Mallory’s three TDs lift West Boca to second straight 6A state title

MIAMI — With 38 seconds remaining in Friday afternoon’s Class 6A championship victory, West Boca Raton senior and UM signee Javian Mallory jogged over to the stands behind his team’s bench and handed his helmet to a fan.

“That was for my mom,” said Mallory, who carried 18 times for 126 yards and three touchdowns in West Boca’s 31-0 blowout victory over West Broward at Pitbull Stadium on the campus of FIU.

This year’s win made the Bulls the first large public school from Palm Beach County to go back-to-back in state history.

“My mom’s been with me my whole life,” Mallory said. “She birthed me. She’s been with me through everything, all the trials and tribulations…I give everything to her.”

The Bulls joined Cardinal Newman as 2025 state champions from Palm Beach County. The last time Palm Beach had more than one winner in the same year was in 2009, when Dwyer (4A), American Heritage-Delray (1A) and Glades Day (1B) all captured titles.

Glades Day also won in 2010 as a lower-classification public school from Palm Beach to go back-to-back. No Palm Beach team had ever won by shutout.

Mallory sat out the close of last year, relegated to just a sideline spectator due to a hamstring injury. This season, he made up for lost time, rushing for 1,135 yards and 15 TDs entering Friday’s contest.

Mallory got things going early as he was initially stopped at the line of scrimmage, but broke loose on a 50-yard run to give West Boca all the points it needed with a 7-0 lead with 8:04 left in the first half.

“I’m proud that we made history, but to tell you the truth,” Mallory said, smiling, “we are the best team in Palm Beach County history.”

The Bulls padded the lead on a 61-yard fumble return by Trey Mitchell after a jarring tackle by Damari Terry with 5:22 left in the second quarter. West Boca tacked on a 37-yard field goal by Tristan Lamb on the final play of the half. The Bulls’ defense limited the Bobcats (12-3) to just 77 first-half yards and 267 total yards for the game.

Mallory added TD runs of 2 and 6 yards in the second half to salt the game away. West Boca quarterback Trey Moran added 11 carries for 133 yards as the Bulls amassed 308 yards on the ground.

“Javian is a special kid and means the world to this program,” West Boca Raton coach Dylan Potts said. “It is also special to come back and win it again. It is hard to win once; to win it twice is even harder. We go back to work in January and will try for three. Our goal every year is to win state and be a national contender.”

“It’s better to go back-to-back,” Moran said. ‘We broke the history for our school for winning the state championship last year and made county history for big schools winning two in a row this year.”

“It’s obviously great to have Javian to be able to come (back) and play with us, it’s a big help, but we also have three other good running backs, and I can carry the ball too. We were super confident coming into this game.”

West Boca junior defensive tackle Jamar Thompson anchored a solid defensive effort that also forced two turnovers. Cornerback Max Reid added 14 tackles.

“Winning consecutive championships was difficult, requiring hard work starting from the spring,” Thompson said. “We faced two tough losses but showed resilience by bouncing back and achieving two for two in wins. We can definitely run the table next year. We start work in January.”

The Bulls lost to Cardinal Newman 26-20 in overtime and Bergen Catholic (New Jersey) 21-14 in the third game of the season.

West Broward also made history of its own reaching the state championship game for the first time in school history. After dropping its first two games, West Broward ran off 12 straight wins leading up to the state final.

“That fumble (return for a TD) changed the game completely,” said West Broward coach Brian McCartney. “I’m proud of the kids, especially the seniors. When we started at the school, we had 45 kids tryout and this year we had 109. We’ve got tough kids and we have our hands tied compared to the private schools.”

Standout Bobcats sophomore A’mir Sears, who had 30 yards receiving and a team-leading nine tackles, said it was a nice achievement to reach the state final, but was disappointed in his own performance. He played both ways.

“This was a good experience, but we want to come back next year and win it,” Sears said. “It just means a lot to get back here next year.”