Emerson went to the state semifinals last year, and Argyle is a perennial power. One team sees their season end on Friday.
ARGYLE, Texas — Two of the premiere football teams in North Texas square off in the first round of the playoffs this Friday night, and you can watch the game live for free on WFAA+, as Friday Night Football broadcasts the matchup between Frisco Emerson and fourth-ranked Argyle.
Both teams entered the season with plans to make deep postseason runs and challenge for a state championship. One of them will see their season end far earlier than they planned.
You can watch the game live on our streaming platform WFAA+, which is available on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV. You can also watch the game right here on WFAA.com, or our WFAA YouTube channel.
Argyle comes in as the No. 4 team in the state in 5A-Division II, after a terrific 9-1 campaign that saw them win District 3-5A Div. II. The Eagles are led by junior quarterback Maguire Gasperson, fellow junior running back Watson Bell, and star senior receiver Will Krzysiak. That trio leads an offense that has averaged 40.5 points per game in the regular season.
Meanwhile, their defense is led by a terrific secondary featuring Garrett Westrom, Nathaniel Bruce, and Xavier Sanchez. The Eagles defense tallied 20 takeaways on the year and sacked the opposing quarterback 18 times.
Emerson went to the state semifinals in 2023 and has a lot of the talent that led that magical run for a second-year program back again for this year. QB DJ Shelton leads the offense, taking over for the departed Mike Hawkins. Shelton has thrown for 15 touchdowns and run for eight more this season. He and Nick Clark lead a Mavericks rushing attack that has combined for 26 touchdowns on the year. And Kelton Wafer leads the way for the receiving corps, with 546 yards and six receiving touchdowns.
The Mavericks’ defense is led by Agape Lawrence, who was the district defensive MVP a year ago and leads the team with an eye-popping 115 tackles on the year. He’s also forced three fumbles, recovered a fumble, and blocked a punt for an Emerson team that gives up 19.6. points per game.
These two teams played one another last year in district play, with Argyle coming away with a 41-34 win, behind a three-touchdown performance from Jake Krekeler. But Emerson would be the team to engineer a deep playoff run, making it all the way to the state semifinals in their second year as a varsity program, only to finally be outdone by South Oak Cliff, 36-24.
Now, in year three under Kendell Miller, they’ll have to pull a first-round upset on Todd Rodgers’ very talented Eagles team, if they want to start a similar run.
Our Friday Night Football pregame show will begin at approximately 6:50 p.m. CT, with kickoff to follow at 7:00 p.m. CT. Join Mike Leslie and Hek’ma Harrison on the call for the Bi-District Round of the Texas high school football playoffs.