Mansfield Summit battles until the end, falls short in semis against College Station
Mansfield Summit was written off coming into Friday’s state semifinal against undefeated College Station.
But after two quick College Station touchdowns, Summit settled in and battled until the end.
The Jaguars tied the game in the third quarter before the Cougars pulled away with back-to-back touchdowns as Summit’s season fell short, 28-21, in the Class 5A Division 1 state semifinals at Waco Midway’s Panther Stadium.
Summit finishes 11-4 and made the semifinals for the second straight season. The Jags lost to Denton Ryan in the same round last season. College Station (15-0) will play Katy Paetow (14-1) for the 5A D1 title at 7 p.m. next Friday Dec. 17 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
“I told them don’t put your heads down, keep your heads up. They did some special stuff, but we just came up short against a good football team,” Summit coach Channon Hall said. “Made too many mistakes and didn’t capitalize, but the kids played their guts out.”
Summit punted on the first drive of third quarter, but College Station missed a 40-yard field goal to keep the Cougars ahead 14-7 with 5:15 remaining in the frame.
The Jags would tie the game at 14 on the next possession.
After converting on a fourth-and-short, quarterback David Hopkins rolled out and hit Kerya Powell near the first-down marker and Powell gained 45 yards to the Cougar 8. Hopkins capped the drive off with a 1-yard scoring run just before the end of the quarter.
College Station running back Marquise Collins scored both touchdowns for the Cougars in the second half, the latter coming from 48 yards to make it 28-14 with 5:37 to play in the fourth.
After Summit tied the game at 14, College Station went 82 yards on eight plays and Collins touched the ball all eight times. His 47-yard reception put the ball at the Summit 32 and his 10-yard run gave the Cougars a 21-14 lead.
Collins finished with 32 carries for 233 yards and three scores.
Trailing by 14, Summit went 81 yards on 13 plays to pull within 28-21. Hopkins scrambled to the left and avoided the sack before throwing a 19-yard touchdown to Kyland Reed.
With no timeouts, Summit couldn’t quite recover the onside kick and College Station killed the clock.
The Jags gained 331 yards on offense with Powell as the leading man catching six passes for 114 yards and the one touchdown. Hopkins threw for 161 yards, but completed just nine passes on 32 attempts.
Orlando Scales (18 carries, 87 yards) and Keon Hobbs (11-62) led Summit’s rushing attack.
“They did some good things on defense, just can’t make the mistakes we made offensively and defensively early on,” Hall said. “But they did Summit proud and we’re excited for them and we’ll keep on moving. It’s going to hurt for a bit, but they’ll realize they did some good stuff.”
College Station torched the Summit defense on the game’s opening drive.
It took just over two minutes for the Cougars to find the end zone on Collins’ 1-yard run with 9:52 left in the first quarter.
After Summit gained just one yard and went three-and-out, College Station went quickly again. The Cougars got into the red zone in only a few plays and quarterback Jett Huff hit Traylen Suel for a 14-yard touchdown that upped the lead to 14-0 midway through the opening period.
But the Jags settled in and started to move the ball.
A couple of hard runs from Scales came before Summit’s first big play on Hobbs’ 22-yard run that got the Jaguars into Cougar territory. Scales got to the College Station 14, but Summit came away with no points after back-to-back incomplete passes.
But the Summit D forced a punt and the Jags scored on the ensuing drive.
Summit picked up a pair of third down conversions and a fourth-and-5 before Hobbs scored on a 10-yard run to cut the lead to 14-7 with 3:40 to play in the second quarter.
College Station came about 10 yards away from leading 21-7 at halftime when the Cougars picked off a Summit pass. Denim Day intercepted the ball and returned it before he was forced out of bounds just short of the goal line.
“We don’t just have athletes running around here. We have great kids that are well coached and coaches that work hard everyday,” Hall said. “That’s why we did what we did the last two years and we’ll do it again next week. We’ll be ready to go.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 9:18 PM.
