Video: DeSoto vs. Steele - 6A D2 UIL State Championship
See Shawn Robinson and the Eagles roll past Steele in the Texas 6A-D2 title game.
The final weekend of state championships have come to an end and three new teams join the Top 25.
The DeSoto Eagles proved they are one of the best teams in the country, cruising to the first state title in school history with a 38-29 win over Steele (Cibolo, Texas) in the 6A-D2 UIL Texas state championship game.
Shawn Robinson continued his remarkable 2016 season with 222 yards passing and 197 yards rushing to go with three total touchdowns and earned a spot on the short list of players with a legitimate shot at claiming our National Player of the Year award.
Lake Travis continued its impressive run with a 41-13 win over The Woodlands in the 6A-D1 UIL Texas state championship game.
Charlie Brewer finished the night with 361 yards passing with four touchdowns on 27-of-37 passing. He was named the Offensive MVP for the game and capped off the night as the all-time leader in completion percentage in high school football history. Brewer ended the season completing 77.4 percent of his passes, surpassing Folsom's Dano Graves' 75.2 percent record set in 2009.
Speaking of California, St. John Bosco proved they are the best in the state after running to a 56-33 win over De La Salle to claim the CIF Open Division Championship. The 56 points allowed by the Spartans were the most given up since 1979. The Braves knocked off No. 15 Centennial, No. 9 Mater Dei, and De La Salle in route to winning their second state title since 2013.
While the state of Texas and California rolled through the state championship weekend they didn't do enough to prove they can surpass Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) as the No. 1 team in the country but a new team from the Golden state and Lone star state jump into this week's Top 25.
MaxPreps Xcellent 25 National High School Football Rankings presented by the Army National Guard
1. (1 last week) Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.), 15-0Season complete.
2. (3) DeSoto (DeSoto, Texas), 16-0For the first time in school history, the DeSoto Eagles won a state championship. That says something because guys like Von Miller, Desmon White, Tatum Bell, Cyrus Gray, Zach Orr, Ellis Hobbs, and plenty of other college football stars and NFL players have come through DeSoto. The same couldn't be said for this year's Eagles team led by 2017 TCU commit Shawn Robinson. The Offensive MVP of the 6A-D2 UIL Texas state championship game had over 400 total yards and three touchdowns while winning the school's first state title. He finished his lone season at DeSoto with 3,416 yards passing and led the team with 1,439 yards rushing to go with 47 total touchdowns. He was also named the 2016-17 Gatorade Texas Player of the Year the week before the state title game, I think it's safe to say he showed why in the biggest game in DeSoto high school football history.
Season complete.
3. (2) IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), 11-0Season complete.
4. (4) Grayson (Loganville, Ga.), 14-1Season complete.
5 (5) St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), 13-2St. John Bosco ended its season as one of the most complete teams in the country but at the end of the day the two losses keep them from moving past No. 5. Anytime you beat De La Salle this handily you deserve some credit, but the four teams ranked ahead of Bosco did more throughout the season to keep their spot. Jason Negro showed why he is one of the best coaches in high school football after beating Corona Centennial, Mater Dei and De La Salle to close out the 2016 season. The Braves might lose some guys to the next level but have playmakers coming back led by 3-star quarterback
Re-al Mitchell.
Season complete.
6. (6) St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 12-2Idle.
Next game: Friday vs. No. 16 Bingham (South Jordan, Utah) in the Geico State Championship Bowl Series.
7. (8) Lake Travis (Austin, Texas), 15-1Lake Travis finished 2016 as one of the hottest teams in the country. The Cavaliers dominated The Woodlands in the 6A-D1 UIL Texas state championship game, 41-13, to win their sixth state championship in school history. The scary thing is they became the first team in Texas high school football history to win five consecutive state championships from 2007-11, but this might of been their best team in school history. After dropping their first game of the season they won 15 in a row by an average margin of 42.6 points per game.
Season complete.
8. (7) DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.), 13-0Season complete.
9. (9) Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), 13-1Season complete.
10. (11) American Heritage (Plantation, Fla.), 14-0Season complete.
11. (12) Roswell (Roswell, Ga.), 14-1Season complete.
12. (13) St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia, Pa.), 14-0Season complete.
13. (14) Saguaro (Scottsdale, Ariz.), 14-0Season complete.
14. (15) Cass Tech (Detroit, Mich.), 14-0Season complete.
