ARLINGTON, Texas — After months of blood, sweat and turf burns, it's all coming down to this.
Three talented and determined North Texas high school football teams will be represented in all the final 2021 UIL state championship games being hosted at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Saturday, Dec. 18.
And, more than just titles, each of the these area teams -- who represent a dominant 2021 North Texas football landscape -- taking to the Cowboys' field will have plenty else on the line come their games' kickoffs, too.
So, let's take a look at these highly-anticipated match-ups, and go over just what these teams will be playing for -- beyond trophies -- this weekend. (Tickets can be purchased here. The UIL also has information on their website on how fans can watch broadcasts of the games.)
Liberty Hill (13-2) vs. Dallas South Oak Cliff (14-1) at 11:00 a.m.
The darling Golden Bears of South Oak Cliff are very much looking to "kick in the door" when they face Central Texas' Liberty Hill on Saturday.
There's a reason the team's first-ever UIL football state championship game appearance has garnered all sorts of media attention this fall. With a win on Saturday, the team will become the first DISD team to win a UIL title since 1950 (not counting the infamously disqualified Carter High state champs from 1988). It would also become the first DISD team to win a football state title of any sort since the pre-integration Booker T. Washington High School squad, which took home the Prairie View Interscholastic League state title in 1958.
Rather incredibly, three starters on the SOC defense can also trace their lineages back to a single man on that last title-winning DISD school, too.
No matter what happens on Saturday, this team has already made its mark: SOC's wildly-entertaining run to this point has already found three of its seniors earning (and accepting) scholarships to play college ball at SMU, TCU and North Texas.
Liberty Hill certainly has a tall order ahead of it in trying to knock off SOC. The Golden Bears' only loss this year came against Conference 6A Division I state finalist Duncanville, who'll play in the game slated to take place immediately after this one on the Saturday docket.
If either SOC coach Jason Todd or his mentor, Duncanville head coach Reginald Samples, win state titles on Saturday, they'll become the first Black high school coaches from the Dallas area to accomplish such a feat since 1990.
Galena Park North Shore (14-1) vs. Duncanville (13-1) at 3:00 p.m.
For the third time in four years, Duncanville and Harris County's North Shore will once again be meeting in the Conference 6A Division I championship game.
But after taking losses the first two times around in 2018 and 2019 -- the former ended in thrilling fashion with a Hail Mary touchdown pass that gave the Mustangs the title as time expired -- Duncanville is looking to turn the tables around in 2021.
If the team is able to do so, the Mustangs will win their first state football championship since 1998.
Head coach Reginald Samples, who has been at Duncanville since 2015, sure seems like the man to get the team over that hump. In 2004, his Dallas Lincoln squad made it to the state finals and was on the verge of accomplishing the same feat SOC is looking to tackle this year; alas, it wasn't meant to be, and his team lost in overtime to Kilgore.
But after earning his 300th career win as a high school football coach in September -- and becoming the winningest Black coach in Texas high school football history in the process -- this year feels different.
His Panthers' only loss of the season came against an out-of-state squad in California's Mater Dei high School, a perennial national juggernaut known for churning out highly recruited talents.
Austin Westlake (15-0) vs. Denton Guyer (14-1) at 7:00 p.m.
In a rematch of the 2019 finals that saw Westlake beating Denton Guyer 24-0 in that year's 6A Division 2 championship game, the Wildcats are now out for vengeance.
Leading that charge for Guyer is quarterback Jackson Arnold, who, as a freshman in 2019, was forced into play after then-senior quarterback Eli Stowers was injured in the first quarter.
The undefeated Westlake, meanwhile, is led by senior Cade Klubnick, a Clemson commit who is considered by many to be the top high school quarterback in the country.
Oh, and as if these teams weren't familiar enough with one another as-is, there's this: Westlake's head coach is former Southlake Carroll and UNT head coach Todd Dodge, who is retiring after this season.
Will Dodge, who knows a thing or two about North Texas football, ride off into the sunset with a W?
Either way, these two teams will end the season with a combined two losses between them, as Guyer's only loss of the season came in a 38-31 loss to fellow regional powerhouse Allen.
WFAA's Paul Melton contributed to this report.