4A DII vs. 4A DI	Robinson 70, Lampasas 68	Week 2
137	6A	Jersey Village 72, Cypress Springs 65	Week 8
136	4A DII	Robinson 77, Caldwell 59	Week 12
135	3A DI	Friona 76, Slaton 59	Week 11
134	3A DI	Rockdale 80, Cameron Yoe 54	Week 8
134	5A	Frisco Heritage 76, Frisco Centennial 58	Week 11
133	6A	Beaumont West Brook 70, Lufkin 63	Week 8
129	Private	Addison Trinity Christian 67, Fort Worth Nolan Catholic 62	Week 9
128	3A DI vs. 3A DII	San Angelo Grape Creek 78, Coahoma 50	Week 5
128	5A	Magnolia 74, Tomball 54	Week 6
126	5A	Frisco Wakeland 77, Frisco Heritage 49	Week 10
126	6A	Dallas Jesuit 74, Richardson Pearce 52	Week 8
126	Private	McClellan Little Rock, AR 76, Dallas Parish Episcopal 50	Week 1
125	5A	Frisco Heritage 64, Frisco Independence 61	Week 6
125	6A	Midland 73, El Paso El Dorado 52	Week 12
125	6A	Garland Rowlett 63, Lakeview Centennial 62	Week 10
125	6A vs. 5A	Edinburg Vela 63, Victoria East 62	Week 1

We mentioned it at the time, but Bells 94, Celeste 74 back in Week 9 will go down in Texas high school football lore. It’s the highest-scoring game in Texas high school 11-man football history, and the numbers here are absurd. Some fun facts about this game:

-The game was tied at 60 at halftime.
-Bells QB Bryan Ponder threw for 545 yards and 6 touchdowns, and ran for another two scores.
-Celeste QB Xavier Edwards threw for 209 yards and two scores, and ran for another 156 yards and two touchdowns. Oh, and he caught a touchdown pass.
-11 different players scored a touchdown.

But perhaps the most bizarre aspect of this game is that this was entirely out of character for both teams. The week before, Bells beat Blue Ridge in a ho-hum 18-13 game; about a month before this score-fest, Celeste lost to Prairiland, 21-6.

Not to be outdone, Tyler T.K. Gorman 91, Ore City 71 set the bar pretty high back in Week 3. The star here was Gorman QB Jake Smith, who threw for a state record 10 touchdowns in the victory. Imagine being Ore City — you score 71 points…and lose by 20.

And then we get to the Levelland portion of the discussion. The Lobos’ wild 82-73 win over Decatur is the highest-scoring playoff game in Texas high school football history, as Nick Gerber threw for 502 yards and six scores. That was two points better than their 77-76 overtime loss to Andrews, in which Gerber and Andrews quarterback Triston Williams combined for 979 yards and 15 touchdowns through the air.

But here is the stat of the season: 2016 was the first season in Texas high school football history that saw multiple 150-point games…because there were FIVE 150+ games.

In sum, the 2016 Texas high school football season featured 26 games of at least 125 points, compared to 15 in 2015 and 18 in 2014.

Of the 26 highest-scoring games, the majority of them — 15 of them — came in district play; four of them were playoff games. The games were pretty evenly spread out across the classifications — 6A, 5A and 3A each had six games of more than 125 points.

Let’s briefly take a look at the highest-scoring six-man game this season, who are no stranger to lighting up scoreboards.

Points	Class	Game	Date
200	Private	Decatur Victory Christian 107, Azle Christian School 93	Week 9
199	1A	High Island 123, Nueces Canyon 76	Week 6
198	Private	McKinney The Cornerstone 105, Haslet Heritage Christian 93	Week 9
197	Private	Tyler Kings Academy 99, Bowie Gold-burg 98	Week 6
194	1A	Santa Anna 110, Cherokee 84	Week 5

With the 45-point mercy rule in place, high-scoring six-man games are often exciting because they tend to be close, and such was the case when Decatur Victory Christian topped Azle Christian in the state’s lone 200-point affair. Victory Christian’s Gideon McPeek threw seven touchdown passes and ran for another five scores, while Azle Christian’s Bobby Greenwood paced the Crusaders with 270 yards and five scores on the ground.