The South Oak Cliff Golden Bears will face the team that upset their run for a third-straight championship win last year.
SOC and Port Neches-Groves will play in the Regional Finals Friday night, where both teams are expected to have a chip on their shoulders.
The South Oak Cliff Golden Bears have grown accustomed to the spotlight. It comes with the territory when you’ve won two state championships in the past three years.
Head coach Jason Todd is proud of what these young players have accomplished on the field.
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He wants that drive and discipline to translate off the field as well.
“We tell them use this as an avenue to go through and do other things in life because football won’t last forever,” said Todd.
South Oak Cliff held its early signing day ceremony with seven players committing Wednesday afternoon.
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Emeka Ugorji is headed to Stanford.
“It’s a great college academically and football so the coaching staff is great and great place overall I loved it,” said Ugorji. “I’m ready to compete and show them who I am.”
Senior Kendrick Carter is off to North Dakota State after years of hard work.
“Grinding every day on the football field in the classroom going back and forth between championships, it’s been a lot but all of some good,” Carter said.
While college is on the horizon, they still have some business to tend to here. They said they want the championship title back.
“This is the team that put us out last year in the playoffs when we lost in the state championship game,” said Coach Todd. “They know in order to get to our final destination they got to go through PNG, and they’ve been pretty locked in all week.”
Port-Neches Groves once again stands in their way on the road to victory. It’s been become a bit of a feud, with SOC beating PNG for the title in 2022, and PNG coming back to take the title in 2023. This will be their third showdown in recent years.
“They’re the defending state champs and we’re approaching them with much respect,” said Coach Todd. “But they took a title from us and we’re going to reclaim our throne.”
