Colleyville Heritage football bests Arlington Seguin to gain edge in playoff race

Colleyville Heritage opened the second half with a scoring drive and never looked back in a 24-14 win over Arlington Seguin on Thursday at C.H. Wilemon Field in a 3-5A Division II high school football clash.

The Panthers scored 17 points in the second half, and the defense shut out Seguin over the final two quarters to hand the Cougars a third straight loss.

Momentum shifted on the kickoff return, which included a facemask call against Seguin (5-3, 3-3) put the ball at the 33-yard line. With a short field, a six-play drive ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by Jerrod Wiley.

Two plays earlier, Wiley had an 18-yard run on 4th-and-1 from the 24-yard line to keep the drive alive, before scoring with 9:54 left in the third.

The touchdown and then Landon Dresser’s PAT tied the game at 14.

“It was a huge drive,” Heritage quarterback Bodey Weaver said. “Man, like everyone got rolling. The offensive line, running backs, we got the receivers back in the game. It kind of flipped the switch for everybody; including the defense, sparking them.”

Colleyville Heritage (5-2, 4-1) got a quick three-and-out and allowed only one yard to Seguin.

The Panthers got the ball back at the 31-yard line and Weaver engineered another scoring drive.

Bryce Abram had a pair of long runs, 11 and 13 yards, and Weaver connected with tight end Kash McMahan for 9 yards on a 3rd-and-7 near midfield. Weaver’s second completion of the drive was a 12-yard pass to Sameer Johnson, moving the ball to the 19.

On the next play, Abram took a handoff and scored with 5:39 left.

“Panther fight never dies, and that is what we kind of live by,” Heritage coach Jerry Edwards said. “We went into the locker room, and nobody was panicked. The coaches were calm. We just looked at film, made a few adjustments and our kids truly felt like we were going to win the second half. Once we tied it up, our kids caught on fire.”

The Panthers defense forced another three-and-out by allowing only 1 yard to the Cougars.

Heritage took advantage when Ryan Zuckert booted a 30-yard field goal with 47 seconds left in the third quarter.

The 11-play drive was aided by a facemask call on Seguin that set up a 1st-and-goal situation from the 9-yard line.

Neither team scored in the fourth.

The Cougars were never able to replicate their success in the first half, which gave them a 14-7 lead at the break.

Seguin came up empty on the first two drives but had 24 plays and controlled the ball with a bevy of runs. The Cougars got down to the Heritage 22-yard line but turned it over on down. Seguin was at the 35-yard line on the second drive when a fumble happened, and Bryson Burgess picked it up and ran it to the Seguin 28-yard line.

Heritage struck first by scoring on the turnover with Weaver running it in from 17 yards on the first play of the second quarter — at 11:53.

That was only the ninth offensive play for the Panthers.

On the next drive, Seguin drove down to the Heritage 23-yard line but again came up empty on an incomplete pass on fourth down.

The Cougars finally capitalized on the offense’s ball movement, scoring twice in the final 2:39 of the first half.

A 58-yard run by Malachi Meche set up a 14-yard touchdown pass from Chevy Andrews to Koheen Peeler.

After forcing a three-and-out with back-to-back sacks, Coach Joe Gordon called two timeouts. The Cougars got the ball back with 1:34 left but no timeouts.

Meche had a 28-yard run and Andrews had a 21-yard run. With 32 seconds left, Kadarius Trotter scored on a 2-yard run to give Seguin the lead 14-7.

“They came out and ran the ball which is something they hadn’t really done before,” Edwards said. “They’re a big vertical passing team and the quarterback scrambles around. They popped free a couple of times and got some long runs that put them in good field positions to get the 14 points.

“We made adjustments and made sure those runs weren’t bouncing to the perimeter. We did a good job of keeping the bottled up, and we did a great job in the second half.”

Colleyville Heritage will host Mansfield Summit on Oct. 25, and Seguin will look to bounce back on Oct. 24 in a road game against Everman.