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FRISCO — For the second straight year, Frisco Lone Star is a district champion.
Lone Star, the area’s fourth-ranked 5A team, scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to beat Frisco Reedy 41-30 in the District 5-5AI title game on Thursday night at the Ford Center.
The back-to-back district champion clinched the No. 1 seed in District 5-5AI and will play W.T. White in the first round of the playoffs next week.
“We’ve kind of set a standard of success in our place,” Lone Star coach Jeff Rayburn said. “We talk about protecting this family for as long as we can because we know at the end of the season, kids graduate, kids move on, coaches move on. So we just want to have the opportunity to stay together as long as we can as we go into the playoffs.”
Sophomore quarterback Karece Hoyt accounted for 477 of Lone Star’s 523 yards of total offense. Hoyt was 21 of 31 for 285 yards and three passing touchdowns and rushed for 192 yards and two scores in the win, Lone Star’s sixth over Reedy in seven all-time meetings.
No. 11 Reedy (8-1, 7-1) had a 30-20 halftime lead that Lone Star (8-1, 7-1) started to erase almost immediately out of the locker room when Logan Brown scored a 26-yard touchdown off a pass from Hoyt in the opening minutes of the third quarter. A 77-yard catch and run score from senior Bryson Jones reclaimed the lead for Lone Star, which held a 34-30 advantage with 2:18 left in the third quarter. Hoyt’s 11-yard run with 7:57 remaining in the game sealed the win.
“We have a great program here led by Coach Rayburn and all the good coaches,” Hoyt said. " We all bought in, as players and as coaches.
Lone Star won without four-star junior Davian Groce, the No. 2 running back in the nation who was injured in the team’s shocking 69-65 upset loss to Frisco Wakeland in Week 9. Wakeland clinched the win with a walk-off 100-yard fumble return for a touchdown in overtime.
Entering the game, Lone Star had beaten Wakeland nine times in 10 all-time meetings. Lone Star won its first five district games by a combined score of 238-58 this season, and Wakeland handed the program its first loss of 2024.
“We learned a lot from that game,” Rayburn said. “We didn’t hang our heads. We just said ‘Hey, how can we get better?’ And I think our kids have continued to improve and we’re starting to peak at the right time.
On Thursday night, both Reedy and Lone Star scored on their opening drives. Reedy found the endzone with 9:22 remaining in the first quarter after an 18-yard run from senior running back Triston Airy. Lone Star answered that score about two minutes later when the sophomore quarterback Hoyt connected with Jones for a 9-yard touchdown.
Hoyt’s 49-yard touchdown run with just under five to go in the first quarter gave Lone Star a 14-7 lead over Reedy, which had a pivotal second quarter that saw it score 23 points.
After Lone Star opened the second quarter with a 32-yard field goal to take a 17-7 lead, Reedy scored three touchdowns before halftime with two from Airy and one from Jackson Ford on an 18-yard pass from Jake Ferner.
The momentum seemed to shift in Reedy’s direction after Lone Star’s kickoff returner was tackled in the end zone for a Reedy safety with 11:31 remaining in the second quarter. The 68-yard touchdown from Airy that came moments before plus the safety put Reedy within one of Lone Star after entering the second quarter down a touchdown.
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