Colleyville Heritage defense clamps down on Grapevine in the Battle of the Red Rail

Colleyville Heritage rode a strong defensive effort to break open a close game at the half as the Panthers took the Battle of the Red Rail from Grapevine 28-7 on Friday night in District 4-5A Division I football game at Mustang-Panther Stadium.

Heritage (5-3, 4-1 in district) benefited from a game-changing play on its first possession of the second half.

Grapevine (5-3, 3-2) had stopped the Panthers at the Mustangs’ six yard line and CH lined up for a 23-yard field goal.

However, Panthers’ kicker Chase Allen was roughed on the play and Heritage instead was given a first and goal at the three. Isaac Shabay ran it in on the next play and the Panthers led 18-7 instead of 14-7 with 2:50 left in the third quarter.

“This game felt amazing,” said Shabay, who rushed for 87 yards on 18 carries. “This all goes back to practice. We practiced very hard and what we put in during practice we did in the game, it’s that simple.”

Colleyville Heritage went on to score on its next two possessions as well.

An interception by Panthers’ sophomore cornerback Dylahn McKinney gave Heritage the ball at the Grapevine 31.

Three plays later CH quarterback A.J. Smith found Hogan Wasson wide open over the middle from 30 yards out on the final play of the third quarter to give the Panthers a 25-7 lead.

Allen booted his second 31-yard field goal with 6:03 left in the game to close out the scoring. Heritage led at the half 11-7 after Allen’s first 31-yarder at the 9:41 mark of the second quarter.

The Colleyville Heritage defense was stellar allowing only 159 yards of total offense and six first downs to the Mustangs.

“I thought our defensive line with Trent Ayers, Taylor Steele, and Cameron Taylor just dominated up front,” said Colleyville Heritage head coach Joe Willis. “I also saw Matt Powers and Luke Lingard do some good things.”

If not for Grapevine’s only scoring play on the night, a 66-yard TD pass from Austin Alexander to Caleb Texada on the Mustangs’ first series, the Panthers would have allowed only 93 total yards of offense.

“Ryan Ward, when he was in there, did some really good things at linebacker and our secondary really just locked it down tonight,” added Willis.

The Panthers started quickly taking the opening kickoff and driving 60 yards in nine plays to take an early lead.

Heritage running back Braxton Ash did most of the damage picking up 34 yards on four carries on the drive. Ash led all rushers with 94 yards on 14 carries.

Shabay darted in from seven yards out and, after a two-point conversion run by Brayden Gerlich, the Panthers led 8-0 with 8:13 left in the opening quarter.

Grapevine answered quickly.

Texada ran a perfect wheel route down the left sideline and was wide open for Alexander. Texada juggled the ball, but managed to haul it in and out race the Colleyville Heritage defense to the end zone.

The play cut the lead to 8-7 with 6:44 left in the opening quarter.

Both defenses settled in from there until Heritage broke things open in the second half.

“It was a good hard-fought game, what you would expect in this kind of rivalry,” said Willis. “I thought both teams played really hard. Both teams played good defense.”

“It’s a big rivalry game and we all love the energy,” said Shabay. “All we had to do is play our game. It’s all about us.”