GOUDARZI & YOUNG / ETBLITZ TEAM OF THE WEEK | One more time for the KHS Bulldogs
The staff at ETBlitz.com is hoping all of East Texas had a great Christmas. We certainly did, and now we’re bringing you today the penultimate award-winners of 2024 for the Goudarzi & Young, LLP / ETBlitz.com Team of the Week.
There’s only one team, of course, that played for a state championship last week, and even though the game, and the season, didn’t end as they’d hoped, we’ve got to recognize one more time the Kilgore High School Bulldogs football team as the G&Y / ETBlitz honoree, for the week of Dec. 16-21.
From the get-go, before the season ever started – maybe even all the way back to Dec. 1, 2023, with the fourth-round playoff loss to Chapel Hill – the goal for this year’s Kilgore Bulldogs was to get to, and win, the UIL Class 4A, Division I State Championship.
There were other goals along the way: beat Carthage in the season opener; win each of the games on the 2024 schedule; win the District 9-4A, DI championship, or at least finish as the district’s top seed; and run the gauntlet that is the 4A-DI playoffs each year to reach that last game, played Dec. 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Kilgore did most of those things: the Ragin’ Red did, in fact, beat Carthage in the first game of the season, in Carthage, no less, and wound up being the ONLY team to beat Carthage all season, as Carthage won the 4A-DII state title.
The Bulldogs did win almost all of their regular-season games, losing only to Gilmer and to Henderson in the final seconds of each of those games. They did defeat rival Chapel Hill twice, neither game close, and they did go into the playoffs as the top seed in 9-4A, DI, having beaten Pine Tree in district play to earn that tiebreaker.
Kilgore did run through the playoffs like a hot knife through butter, blowing by Vidor, Needville, Navasota, Chapel Hill, and La Vernia – that last one punched the Bulldogs’ ticket back to AT&T Stadium, giving them their first state title game appearance since 2013, and third overall.
So, unless you’ve been in the proverbial cave, you know how Kilgore-Celina ended. The Bobcats won their ninth state title in program history, and the second half, unfortunately, wasn’t a particularly-close one.
But Kilgore was there. They were there, in the state championship game, with an opportunity to win it, playing in their 16th game of the season. And they finished the season with a 13-3 record. As mentioned last week, only two teams in Kilgore history finished with more wins in a single season: the 2004 version (16-0), and the 2013 version (14-1).
In the contest, the Bulldogs finished with 161 rushing yards, with quarterback Kayson Brooks rushing for 65 yards on 10 carries, and Isaiah Watters for 68 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
Brooks through the air completed 14-of-27 throws for 113 yards, two interceptions and two touchdowns – to Javon Towns in the first half, and to Lakeyleon Graves in the second.
Graves finished with four catches for 51 yards and the score, and Towns with four for 21, and the other touchdown.
Defensively, linebacker Graves had 12 tackles, and brother La’Perrion Graves, also a linebacker, had 11, and one for loss. Defensive lineman Wylie Mitchell had six tackles and two quarterback hurries; David McGowan had eight stops and a hurry.
Jayden Sanders had three tackles and a pass break-up, and Cam Christian had seven tackles and blocked an extra point.
Kilgore will have several that are graduating and won’t be around for the 2025 season, but with players like Brooks, Lakeyleon Graves, Christian, Watters and many more returning, the Ragin’ Red have to be among the favorites to play at AT&T next fall.
And if you have legal issues in the areas of personal or property injury, oilfield injuries, burn injuries, insurance claims, car accidents and accidents involving 18-wheelers, or wrongful death – those are all serious matters, and only one firm in East Texas is not only the state’s leader, but the national leader in those areas of practice.
That’s Goudarzi & Young, LLP, with offices in Longview and in Gilmer
Brent Goudarzi, who established the law firm in 1997, has led his team, along with Marty Young, to staggering settlements, including the three largest trucking settlements in the history of the U.S. Goudarzi & Young were also the winners in verdicts of $730 million and $260 million.
They’re ready and willing to work for you, and only get paid if they win.
Their website, which is excellent, can be found here: Goudarzi & Young, L.L.P. – Tyler & Longview Personal Injury Lawyers. There’s a chat option on the site, plenty of categories to answer questions you might have about their firm, including cases they’ve won, and more.
Contact them locally, as well, by calling (903) 843-2544, or toll-free at 800-256-5169, or e-mail them at goudarziyoung@goudarzi-young.com.
As Brent Goudarzi says, they hope you never need them. But if you do, they’re here to help.
And they, along with us, congratulate the Kilgore Bulldogs not only on playing in the 4A-DI state championship last Friday, but also on an incredible season – and of course, for once again being the Goudarzi & Young, LLP / ETBlitz.com Team of the Week.