Gary Joseph may not have been coaching this week but he still had plenty of reasons to smile and a reason to head up to AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

That’s because his son, Jeff Joseph, had led Port Neches-Groves to the Class 5A-Division II state title game, the first time Jeff Joseph had led a team there as a head coach, and that made it a special week for Gary Joseph.

The playoff run came to an end for Port Neches-Groves on Friday night when the 13-3 Indians fell 34-24 to South Oak Cliff, as the Bears claimed their second straight state title.

Port Neches-Grove led 19-12 at halftime, but South Oak Cliff scored 22 unanswered points in the second half to come away with the victory.

“We played well in the first half, but we let them convert on a third and 18 and things started to shift from there,” Jeff Joseph said after the game. “That was a real turning point momentum wise in the football game, and then in the second half not a ton changed, we were able to run the ball some in the second half but it wasn’t consistently. We couldn’t get anything going down the field in the passing game either and I thought that was the difference.”

It was a very strong season for Port Neches-Groves as Joseph led the team to their first state title game since 1999 in his first year as head coach at the program.

Joseph brought a strong defensive background with him along from his time as a player at Katy and his time as an assistant at Texas A&M, Magnolia West, Austin Westlake and Southlake Carroll. He also brought two coaches from the Katy coaching tree to Port Neches-Groves with him in Matt McDaniel and Tony Bradley. That defensive approach showed throughout the season as the Indians held nine different teams to under 20 points, including three playoff opponents.

And while the Indians may have lost Friday night, Jeff Joseph knows how much an experience like this means to a program and knows how much the season meant to a Port Neches community, that like Katy, comes together and supports their home town high school team.

“Our town loves reminiscing about old teams like this,” Joseph said. “These guys are going to be one of those teams for a long time.”