If one looked at the scoreboard or the stat sheet or the team celebrating afterward, nothing looked particularly unique about what No. 1 Little Rock Parkview did Saturday night.
The Patriots (14-0) hit big play after big play on offense, executed on special teams and suffocated the opposing team's attack.
The one difference from Saturday's win and the 13 that came before it this season was the stage. It was the biggest one yet for Parkview, but it came with the same result as it defeated Shiloh Christian 55-12 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock to repeat as the Class 5A state champion.
"The seniors that I have, after last year, really wanted to come back and they have been the nuts and bolts of our team and have kept the glue together," Parkview Coach Brad Bolding said. "We kept thinking as coaches that we're going to have a bad game, but that senior class we have just kept them together."
Shiloh Christian (11-3) entered Saturday averaging 47.8 points per game. Against Parkview, they averaged 3.6 yards per play, were outgained 444-217 and held to six points by the Patriots' starters.
"This is the high school Super Bowl," Bolding said. "So you know, for us to be able to do it here ... if there's a better defense in the state, I'll be shocked.
"The defense, I can't give enough credit to them and what they've been able to accomplish all year."
Parkview got started offensively with a 67-yard pass from Eric McGehee, the game's MVP, to Monterrio Elston to go ahead 7-0.
Parkview intercepted four passes, three off Cole Creighton and one against Evan Baker. Junior linebacker Kevin Ellis returned one for a touchdown to make it 14-0. Cameron Settles had two picks and Omar Anderson had one.
In the second quarter, Jaden Ashford and Omarion Robinson scored on rushing touchdowns of 16 and 14 yards, respectively, to make it 28-0. The Patriots scored 21 points in a row off of turnovers.
"Athletically, the margin of error is really small," Shiloh Christian Coach Tucker Barnard said. "A block that you get on a guy in a regular week, and it's enough to get you by, it's not enough today. A throw that's a little off and we go run under it, these guys make up the difference and go run under it before we do."
Shiloh Christian got a 37-yard touchdown pass from Creighton to Carter Holman on a busted coverage to get on the board, but Parkview hit back with a 1-yard touchdown run by McGehee and a 32-yard scoring pass from McGehee to Elston to make it 42-6 at halftime.
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Class 5A Football State Championship
Little Rock Parkview beats Shiloh Christian 55-12 in the Class 5A state championship game on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
The Saints' offense has revolve around senior running back Bo Williams. On Saturday night, he was held to 60 yards on 20 carries. At halftime, he had 31 yards on 11 carries.
"They bottled up the run game inside," Barnard said. "They forced you to bounce everything outside of that to the outside linebackers and the safeties coming down."
"We just played good enough up front, defensively, to control the line of scrimmage," Bolding said. "And then we did a really good job of getting to the football. I think that was probably the telltale factor for us defensively was just we flew around."
Like it has all season, Parkview used the combination of a defensive scheme no team has cracked this season and an offense that takes advantage of field position and can make teams pay quickly. The Patriots' average start possession was the Saints' 48. Parkview ran 43 offensive plays to Shiloh Christian's 61.
"We do that to people a lot," Barnard said. "A lot of the same things happen in games that we win big. Once that ball starts rolling, and you get up against it, and you're in bad situations, and you know how important they are, you got to get yourself out. And so you take chances that you might not normally.
"It's hard to overcome turnovers in any game, much less when you're playing somebody with as much talent and firepower as they have."