WAKE UP! and MEET WEST ORANGE-STARK | The team that will face Carthage on Friday seeks a return to glory
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Where the heck IS West Orange-Stark, anyway?
Well, it’s a merged school, obviously, in Southeast Texas, and “Welcome Back, Kotter” was still on TV when the schools merged. (Look up the reference if you don’t get it).
A couple of the more famous, or notable, folks from West Orange-Stark: longtime Texas A&M head football coach R.C. Slocum, former NFL standout Greg Hill (of the Houston Oilers, Kansas City Chiefs and the then-L.A. Raiders), Texas Rangers pitcher Grant Anderson, actress Frances Fisher (“Unforgiven”), and former Seattle Seahawks defensive back Earl Thomas.
The topic here, though, is high school football, and WO-S faces Carthage on Friday at 3 p.m. in the University Interscholastic League’s Class 4A, Division II state championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Um, and it’s a huge deal, because Carthage is seeking not only to win back-to-back state championships, but the 11th state title in Carthage history, all since Surratt arrived on the scene to lead the program in 2007.
As for the Mustangs, they’re returning to the biggest stage in Texas high school football for the first time since 2017.
Here’s the difference: there’s not one. Carthage is still the king.
That’s right. Carthage is turkey on Thanksgiving Day. If AT&T Stadium was a Broadway stage, then Carthage would be “Wicked” – which, by the way, was playing back in the two-thousand-teens.
Let’s be clear here: the Mustangs are no slouch, either, not at all. West Orange-Stark is a great story, a return to glory: four state championships in program history and a coach that you have to love: Hiawatha Hickman. It’s the Mustangs’ first time in the championship round since – well, the FIRST Trump Administration in ’17.
West Orange and Stark merged in 1977 and began winning. They won two championships in the 1980s, and then continued that tradition with more in recent years. After reaching the state title game in 2014, WO-S won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016.
The program’s most recent appearance in the championship, though, ended in a loss in the 2017 title game to Pleasant Grove – with Kilgore head coach Clint Fuller as the Hawks’ defensive coordinator.
Small world.
Former WO-S coach Cornel Thompson wrote a 424-page book, WO-S Football, A Way of Life.
Hickman, a former defensive coordinator himself, has had a steady hand that has driven the Mustangs back near the top in Texas 4A-DII.
But man, this season didn’t start out that way.
In fact, it started out kind of with a hold-on-tight, don’t blink intro: an eight-point win over fellow state title-game participant Newton (in 3A-DII this week), and then two LOSSES, back-to-back, at Nederland (14-6) and to La Vega (44-20).
Hickman had to gather his troops, so to speak, and circle the wagons. In other words, be a TEAM.
They bounced back after the loss to La Vega with a 52-23 win over Episcopal, and I’ll bet you think I’m about to tell you they ran the table, all the way till they matched up against Carthage this Friday, right?
Nope.
They LOST, actually, at Fort Bend Crawford – that’s right, the team that Kilgore beat a couple of weeks ago actually beat WO-S – by a score of 29-22.
And then, after that – no more losing.
The Mustangs have now won 10 straight games, including a drama-less semifinal matchup last weekend against Sinton (28-3).
WO-S is 12-3 on the season. They have scored 500 points (33 a game) and allowed 283 (18.8 a game).
Those three losses mentioned have been their only losses all season for the Mustangs. After that loss to Crawford, the 10 straight wins: Over Jasper (33-0), Shepherd (42-6), Silsbee (33-30), Tarkington (54-0), and an ultra-close one against Hamshire Fannett (22-20).
In the playoffs, WO-S beat Wharton (51-21), Robinson (35-21), Sealy (35-28), La Vega (35-20), and then Senton (28-3) last month.
Looking at numbers, looking at statistics, to say the Mustangs are a “little” run-heavy would be like saying the city of Kilgore is “sort of” known for oil.
In 15 games, WO-S has over 60 rushing touchdowns and more than 4,000 rushing yards – and only 1,000 passing yards and just four passing TDs.
They are VERY dependent on the run, needless to say, and that’s where Khelvy Jefferson hits the kitchen. He’s like the head chef. Jefferson, just a junior, has 2,386 yards and 34 touchdowns on 275 carries, a LOT of carries. He’s averaging 8.7 yards a carry. He does have one carry this year for 81 yards. He’s averaging 159 yards a game – he’s had 12 games of more than 100 yards this season in the Mustangs’ 15-game season to date.
You’d expect the quarterback to be involved in the running game and you’d be right. Kwalin Dugas is a junior as well, and he’s second on the team in rushing: 65 yards and 10 scores this season on 131 carries, an average of 5.1 a carry.
The best of the rest: senior Ray Shaw, with 231 yards and four touchdowns this year on 41 carries.
Dugas has only thrown the ball 136 times all season. Carthage quarterback Jett Surratt – West Orange-Stark’s opponent on Friday – probably did that by halftime of the second game he played this year! Dugas is 78-of-136 for 1,029 yards, four touchdowns, and six interceptions. Jefferson also leads the team in receptions (16 catches for 134 yards), with Michael Turner III right behind (15 for 303 yards). Braydon Gipson has two touchdown catches (eight catches for 122 yards and two scores) and Amonte Phipps has one (11 catches for 111 yards and a TD).
Defensively, Carthage fans should keep in mind this name, because they’ll hear it a lot: Anterrion Fontenot. He leads WO-S in tackles (165). Senior Jonathan Johnson has 112, and 13 for loss. Surratt’s gonna want to know the location of Alexander Thomas and J’Terrion Levi at all times: that’s because Thomas leads the Mustangs with ½ sacks, and Levi has 32 hurries. In fact, the Mustangs really get after the passer: 102 quarterback hurries this season, and almost 19 sacks as a team.
They also create turnovers: 18 fumble recoveries and eight interceptions as a defensive unit, with Jacuincy Walker leading the team in the interception category (four) and Fontenot a dangerous man around the ball: seven caused fumbles and four fumble recoveries.
