Arlington Martin continues revenge tour with win over Bowie to stay undefeated

ARLINGTON — Winning district titles used to be a regular occurrence for Arlington Martin.

The team won five straight district championships from 2019 to 2023 before hitting a rough patch in 2024 and 2025. Martin was a combined 7-13 those two years and missed the playoff both seasons while watching Arlington Bowie supplant it as the best team in their district.

But Friday night, Martin continued one of the state’s best turnarounds and showed it is clearly the best team in District 3-6A with a 45-20 win over Bowie at Glaspie Field to stay on course for the first undefeated regular season in school history.

Four-star senior running back Javian Jones-Priest, committed to Virginia Tech, scored five touchdowns a week after he barely touched the ball in a blowout win over Arlington Sam Houston.

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Martin, which finished 4-6 last season, is 7-0 for the first time since 2007, when the team won its first seven games and then lost its last four.

“It feels great. I’m excited,” Jones-Priest said. “The last two years we were on the downfall, but this year we’re coming with something new.”

A week ago, Jones-Priest had only five carries for 17 yards. The 25th-best running back in the nation in the Class of 2027 had a much bigger role Friday, running for 81 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries and catching two passes for 79 yards and two scores.

He started the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run, added scoring receptions of 30 and 49 yards from quarterback Chase Devoll and then completed his first-half barrage with a 27-yard touchdown run to give Martin a 29-6 lead. Jones-Priest finished the first half with 157 total yards.

Jones-Priest added to his touchdown total with a 1-yard scoring run on Martin’s first possession of the third quarter to extend Martin’s lead to 36-13. Martin didn’t have to go far to find the end zone after recovering a fumble at the Bowie 6.

Martin (4-0 in district) is not in the state rankings despite winning by an average of 21.8 points before Friday. That included a 35-21 win over 12-time state champion Aledo, which ended Aledo’s state-record 136-game district winning streak.

Martin was the first team to beat Aledo in a district game since Everman in 2007. Now, Martin has a chance to break the school record for most wins in a season, which was set by the 2011 team that finished 12-2.

What is this team capable of?

“Going far. We’re trying to go to state,” Jones-Priest said. “We’re trying to be the first Martin team to go 10-0 [in the regular season]. We’re starting something new, a new generation. It’s a lot of new people, and we’re all coming together as a family.”

Devoll threw for a season-high 346 yards and five touchdowns a week ago against Sam Houston. Devoll, in his second year as Martin’s starter, was 13-for-21 for 217 yards and three touchdowns.

Mason Nichols threw for 138 yards for Bowie (3-4, 2-2) in the first half, including a 50-yard touchdown pass to Derion Carson on a fourth-and-5 play late in the half as Bowie cut Martin’s lead to 29-13 at halftime. Bowie cut Martin’s lead to 36-20 midway through the third quarter on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Nichols to Antonio Birdow, but Martin answered right back with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Devoll to Ty Ingram after a spectacular 41-yard diving catch by Malik Mason.

Bowie beat Martin 56-43 last year as quarterback Jayden Bibbs threw for 328 yards and five touchdowns and ran for 95 yards en route to Bowie’s second straight district title. But Bibbs graduated, and Friday was a much different story, as Martin held Bowie to 269 total yards.

Martin ended a two-game losing streak against Bowie and reasserted its dominance in the series. Martin won seven games in a row against Bowie from 2016 to 2023, with the average margin of victory being 28.9 points.

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This article originally published at Arlington Martin continues revenge tour with win over Bowie to stay undefeated.