Aledo rolls to eighth state title as McClellan scores four TDs

Aledo was determined to stop Fort Bend Marshall’s Devon Achane in Friday night’s Class 5A Division II state championship game at AT&T Stadium. 

Achane, a three-star recruit with a handful of offers from schools including Ole Miss and Texas A&M, entered the night with 15 touchdowns and 693 total yards in the Buffalos last four games. But Aledo’s defense managed to follow Wood’s blueprint, keeping Achane out of the end zone aside from a late score with the game already-well in hand.

The Bearcats held Achane to fewer than 100 yards of total offense for just the second time in the last seven games, putting on a display of sheer dominance while claiming their eighth state title in a 55-19 win.

“We wanted to know where No. 5 was,” Wood said. “We wanted to be able to handle what No. 5 did. No. 5 has single-handedly won the last three three games for them, and I thought we did a good job for the most part with that. He’s very dynamic – he’s not just fast, he’s different fast.”

With the Aledo defense taking care of its part of the game plan and Jase McClellan shining on the big stage yet again behind a controlling offensive line, Aledo was in control from the start.

McLellan, who finished with 171 total yards and four touchdowns, scored on a 42-yard TD run on the Bearcats’ second play from scrimmage to give the team a 7-0 lead less than four minutes into the first quarter.

McClellan’s next carry was a fumble in Aledo’s end zone though, and Marshall’s Frank Miller fell on the ball to get the Buffaloes on the board.

That was the last mistake McClellan and the Bearcats made. The Oklahoma commit scored on a 6-yard TD run later in the first quarter, punched in a 2-yard TD run early in the second and added a 22-yard TD reception with 2:00 to go before the half.

“I just wanted to come out here and prove that we come to these state championships to win the game,” McClellan said. “We’re going to beat anybody in front of us. I wasn’t frustrated [after the fumble] – things happen. I just bounced back and scored another touchdown.”

Marshall’s only first-half offensive touchdown came after Aledo took a 14-6 lead. The Buffaloes went 77 yards in six plays – including 73 yards on the ground from Achane – before Malik Hornsby scored on a 4-yard TD run. 

But Marshall turned the ball over twice in the second half after Aledo’s Tre Owens scored on a 3-yard TD run made it 35-12 with 6:42 to go in the third quarter. The mistakes only added to the onslaught, as Jake Bishop threw a 20-yard TD pass to Devan Daugherty, scored on a 7-yard TD run and found JoJo Earle for a 27-yard TD for the Bearcats’ final touchdown of the night. 

“Those were huge,” Wood said. “Turning the ball over in a critical game will cost you. The offense feeds off of it and we talk about it a lot. Turnovers are such a valuable part of the game and so is the need to not turn it over. I’m just proud of them.”

- Brady Keane

VIDEO RECAP

Bearcats avenge loss to first-timer last season in convincing fashion

Long before the clock expired in the Class 5A Division II state championship game Friday night, it was apparent that Aledo was going to stake its claim as being one of the most successful programs in the history of Texas high school football.

The Bearcats’ 55-19 win over Fort Bend Marshall secured the eighth state championship in program history, putting Aledo in rare company, and it also made amends for a bad memory from this time a year ago.

It was then that Aledo was gunning for its eight title against a first-time finalist in College Station, which benefitted from two missed Aledo extra points and other special teams blunders to pull out a one-point upset victory.

This time around, Aledo wasn’t going to fall victim to a team making its state championship debut.

“You can’t take this game for granted,” Aledo coach Steve Wood said. “We live in a fairy tale world in Aledo. This doesn’t happen for most people. If you don’t watch out, you get caught in that trap of, ‘Hey, we’ve got Aledo on our chest, so it’s going to happen,’ and that’s not real. I’m not saying that’s what happened last year. We had a lot of young players last year, but we just didn’t perform as well as we should have in a state championship game to go win a title. We did tonight.”

Senior offensive lineman Chandler Knandel helped pave the way for Aledo’s offense to roll up 489 yards, including 149 for star running back Jase McClellan. He said his team learned a lesson from last year’s heartbreaking loss, and it wasn’t going to fall into the same trap twice.

“We came out last year and we didn’t play to win,” he said. “We played not to lose. There’s a big difference in playing not to lose and playing to win, man, and tonight we came out and played to win.”

In his press conference after last year’s loss to College Station, Wood didn’t sugar coat anything. There were no consolation prizes. No ‘happy to be here’s’. This year, Wood said, his team was on a mission.

“I told other people, it’s been a long year,” Wood said. “A one-point loss in a game like this, you know, there’s high expectations at our place. I’m the head coach and you like to think the head coach could go find one more point. I made a vow I was going to do everything I could do, and our kids did the same thing and obviously we have great talent but they work their tails off. They wanted it bad. They wanted to get that taste out of their mouth.”

- Adam Boedeker

BOX SCORE

Aledo 55, Fort Bend Marshall 19      

Fort Bend Marshall	6	6	0	7	-	19
Aledo	14	14	20	7	-	55

Scoring Summary

1st Qtr. 8:18

Aledo – Jase McClellan 42-yard run (Harper Smith kick)

1st Qtr. 6:35

Marshall – Frank Miller 0-yard fumble recovery (Kick failed)

1st Qtr. 3:42

Aledo – McClellan 6-yard run (Smith kick)

2nd Qtr. 10:23 

Marshall – Malik Hornsby 4-yard run (2-point conversion failed)

2nd Qtr. 7:22

Aledo – McClellan 2-yard run (Smith kick)

2nd Qtr. 2:00

Aledo – McClellan 22-yard pass from Jake Bishop (Smith kick)

3rd Qtr. 6:42

Aledo – Tre Owens 3-yard run (Smith kick)

3rd Qtr. 5:23

Aledo – Devan Daugherty 20-yard pass from Bishop (Smith kick)

3rd Qtr. 0:32

Aledo – Bishop 8-yard run (Kick failed)

4th Qtr. 5:47

Aledo – JoJo Earle 27-yard pass from Bishop (Smith kick)

4th Qtr. 1:51 

Marshall – Devon Achane 49-yard pass from Hornsby (Angel Martinez kick)

Team Stats

	Marshall	Aledo
First downs	10	22
Rushing yards	29 – 140	46 – 314
Passing yards	129	175
Passing	6-14-0	15-18-0
Punts – Avg.	5 – 38.8	1 – 34
Penalties – Yards	4 – 24	3 – 35
Fumbles – Lost	3 – 1	1 – 1
Third-Down Conversions	2-of-11	5-of-9
Possession Time	18:38	29:22

Marshall Individual Leaders

Rushing – Decon Achane 13-95, Jerry Davis 6-36, Malik Hornsby 10-9. 

Passing – Malik Hornsby 6-14-0-129. 

Receiving – Dalevon Campbell 2-62, Devon Achane 2-55, Kacey Barnett 1-9, Korey King 1-3. 

Aledo Individual Leaders

Rushing –Jase McClellan 21-149, Jake Bishop 7-69, JoJo Earle 7-63, Tre Owens 8-27, Ryan Anderson 2-7, Cade Jones 1-(-1). 

Passing – Jake Bishop 14-17-0-174, Hampton Fay 1-1-0-1. 

Receiving – JoJo Earle 6-79, Mylen Hayhurst 4-22, Hampton Fay 1-23, Jase McClellan 1-22, Devan Daugherty 1-20, Tripp Jones 1-8, Grant Bostick 1-1.