Colleyville Heritage downs Midlothian in defensive battle to stay unbeaten in district
Colleyville Heritage quarterback Weston Smith tossed an off-balance, 25-yard touchdown pass to Braden Blueitt with 7:35 left in the game to rally past Midlothian 10-7 in a District 4-5A Division 1 football game on Friday night at Midlothian ISD Stadium.
Neither team has been held to under 20 points all season, but Heritage and Midlothian turned this game into a defensive slug fest from the start.
“Our defense played an outstanding game so if they let up seven points then that’s not a big deal,” said Smith, who threw for 173 yards completing 17 of 26 passes. “I just knew that as an offense we needed to come together and back up our defense and do our part to win the game. That’s what I told them and that’s what we did.”
Colleyville Heritage (4-1 overall, 2-0 district), ranked No. 6 in the Class 5A D1 state rankings and No. 2 in the Fort Worth-area 5A rankings, took the opening kick and drove from its own 37 to the Midlothian 4. But three tries from inside the five were thwarted and Heritage settled for a 21-yard Bryan Hansen field goal to take a 3-0 with 9:15 left in the first quarter.
Midlothian (2-3, 1-1), No. 9 in the area rankings, only moved into Heritage territory once in the first half when Kaden Smith broke off a 12-yard run to the Heritage 39, but Heritage’s Leo Covington pounced on a fumble on the ensuing play to get the ball back.
“This was a really physical football game and Midlothian is a really good team,” said Colleyville Heritage coach Kirk Martin. “It’s really tough to stop them because you really have to be disciplined. We practiced without a ball all week and hats off to our defense, they played really, really well.”
Both teams fumbled three times and lost two in the first half.
Colleyville Heritage had a late drive before intermission, but with two seconds left in the half it was forced to try a 36-yard field goal by Hansen. The snap, however, was high and over the head of the holder and Midlothian kept the game 3-0 at the break.
Midlothian opened the second half driving from its own 28 to the Colleyville Heritage 9, but a high snap on a field goal attempt of its own kept the score 3-0.
That lead held until the second play of the fourth quarter.
Cameron Bates recovered a Colleyville Heritage fumble at the Midlothian 49 and following Midlothian’s only pass completion of the night, a 34-yard pitch and catch from quarterback Chad Ragle to Carsen Bates, De’ago Benson ran it in from 9 yards out to give Midlothian a 7-3 lead with 11:22 left in the game.
Colleyville Heritage answered right away with a 12-play drive covering 67 yards. Smith completed five of six passes on the drive, including the 25-yard scoring pass where he flung it off balance, right before being hit, to the right corner of the end zone where Blueitt hauled it in.
“He was really close, but I just trusted that my guy was going to be there and put the ball up,” said Smith. “I took a half step back to give myself just enough time to get it off. I had full confidence that Braden was going to get it.”
Midlothian’s defense played well allowing Heritage to 316 total yards with 121 coming on the ground on 37 carries and 195 more through the air.
But Colleyville Heritage was just a little better behind senior linebacker Christopher Knight. Heritage allowed 206 total yards, corralling Midlothian’s vaunted running game to 172 yards on 50 carries.
“Chris Knight is the best linebacker that I’ve ever coached and I don’t know why we can’t get a college coach to agree with me,” said Martin with a chuckle. “He’s over six foot, he runs a 4.5, he makes every tackle on the field, runs from sideline to sideline, is good in pass coverage. There’s really nothing that he can’t do and he’s really special. I’m glad he’s on my team and every college out there is missing out on him right now.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 12:13 AM.