WATCH: Liberty Christian Wins Back-to-Back State Titles

WACO, TX — The Liberty Christian Warriors of Argyle, Texas have won back-to-back state titles after their defeat of Parish Episcopal, 45-24.

It was a cold night with a constant mist of rain last Saturday, December 7, in Waco where the Warriors took on the Panthers in the TAPPS D1 State Championship. Liberty Christian was the defending state champs from last season where they beat the Regents Knights, 52-10.

Liberty won the coin toss and elected to defer until the second half.

Parish Episcopal took the opening kickoff but ended up having to punt the ball away to a very potent Warrior offense. With the ball, junior quarterback and Baylor commit Quinn Murphy tossed the ball to senior Brady Janusek who slipped three tackles and took it across the goal line for the first touchdown of the game. The Warriors took the lead, 7-0 with 9:49 left in the first quarter.

After a short Panther drive, Parish Episcopal’s senior Nick Wheeler took a handoff from senior signal caller Sawyer Anderson, a Purdue commit, and with 9:26 left, the Panthers tied the game, 7-7.

The Warriors responded with a huge touchdown run by senior running back and University of South Florida commit Chase Garnett, who ripped off a long scoring run to regain the lead, 14-7, with 9:12 left in the first.

Each team had a field goal and Liberty Christian’s Janusek snagged a one-handed touchdown in the back corner of the endzone while the Panther’s Carson Darby caught one across the middle of the field and scored to make it 24-17 going into halftime.

Liberty Christian caught fire in the third quarter and scored three touchdowns. With 10:52 left in the third, Murphy launched the ball down the middle of the field for a Jaylon Hawkins touchdown to extend the Warrior’s lead, 31-17.

With just over 5 minutes left in the third, Janusek caught another short pass from Murphy and took it to the house for his third touchdown of the game. Liberty Christian is now leading Parish Episcopal, 38-17.

On the next Panther’s drive, junior linebacker Jett Haire stepped in front of a pass for an interception with 4:17 still to play in the third. In the closing seconds of the quarter, Garnett had his number called again and he ran in his second touchdown around the left side to give the Warriors a commanding lead, 45-17.

The Panthers needed to put points on the board but, with 11: 46 left in the fourth quarter, Hawkins would grab an Anderson pass. While he didn’t get a pick-six, he did get the ball back to the Warrior’s offense.

Parish Episcopal would get another touchdown on the board when Anderson hit Beckham Smith with a short pass that he took the distance to make the score, 45-24, with 8:16 left in the game.

Hawkins and Quinton Brown would get two first downs, but the Panthers would take over once again. On the final Parish drive and on fourth down, Anderson would use his legs to extend the play, but CJ Witten closed in fast, getting to Anderson for the tackle.

The Warriors offense took to the field to kneel out the game and secure their victory, 45-24.

With the kneel-down, the Liberty Christian Warriors won their second straight state title.