North Shore gets defensive in Texas 6A-1 final win over No. 3 Duncanville

Video: Dematrius Davis highlights

A rocky start to the season didn't deter the North Shore (Houston, Texas) football team from repeating as Texas 6A-Division I champions.

For the second straight season, the sixth-ranked Panthers (15-1) defeated No. 3 Duncanville in the finals at AT&T Stadium, this time 31-17 Saturday before 47,818 fans who watched Dematrius Davis Jr. start and end the scoring for the champions.

But this year it wasn't nearly as dramatic thanks to the North Shore defense which shut out the third-ranked Panthers (15-1) in the second half while its offense mustered two touchdowns. Tied at 17-17 at halftime, North Shore got a 1-yard touchdown run by Roger Hagan Jr. midway through the third quarter, before Davis fired a 44-yard scoring strike to Charles King late in the fourth to clinch it.

Last season, it took a Hail Mary by Davis on the last play of the game for North Shore to pull out a 41-36 victory.

Davis (17 carries, 122 yards), a junior, opened the scoring with a 30-yard run with 8:49 left in the first, before Roderick Daniels Jr (8 carries, 131 yards) countered for Duncanville with a 25-yard touchdown run four minutes later.

After a 39-yard field goal by John Villalobos gave North Shore a 10-7 lead, Duncanville went up for the first and only time, 14-10, on a 6-yard touchdown run by freshman quarterback Chris Parson.

Parson (6-of-10, 100 yards, no interceptions) was pressed into service because preseason All-American Ja'Quinden Jackson hurt tore his ACL last week and didn't play.

North Shore went back up in front on a 2-yard TD run by Hagan (27 carries, 105 yards), making it 17-14, before Ulises Lara boomed a 46-yard field goal just before halftime to tie the score 17-17.

The Mustangs, who opened the season with a 24-21 loss to Katy, reeled off 15 straight wins. They outgained Duncanville 318-243.