Celina will have a chance to move into a tie for third for all-time UIL football champions in the Class 4A Division I game this afternoon. Celina has won eight state titles and currently sit in third place overall among UIL teams — trailing Aledo (12) and Carthage (10) Katy (9). 

Carthage won state title No. 10 earlier in the day to move into second place.

Celina had to rally late to keep the undefeated season and title hopes alive last week, beating Amarillo West Plains, 43-36. RB Harrison Williams scored on a 22-yard run with 1:34 left to account for the final points. It marked the first time in the postseason that Celina hadn’t led at halftime.

Bobcats QB Bowe Bentley, who recently picked up offers from Duke and Cal, ran for 154 yards and three touchdowns in the win. 

TEXAS HS FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD

Kilgore has won nine in a row heading into the finals. This will be the Bulldogs’ third finals game with a win in 2OT against Dallas Lincoln in 2004 and a loss to Carthage in 2013. 

Isaiah Watters ran for two scores and Michigan signee Jayden Sanders also scored for Kilgore in the 31-7 win over La Vernia.

Follow along below for live updates from the Class 4A-Division I state finals between Kilgore and Celina, scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. CT on Friday, Dec. 20, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Pregame updates

Kilgore wins the toss and defers. Celina to get the ball first.

First Quarter Updates

TOUCHDOWN CELINA! Bowe Bentley connects with Ethan Rucker for a 34-yard TD. 10:52 left in the first. Celina 7, Kilgore 0

TOUCHDOWN KILGORE! Isaiah Watters with a 12-yard TD run for the Bulldogs. Eddie Jimenez with PAT. Kilgore 7, Celina 7. Big plays on the drive from the legs of QB Kayson Brooks, who has 23 yards on 3 carries

TOUCHDOWN CELINA! Bentley to Rucker again — this time for 61 yards. 5:10 on the clock. PAT blocked but haven’t seen a replay to see who got it. Celina 13, Kilgore 7

Kilgore gets a 26-yard play to move to the 29-yard line of Celina. An 11-yard run by Jacory Walton Omarion and then a 15-yard late hit.

END OF 1ST QUARTER: Celina 13, Kilgore 7

Second Quarter Updates

TOUCHDOWN KILGORE! On the first play of the 2nd quarter, Brooks hits Javon Towns for a 20-yard TD on a bubble screen. The senior WR does the work by catching the ball behind the line of scrimmage and outrunning the defense. PAT is good. Kilgore has the lead for the first time today. Kilgore 14, Celina 13

FIELD GOAL CELINA! The Bobcats regain the lead. Senior Braden Johnson boots a 35-yard field goal. Celina 16, Kilgore 14

Media/TV timeout 7:53 left.

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Vote: Who should be Texas Defensive High School Football Player of the Week? (12/15/2024)

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Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson is being called to testify at a state House committee hearing Friday at noon, as ordered by a new subpoena issued this week.

But whether the condemned man will be produced in person is unclear, after the state’s attorney general’s office filed a motion late Thursday allowing the prison to disregard the subpoena pending a hearing to resolve the motion. The office also resisted in October with a similar subpoena for a hearing with state lawmakers.

The new hearing requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to transport Roberson from his prison north of Houston to the state Capitol in Austin.

In a statement issued Thursday, the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “In addition to presenting serious security risks, the subpoena is procedurally defective and therefore invalid as it was issued in violation of the House Rules, the Texas Constitution, and other applicable laws.”

Paxton said in October that there were safety concerns with having Roberson brought before lawmakers and cited a lack of a state facility near Austin that could temporarily house him. The state had said he could testify virtually.

In response, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence offered a compromise that its members could meet with Roberson in prison, saying they were uncomfortable with the video option, given his autism and unfamiliarity with the technology. The meeting, however, never materialized.

A Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson said Wednesday that it “doesn’t have a comment at this time” on whether it would abide by this latest subpoena.

The decision by House committee lawmakers to issue a second subpoena comes after the attorney general’s office challenged the initial one. The original subpoena was an unusual legal gambit that set off a flurry of litigation that put Roberson’s execution on hold mere hours before he was to be executed on Oct. 17. He would have been the nation’s first person to be executed for a “shaken baby” death after long maintaining his innocence. His 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, died in 2002.

The House committee members said they still want Roberson to be able to testify in his case as it relates to a 2013 “junk science” law that allows Texas inmates to potentially challenge convictions based on advances in forensic science.

“Robert’s testimony will shed important light on some of the problems with our ‘junk science writ’ process, a legal procedure Texas lawmakers expected to provide reconsideration in cases like this one,” committee chair and state Rep. Joe Moody, a Democrat, and committee member and state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican, said in a statement. “His perspective will be especially valuable as a person on the autism spectrum whose neurodivergence profoundly influenced both his case and his access to justice on appeal.”

Last month, the Texas Supreme Court sided with state officials that lawmakers could not use their subpoena power to effectively halt an execution, but said the committee members could still compel Roberson to testify.

The attorney general’s office has not set a new execution date.

Meanwhile, the lawmakers and Paxton have sparred publicly over Roberson’s case, with each accusing the other of “misrepresenting” details that led to his conviction in his daughter’s death and releasing their own reports in recent weeks rebutting each other’s claims.

Doctors and law enforcement had quickly concluded Nikki was killed as a result of a violent shaking episode, but Roberson’s defense says new understanding of so-called shaken baby syndrome shows that other medical conditions can be factors in a child’s death, as they believe it was in Nikki’s.