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ARLINGTON — Carthage opened the 2024 season with a rare loss, but ended the year like so many Bulldogs teams before.

On top.

KJ Edwards rushed for two touchdowns, Jett Surratt tossed a pair of TD passes to Junior Henderson and Carthage notched a 28-14 win over Waco La Vega to win the Class 4A Division II state championship on Friday at AT&T Stadium.

Carthage (15-1) now owns 10 state championships, all under head coach Scott Surratt, who sits alone as the only high school football coach in the state with 10 state titles. The Bulldog head man is 83-8 in the playoffs and has more state championships (10) than playoff losses.

The win was also the 100th playoff victory all-time for Carthage, which is 100-31 in the postseason.

Friday’s victory gives Carthage another state championship to match the Bulldog teams of 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022.

Waco La Vega ends the year with a 12-4 record and lost to Carthage for the second time in state title games. The Bulldogs also defeated the Pirates, 42-27, in the Class 4A Division I championship contest.

After both teams failed to convert fourth-down conversions on their opening possessions of the game and then punted away their next possessions, La Vega picked off a pass but failed to do anything with the Bulldog miscue and punted the ball away again.

That set up Carthage’s first touchdown just a minute into the second quarter.

Surratt connected with Carson Crawford for 16 yards to move the ball to the Pirate 21, and Edwards did the rest, racing 21 yards for the score. Leo Medrano’s PAT made it 7-0.

La Vega later drove 60 yards to tie the score, keeping the drive alive on a 26-yard pass from Kourtney Parr to James Degrate and then getting a 1-yard TD run from Parr to knot the score at the 4:05 mark of the second quarter.

A holding call on the ensuing kickoff moved Carthage back to the 14-yard line, but two plays later Edwards fought through a tackle at the line of scrimmage with a spin move and then sprinted 86 yards for the TD and a 14-7 lead with 3:40 left in the half.

Carthage threatened late in the half after an interception by Jaydon Lewis – his sixth of the year – but the drive stalled at the Pirate 30 and the Bulldogs settled for the 14-7 halftime lead.

Surratt threw touchdown passes of 25 yards and 19 yards to Henderson in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

La Vega got a 4-yard touchdown run by Jayven Henderson as time expired to make the final 28-14.

Carthage opened the season with a 20-15 loss to Kilgore but won 15 in a row to close out the season – including wins over Spring Hill (49-0), Krum (56-13), Pleasant Grove (28-7), Van (63-14) and Brock (45-17) in the playoffs before closing out the season with Friday’s win.