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ARLINGTON — In the midst of a record-setting state championship game Saturday night, Colorado signee Quentin Gibson broke out the Deion Sanders celebration shuffle to pay tribute to the Pro Football Hall of Famer who will be his future college coach.

Gibson also held up two fingers, signaling his touchdown total at that point in the second quarter. He might as well have been showing North Crowley’s updated state title total, as the nation’s third-ranked team ended a championship drought of more than two decades for Fort Worth by routing one of Texas’ legendary programs, Austin Westlake, 50-21 in the Class 6A Division I state championship game.

In front of a crowd of 36,120 at AT&T Stadium, Gibson put up video game-like numbers with seven catches for 181 yards and three touchdowns while breaking the Dallas-area record for most touchdown catches in a season. The matchup of nationally ranked teams ended up being a showcase for North Crowley’s breathtaking speed and the prodigious offensive playmakers who have produced one of the greatest seasons in Texas high school football history.

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“We’ve done what everybody sets out to do at the beginning of the year, and when you get to this point, there’s only one team that’s standing. Fortunately for us, this year it’s us,” North Crowley coach Ray Gates said. “The 817 is about the city of Fort Worth, not just Crowley and beyond. We wanted to make sure that we had a product that people in our community will be proud of.”

North Crowley (16-0) won its second state title — and first since 2003 — and finished the season with wins over seven schools that have combined to win 24 state titles. In the playoffs alone, North Crowley beat six-time state champion Odessa Permian, five-time state champion Allen, three-time state champion Duncanville and four-time state champion Westlake, which had a three-peat from 2019 to 2021.

Gates already had plans to celebrate.

“I’m leaving on Monday, and I’m going to Italy,” he said.

North Crowley celebrates winning the 2024 Class 6A Division I state title

North Crowley defeated Austin Westlake 50-21 to capture its first state title since 2003, Saturday night at AT&T Stadium.

In winning its first title in the UIL’s top classification, North Crowley completed the first undefeated season in school history and continued a dramatic turnaround under Gates, who is 42-2 in three years at North Crowley. This championship came 11 years after North Crowley went 0-10 in 2013 and eight years after a 1-9 season in 2016.

“I couldn’t have scripted this any better. So much has to come together to do what we were able to do in such a short amount of time,” Gates said. “We’re one of the fastest-growing cities in the Metroplex. They’re building onto our school. I have five turf fields, we’re building an indoor track complex. When you put those type of resources together, and you have the type of growth we have, this is something that could be special.”

North Crowley, which has a Fort Worth address, is one of just two schools from the city to win a UIL football state title since the UIL expanded to multiple classifications after the 1947 season. The only other was Fort Worth Arlington Heights in 1948, when it won the City title.

Related:Quentin Gibson broke an NFL player’s Dallas-area record in North Crowley’s state title win

Gibson, whose only college offers going into his senior year were from Army, Illinois State and Prairie View A&M, finished one of the most spectacular seasons Texas has ever seen with 36 touchdown catches after his 20-yarder with 1:35 remaining. It’s the fourth most in state history and one more than Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the former Rockwall star who set the previous Dallas-area record in 2019.

“It means a lot, knowing that he’s in the NFL. It’s amazing,” Gibson said. “My senior year has been a movie, with me having nothing and not knowing what I was going to do at the end of the season and now being at Colorado and finding my home.”

Gibson also tied the 6A record for most touchdown catches in a state championship game, and North Crowley’s 640 total yards were second most in a state final in the UIL’s top classification. Gibson was also named the game’s offensive MVP and was credited with an insane 149 yards after the catch.

As the third quarter was about to start, Gibson was shown looking up at the huge videoboard that was displaying the record for most receiving yards in a 6A state championship game, which was 236 by Westlake’s Jaden Greathouse against Denton Guyer in 2021. Gibson didn’t approach it because North Crowley relied heavily on the run in the second half, as three-star running back Cornelius Warren III rushed for a season-high 217 yards and had a 75-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Westlake (14-2), ranked No. 11 in the nation by MaxPreps, was trying to win its fourth state title in six years and came into Saturday with one of premier defenses in Texas, allowing 12.3 points per game. Westlake had allowed more than 17 points only once all season, but North Crowley had four scoring plays of more than 40 yards in the first half and took a 28-7 lead into halftime after amassing 367 total yards and averaging 10.8 yards per play and 28 yards per completion.

There was no letdown for North Crowley after last week’s 36-34 state semifinal win over nationally ranked Duncanville, which was bidding for its third straight state title. An offense that was averaging 54.3 points and 525.9 yards of total offense needed just one play to score on the game’s opening drive, as North Crowley ran a flea-flicker and North Texas signee Chris Jimerson Jr. executed it to perfection, avoiding the rush and finding Gibson wide open behind the defense for a 75-yard touchdown pass.

The next drive ended with a 44-yard touchdown run by Jimerson, and North Crowley scored touchdowns on six of its first seven drives. Gibson made it 21-7 when he caught a 44-yard touchdown pass from Jimerson on a third-and-18 play, after which he broke out his Prime Time dance, then Jimerson threw a 44-yard scoring pass to Utah signee Daniel Bray with 42 seconds left in the first half.

This was against a Westlake team that beat six-time state champion Austin Lake Travis in a regional final and stunned nationally ranked and five-time state champion Galena Park North Shore in the state semifinals. Jimerson threw four touchdown passes, giving him 58 for the season, and Warren had his eighth 100-yard game of the season and finished with 770 yards in the final four games.