15. (16) Centennial (Corona, Calif.), 11-2Season complete.
16. (18) Bingham (South Jordan, Utah), 14-0Idle.
Next game: Friday vs. No. 6 St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in the Geico State Championship Bowl Series
17. (19) Trinity (Louisville, Ky.), 15-0Season complete.
18. (20) Chandler (Chandler, Ariz.), 12-2Idle.
Next game: Friday vs. Valdosta (Ga.) in the Geico State Championship Bowl Series
19. (21) East (Salt Lake City, Utah), 14-0Season complete.
20. (23) South Pointe (Rock Hill, S.C.), 14-1South Pointe cruised to its third consecutive state championship behind a strong performance from 4-star athlete
Derion Kendrick. He finished with five touchdowns and
Steven Gilmore Jr. caught three of them. Gilmore, the younger brother of Buffalo Bills starting cornerback Stephon Gilmore, was one of the stars of the game as South Pointe rolled to its fifth state title since 2005.
Season complete.
21. (25) Cocoa (Cocoa, Fla.), 12-1Season complete.
22. (NR) Cathedral Catholic (San Diego, Calif.), 15-0Cathedral Catholic makes the biggest jump this week going from unranked to No. 22 after knocking off NorCal power St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), 38-35 in overtime, in the CIF Division 1-AA state championship game. You could make a strong case St. Mary's was really the top team from NorCal. It was one of the best games of the season as Cathedral Catholic erased a 14-point fourth quarter deficit and scored 21 unanswered. St. Mary's eventually tied the game in the final minute to send the game to overtime. The Dons got a goal line stand on St. Mary's first possession and
Liam King nailed a 20-yard field goal to clinch the three-point victory as the boys from San Diego finished the season a perfect 15-0 and flew back to the 619 with some new hardware.
Season complete.
San Diego's Cathedral Catholic claimed the CIF 1-AA title with an epic 38-35 overtime win over St. Mary's of Stockton.
Photo by Dennis Lee
Season complete.
24. (NR) St. Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio), 10-5Season complete.
25. (NR) Aledo (Aledo, Texas), 16-0Aledo joins the Xcellent 25 after finishing the 2016 season a perfect 16-0 and claiming its third state championship since 2013. The front-runner for freshman of the year,
Jase McClellan, led the Bearcats to the 5A-D2 UIL Texas state championship rushing for 101 yards and a touchdown in their 24-16 win over Calellen (Corpus Christi, Texas). He finished the season with 1,531 yards rushing and 20 touchdowns. The Bearcats became the first team in UIL history to win six state titles in an eight-year span and, with McClellan back for three more years, there is a good chance Aledo will be right in the thick of things for the next three years. They ended the season averaging over 55 points per game and don't expect that to change in 2017.
Season complete.
Bubble Teams
Union (Tulsa, Okla.), 11-2Season complete.
St. Louis (Honolulu, Hawaii), 10-1Season complete.
The Woodlands (The Woodlands, Texas), 15-1The Woodlands had a great season, advancing to the state championship game for the first time since 2003 but came up a little short against a very good Lake Travis team. The lopsided defeat against the Cavaliers is the only reason they dropped out of the rankings but they still finished 2016 with big-time wins over Katy (Texas) and Allen (Texas).
Season complete.
Steele (Cibolo, Texas), 14-2Cibolo Steele had a big-time year finishing the season 14-2. The only two losses on the season came to No. 2 DeSoto in the 6A-D2 UIL Texas state championship game and to No. 7 Lake Travis in double overtime.
Xavier Martin, a 2017 Texas Tech pledge, and 2018 LSU commit
Caden Sterns led the way for the Knights and expect Steele to be contenders in 2017 led by Sterns, the 4-star safety. The lack of a marquee win or two is the only reason why Cibolo Steele just missed out of the Xcellent 25.
Season complete.
West Orange-Stark (Orange, Texas), 16-0It was a dominant season for West Orange-Stark as it outscored the opposition 811-69 in 2016 in route to winning the 4A-D2 UIL Texas state championship. The Mustangs knocked off Sweetwater (Texas) 24-6 in the championship game and won their second consecutive 4A-D2 state title. It was the school's fourth state title in school history and you could make a serious argument this was their best defense in school history and that is saying something because current Seattle Seahawks star Earl Thomas came from the same high school. In 2016, West Orange-Stark only allowed more than seven points in two games this season.
Season complete.
