Colleyville Heritage rallies twice but can’t overcome Argyle late in first district loss

The Colleyville Heritage football team spotted Argyle, ranked No. 5 in the state in Class 5A Division 2 by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football , 21 points, but the Panthers battled back twice before falling 42-35 in a District 3-5A D2 contest on Friday night at Eagle Stadium.

Colleyville Heritage (3-2 overall, 2-1 district), No. 4 in the Star-Telegram Class 5A Area Rankings , pulled to within 21-20 on the first snap of the second half when Jerrod Wiley raced around left end, fending off a tackler down the sideline, 75 yards for a score.

But Argyle (3-1, 2-0), No. 5 in the Star-Telegram 5A rankings, answered immediately when quarterback Maguire Gasperson hit Will Kryziak with a 10-yard out. Kryziak broke a couple of tackles on his way to a 70-yard score to push the Eagles’ lead up to 28-20 with 11:23 left in the third quarter.

From that point the Argyle defense was stout, forcing Colleyville Heritage to punt on its next five possessions while the Eagles were padding their lead. Gasperson, who accounted for five touchdowns on the night, scored on runs of one yard and two yards, the latter with 11:55 left in the game that made the score 42-20.

“We definitely planned on throwing it tonight,” said Gasperson, who threw for 393 yards completing 21 of 31 passes and rushed nine times for 32 yards. “Last week we started off kind of slow, but this week we came out hot and just kept going back to what was working.”

But Argyle coach Todd Rodgers almost let his foot off the gas a bit too early as he substituted most of his offense out after that. Colleyville Heritage got a 15-yard scoring run from quarterback Bodey Weaver with 3:14 left to cut the lead to 42-26.

The ensuing onside kick was recovered by the Panther’s Will Hummert at the Argyle 23. Five plays later Weaver hit Dax Hebeisen with a two-yard scoring pass to make it 42-32 Argyle with 1:41 left.

Another CH onside kick was recovered by Bryson Burgess for the Panthers a the Argyle 42. This time the drive stalled, and Colleyville Heritage was forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Ryan Zuckert that cut the lead to 42-35 with 43 seconds remaining.

The third time was not the charm for the Panthers as Thomas Irwin recovered the third onside kick for the Eagles, allowing Argyle to run out the clock.

“Everybody thought we just hung on and nobody likes the way the game ended, but our younger kids got some valuable reps and valuable experience and it’s going to pay dividends down the road,” said Rodgers who took out his starters with almost a full quarter left in the game with his Eagles up 42-20. “I’ve said many times that our best football is in front of us.

“We’ve done a fabulous job during our open week of growing and building our football team in a lot of different areas. It was a testament to our offensive unit and I thought our defense played really, really well.”

Colleyville Heritage had defeated Argyle in the playoffs last year , a loss that still stung the Eagle returners. The Panthers erased a 10-point deficit in the final 4:32 of the game with wide out Braden Blueitt catching the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute.

Blueitt will miss the remainder of the season after tearing an ACL last week against Mansfield Timberview.

Rodgers didn’t use the playoff loss as a motivator as he likes his team to focus on one game at a time and get prepared to be the football team that they need to be and getting better week to week, but he did notice that the kids were tuned into it.

“We try to keep something like that internal, but we knew that the emotion of all of that was going to well up and I could feel the extra energy in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practices,” said Rodgers. “It’s good, healthy, high school football and it’s not anything different than that.”

“It was a tough loss last year so it definitely left a sour taste in our mouths,” said Gasperson. “But it’s good being able to get a little revenge.”

Argyle looked as if it would run away with the game early, going on three long scoring drives to take a 21-0 lead. The Eagles took the opening kickoff and running back Watson Bell capped a 10-play, 75-yard drive with a 14-yard scoring run with 9:10 left in the first quarter.

The Panthers looked like they would tie the score at seven, but Argyle defensive back Maliek Bracy picked off a Colleyville Heritage pass in the end zone to kill the threat. Argyle’s offense was firing on all cylinders early as the Eagles marched 80 yards, this time with Gasperson getting a tush push into the end zone from the one to make it 14-0 Argyle with 2:57 left in the opening frame.

Following a Panther punt, Argyle scored again on a four-yard scoring pass from Gasperson to Braden Bach making it 21-0 with 10:41 left in the second quarter.

“It didn’t surprise me that they came out and threw the ball like they did,” said Colleyville Heritage coach Jerry Edwards. “If you’ve watched us play this year, we’ve been pretty solid against the run. We had some issues in our secondary tonight, but we’ll get that fixed.”

Colleyville Heritage finally got on the board after a long drive of its own. Bryce Abram covered the final 17 yards off right tackle, breaking a couple of tackles to cut the lead to 21-7 with 7:01 left before the intermission.

The Panthers defense then stepped up to force an Argyle punt and CH took over at its own 20 with 5:57 left in the half. Weaver was masterful guiding the Panthers to a score, covering the 80 yards in 16 plays.

Weaver hit Nicholas Wankombe with a 14-yard scoring pass with just 16 seconds left. The point after was wide right and Argyle took a 21-13 lead into the locker room.

Wiley led Colleyville Heritage with 108 yards rushing on 12 carries. Abram added 53 yards on 12 totes for the Panthers.

Weaver finished with 208 yards passing completing 19 of 35 passes and had 50 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Weaver’s favorite target was Wankombe who hauled in seven passes for 99 yards.

Kryziak had eight receptions for 159 yards for Argyle with Julian Caldwell catching two passes for 88 yards. Bell had 92 yards rushing on 15 carries to lead the Eagles.

“Argyle is a well coached football team and they have a rich tradition and so do we,” said Edwards. “They came out with a vengeance, had a point to prove and overwhelmed us, but our Panthers never quit. They fought their way back in and pulled to within a point there in the third quarter and then they caught another wave of momentum that was hard for us.”

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