Announcing the MaxPreps Dallas Coach of the Week presented by Comerica Bank

Joey McGuire is definitely the kind of coach that sees a glass half-full, even if only a swallow remains.

But the Cedar Hill Longhorns' head man needed all the positive thinking he could muster this fall when his team got off to a 1-3 start. Worse, one of his star players was lost to a season-ending knee injury in the second game of the season.

Cedar Hill righted the ship, put together a playoff run and on Saturday earned a berth in the Class 5A Division II state championship game with a 31-28 victory over Westlake (Austin) in a state semifinal played in Waco.

For all these accomplishments, McGuire was chosen as the Dallas area Coach of the Week presented by Comerica Bank.

"We're right where we expected to be,'' said McGuire. "We just went a different way to get there.''

Cedar Hill will face Texas' top-ranked team, 15-0 Katy, in the title game set for 4 p.m. Saturday at Cowboys Stadium.

"It's been a crazy year with the ups and downs, but very rewarding,'' McGuire said.

The low point occurred in the second week, a 37-20 loss to Allen on Cedar Hill's home turf. Not only did Cedar Hill lose the game, but also the services of running back Jared Rayford to a season-ending knee injury.

"It was tough to see a guy like Jared that has been with us every day have to miss his senior season,'' McGuire said. "He was a leader for us.''

In succeeding weeks, Cedar Hill lost two more games -- 40-21 to Washington (Miami) and 48-35 to DeSoto in the District 5-5A opener. A Longhorn program that had made the playoffs in seven consecutive years was suddenly reeling.

"As a coach, you have to keep the kids believing in what you are doing,'' McGuire said. "We made a few changes, primarily on defense, and we started playing better. We actually played pretty well against DeSoto and at that point our guys started understanding that we could be a good team.''

The Longhorns closed the regular season by winning five of six and entered the playoffs with a deceiving record of 6-4. In postseason play, Cedar Hill took care of Copperas Cove (35-28), Ryan (Denton) 48-35, Arlington 49-14 and unbeaten Midway (Waco) 49-34 to set up the semifinal with Westlake.

With Cedar Hill and Westlake tied at 28 late in the fourth quarter, Longhorns kicker Brooks Ralph kicked a 42-yard field goal in the final seconds for the win.

In the first half Ralph missed on field goal tries of 46 and 39 yards.

"He had the distance on the first one, but pushed it a little left,'' McGuire said. "The second one, he didn't get a good foot into it. I told Brooks at half that he would have another chance because that was the kind of game it was. And I told him I wanted him to do what he's been coached to do and think only snap, hold and kick.''

Cedar Hill owned a 14-point lead before Westlake rallied to tie with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

The key play in the Longhorns' 47-yard drive for the winning field goal was a 21-yard pass from Damion Hobbs to Quincy Adeboyejo on third-and-11 at the Cedar Hill 38.

Cedar Hill got a big lift from converted linebacker Bobby Jackson, who rushed for 172 yards and two touchdowns, including a 77-yarder that broke a 14-14 tie.

McGuire said Jackson had been a running back until his junior year. Because the Longhorns had Laquvionte Gonzalez and Rayford, Jackson was moved to defense. He got into a few playoff games as a running back this fall, but last week all of his practice reps came at running back. He has only 29 carries this season.

Gonzalez (1,415 rushing yards, 20 touchdowns) and Adeboyejo (1,230 receiving yards, 17 touchdowns) are Texas A&M commits. Quarterback Hobbs, committed to Arkansas State, has completed 67 percent of his passes for 2,569 yards and 27 touchdowns.

For McGuire, the state championship game is his second at Cedar Hill.

The Longhorns completed a 16-0 season in 2006 by routing Cypress Falls (Houston) 51-17 in the Class 5A Division II state title game in San Antonio's Alamodome.

"I guess because I'm older, I appreciate the chance to play in another state final even more this time,'' McGuire said.

His record at Cedar Hill is 93-32 since taking over in 2003. McGuire has never had a losing season.

Katy, a six-time state champion, has outscored its foes this fall 794-182.

"If we listen to most people, we'd just check in our helmets now,'' McGuire said. "Not too many give us much of a shot. But I'll promise this — we're going to show up at 4 o'clock on Saturday and give it everything we've got.''