Adrian football poses with the state title trophy after defeating Crosspoint Christian. (Photo by Missy Smith)

Last season, No. 2 Adrian football was unbeatable as it went 12-0 en route to the state title. 

Along the way, the Antelopes out scored opponents 529-84, leaving not much room for improvement.

Well, the 2025 team found a way to get even better, capping another 12-0 season with a dominant 44-8 victory over No. 4 Crosspoint Christian in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 1A 8-man state final Saturday at Redmond High School.

The Antelopes started a little slow on offense, but the junior running duo of Mannie Mulrony and Kash Morford eventually broke through to grab a 30-0 lead at halftime.

The 44 points in the final gave Adrian 613 on the year, and it only allowed 74, both marks besting that 2024 squad.

Crosspoint Christian was able to force a turnover on downs after its first possession of the game ended with a partially blocked punt. However, the Warriors didn’t get much further on their second possession and punted it away cleanly.

Adrian got the offense rolling from there though, picking up some small gains that led to a couple first downs and got the Antelopes to the Warriors 30-yard line. Mulrony took it from there on a 30-yard TD run to put Adrian up 8-0 after junior QB Trey Bayes ran in the two-point conversion.

That score carried over to the second where Warriors senior Chris Kelly was hit at the line of scrimmage and fumbled the ball. Adrian senior Silvestre Rico Jr. picked up the loose ball and ran it back 36 yards to the Warriors 9-yard line.

One play later, Morford was into the end zone on a run to go up 14-0. The two-point try was stopped to keep it at 14-0.

Crosspoint lost another at midfield on a run from junior Trey Johnston, this one recovered by Antelopes senior Gavin Epperson. However, Johnston made up for it with an interception on the ensuing drive to try and spring some life into the Warriors.

The Warriors were able to cross midfield, but Adrian came up with the stop on fourth down on its own 44. On the first snap of the Antelopes ensuing drive, Morford broke free to the far side and down the sideline for a 56-yard rushing TD that made it 22-0 after Mulrony ran in the two-pointer.

Crosspoint was forced to punt again and the Morford and Mulrony show continued to eat up yardage for Adrian. Eventually it was a 1-yard Morford rushing TD followed by the Mulrony two-pointer to make it 30-0 Antelopes at the break.

Adrian turned the ball over to start the third, but got Crosspoint to turn it back over on downs and then went back to work again.

Rico had a big run that tacked on 15 more yards on a face mask penalty to put the Lopes down on the Warriors 22-yard line. Three chunk plays later it was Mulrony in from five yards out on a run, followed by a Morford two-pointer to go up 38-0 and initiate the running clock.

Adrian got the ball back to start the fourth and scored on a 9-yard run from Brooks Martin, pushing the lead to 44-0.

Crosspoint kept fighting though and got on the board on the ensuing possession when Nate Gibson broke free on the near side of the field for a 62-yard rushing TD. 

Adrian milked the clock out from there, taking home the win 44-8 and the program’s fifth state title and its third in the past five years.

Gibson led the Warriors with 80 rushing yards and the long TD run. Johnston was 6-for-13 passing for 41 yards and had the interception on defense. Sophomore Isaac Root was named the player of the game for Crosspoint with seven tackles on defense, one for a loss.

Morford was the leader on the ground with 128 rushing yards and three TDs, and Mulrony didn’t have a bad night either with 80 yards and two scores. 

Defensively, Brooks Martin was in the backfield with 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss, giving him a total of seven on the night. Morford, Mulrony and Rico each had seven tackles on defense as well.