Longview qualifies for state Saturday at the Tyler 7-on-7 state qualifier at Lindsey Park.

Longview and Crandall are headed to the Texas 7-on-7 State Football Championships after both going 4-0 in the Tyler 7-on-7 state qualifier on Saturday at Lindsey Park.

Longview met Tyler in the qualifying game, while Crandall and Tyler Legacy faced off on the next field.

Longview and Crandall scored simultaneously to both take leads of 7-0.

Tyler came back to tie the game with a touchdown pass from Ahstin Watkins to four-star 2024 prospect Derrick McFall, who tip-toed on the sideline to haul in the catch in the end zone.

McFall recently announced upcoming visits to Texas A&M and Alabama.

Tyler intercepted a Longview pass but couldn’t capitalize with a touchdown. Longview then tacked on a touchdown pass to four-star 2024 prospect Taylor Tatum to make the score 14-7.

“I feel like we executed obviously in the passing game, but with the deep ball specifically,” Tatum said. “I feel like we completed some more deep balls than we did last year and made some bigger plays.”

Tatum was at the Texas A&M camp this week and picked up offers from the Aggies and Tennessee.

The Lobos intercepted a pass in the end zone and added a touchdown before halftime to lead 20-7. Longview got another touchdown early in the second half to stretch the lead to 27-7.

Watkins connected on a deep ball with McFall for a touchdown and then found McFall for the two-point conversion to cut the score to 27-15. Tyler got back into scoring position late, but Longview once again got an interception to seal the 27-15 victory.

“It’s a pleasure to see them come out and compete the way they did today,” Longview athletic director and head football coach John King said. “They came out and were competitive, and they communicated. They were the ones that wanted to play it, so I said, if you’re going to do it the right way, we’ll play. And they had one chance this tournament to get qualified for state, and they did it, so we’re headed to College Station.”

A year ago on the same field, Wylie East took a 21-20 win over Longview to qualify for state.

“We grew as a team,” Longview four-star 2023 receiver Jalen Hale said. “Everybody was ready to compete, and we all set our mind on the same goal.”

On the other field, after Crandall’s early touchdown, Legacy cut into Crandall’s lead with a touchdown pass by Luke Wolf, but the Red Raiders didn’t get the conversion, making the score 7-6.

Crandall then reeled off 19 unanswered points to end the half to lead 26-6 at halftime.

Crandall went on to win 39-13.

Instead of playing the championship, since both teams are qualifiers, there was a tiebreaker scenario. Crandall won the tiebreaker to earn the stop seed at the state tournament. Instead of the usual coin flip, this year’s tiebreaking scenario was guessing the closest number.

The state tournament is June 24-25 at Veterans Park and Athletic Complex in College Station.

Tyler Lee — now Tyler Legacy — in 2004 is the only East Texas team to win a state 7-on-7 title.

Saturday’s Pool A scores

Terrell 19, Greenville 0; Tyler Legacy 14, Nacogdoches 7; Greenville 27, Nacogdoches 12; Tyler Legacy 19, Terrell 12; Terrell 41, Nacogdoches 12; and Tyler Legacy 31, Greenville 0.

Pool B scores were Hallsville 21, Tyler Legacy B 6; Crandall 34, Marshall 14; Crandall 38, Tyler Legacy B 0; Hallsville 1, Marshall 12; Tyler Legacy B 6, Marshall 0; and Crandall 36, Hallsville 8.

Pool C scores were Longview 20, Rockwall 7; Whitehouse 27, College Station 20; Whitehouse 33, Rockwall 13; Longview 26, College Station 14; Longview 33, Whitehouse 13; and Rockwall 41, College Station 27.

Pool D scores were Tyler 26, North Forney 13; Mount Pleasant 19, Lufkin 18; Tyler 33, Mount Pleasant 28; Lufkin 28, North Forney 14; Tyler 14, Lufkin 6; and Mount Pleasant 28, North Forney 21.

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