When HP quarterback Chandler Morris led his team to a tight victory over Frisco Lone Star last year, Garret Rangel was a mere freshman at Lone Star. Fast forward 12 months and Morris will go head-to-head with Rangel in a classic Texas football battle between the state’s first- and fourth-ranked 5A teams. 
Rangel, like Rockwall’s Braedyn Locke, is a sophomore quarterback who plays like a college senior. Rangel is averaging 410 yards per game passing and he is blessed with one of the best high school receivers in our great nation. Marvin Mims, who will be playing for Stanford next year, is averaging 239 yards per game. Coach Randy Allen says Mims reminds him of Rockwall’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Allen would rather not be reminded of him. Smith-Njigba and his 311 yards scorched HP’s secondary in the season opener.
Right now the Dallas area’s leading 6A quarterback is Locke and the leading 6A receiver is Jaxon-Njigba. The leading 5A quarterback is Rangel and the leading 5A receiver is Mims. What they have in common is an opponent named Highland Park, the state’s top-ranked 5A team.
Last year HP and LS rolled into this game with big wins and big expectations. With one second left in the game the score was 7-7, not 66-59. Both defenses stepped up and stole the stage from two hyper-successful offenses. What will happen this year’s game? The Rangers are averaging 65 points per game and I predict they will finish below their average. I further predict that a last-second field goal won’t win the game.
I would take Chandler Morris and his merry band of receivers led by Case Savage and Ben Smith over the Rockwall and Lone Star superstars because with Morris, Savage and Smith comes the rest of the Highland Park Scots. The offensive line, their brothers on defense, the coaches, the tradition, the quest for excellence, a zillion teammates, a kick-ass drum line and the best drill team this side of New York City.
Coach Randy Allen has won 394 games in his career, tying him for the third most wins in Texas high school football history. The Scots have won more games than any school in the state. Right now the Scots are riding a 33-game win streak, the longest in Texas. Two weeks ago Morris broke the Highland Park QB records for yards in a game and total offense in a game. Think about the HP quarterbacks who have come before him – Bobby Layne, Matthew Stafford, Lance McIlhenny, John Stollenwerck, Scott Smith, John Stephen Jones, Casey Clyce, Sam Gibbons, the Webb brothers, Marshall Smith, Bill Foran, Luke Woodley, the Burgin brothers and many others. None have personally accounted for 664 yards in a game. Until now.
But Morris isn’t thinking about breaking records, Each week he is thinking about leading his team to victory. With that said, Friday’s Lone Star game will be the biggest game of his life.
My money is on the coach’s son.
Frisco Lone Star Plays HP Friday the 13th
by Kirk Dooley