JUSTIN — Facing the Aledo Bearcats for the second consecutive season in the Class 5A Division I Region I area round at Northwest ISD Stadium, the Denton Broncos knew they had to put together a near perfect game to take down the defending state champs.

It was Aledo that played the mistake free game, using a balanced blend of run and pass to expose the Denton defense and with the Bearcats scoring on their first three drives of the game, the Broncos were facing a severe uphill climb from the get-go.

Denton’s offense struggled and Aledo kept its foot on the gas pedal and breezed its way into the regional semifinals with a 52-3 victory on Friday.

“That’s the thing, I really don’t know what the problem was,” Denton running back Xavier Scott said. “They were bringing a lot of people in the box really fast, but I just don’t know honestly. We couldn’t get any stops at the beginning. They made plays on offense and we didn’t.”

Scott finished the game with 110 yards on 21 carries, but the Broncos offense managed just 151 yards and eight first downs compared to 513 yards and 22 first downs for the Bearcats (11-1), who move on to the regional semifinals next week against Abilene Cooper.

Denton finished the season 9-3 on the season and has shown a jump in wins from three in head coach Kevin Atkinson’s first year to four the next season and eight last season.

“It’s been a great season,” Scott said. “I’ve done a lot for the team and the team has done a lot for me. I’m going to miss them and I love them a lot. We’ve grown a lot. Coach A [Atkinson] has been here for four years and you can tell he changed the program a lot. I’m glad we have a coach like him and I’m glad I chose to go to school here.”

Aledo asserted itself offensively right from the opening kickoff, using the running back Caleb Primera and the passing game to wear down the Bronco defense. Primera finished the game with 131 yards and three touchdowns with quarterback Dillion Davis passing for 226 yards and two scores.

Two passes by Davis and six runs by Primera moved the ball from the Bearcats’ own 25-yard line to the 1-yard line where Primera capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run up the middle to give Aledo the 7-0 lead just 4:11 into the game.

Primera ran for 92 yards and three touchdowns in the first half on 13 carries, using his elite elusiveness to escape several tackles in the heart of the Bronco defense.

After a quick 3-and-out by the Broncos, the Bearcats needed just three plays to march 64 yards with Davis, who started the game 8-for-8 with 147 yards, slinging a 57-yard touchdown pass down the middle of Denton’s defense to wideout Ryan Mullins to push Aledo’s lead to 14-0 with 5:13 left in the first quarter.

Things went from bad to worse for the Broncos as Colt Atkinson’s pass on Denton’s next possession was picked off by Wyatt Harris and returned to Denton’s 35-yard line. As Atkinson went to make the tackle, he broke his thumb trying to take down Harris. He tried to tough it out for the next few possessions, but eventually gave way to Edson Vasquez midway through the second quarter.

Four plays later the Bearcats had a 21-0 lead with 2:27 left in the first quarter on Primera’s second 1-yard touchdown of the game.

“Aledo played pretty well,” Kevin Atkinson said. “Colt broke his thumb in the first quarter and that kind of took us out of what we wanted to do. I knew that they were a good team and we had to play well. It wasn’t really clicking on all cylinders. We just had to score with them and we got into some bad down-and-distance stuff.”

Denton forced Aledo’s first punt of the game midway through the second quarter, but went 3-and-out and forced to punt the ball right back to the Bearcats, who wasted no time taking a 28-0 lead on three runs by Primera, including his 26-yard touchdown with 4:39 left in the first half.

A 16-yard touchdown run by Donald Evans helped Aledo claim the commanding 35-0 lead.

The Broncos finally got on the board at 35-3 as the first half expired with a 34-yard Robert Reyes field goal.

After a 3-and-out to start the second half, Aledo drove down to the Denton 9-yard line on eight plays, but Denton’s defense held, forcing a 26-yard made field goal by Aledo kicker Ben Rodgers with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter to put the Bearcats up 38-3.

Denton was forced to punt on its next possession and the Bearcats needed just two plays to push their lead to 45-3 with 3:34 left in the third quarter on a Davis 20-yard touchdown pass to Mullins.