Colleyville Heritage rallies late, spoils Richland’s homecoming in overtime thriller
At times, Colleyville Heritage looked like a team that hasn’t played in nearly a month. The Panthers last played Sept. 26 against Grapevine before going into quarantine because of COVID-19 issues.
Despite some early rust and 17 penalties, Heritage erased two 14-point deficits to send Friday night’s game with Richland into overtime, then the Panthers walked it off with a Braxton Ash touchdown run to pick up the 48-42 victory in a District 4-5A Division 1 opener at Birdville Fine Arts Athletic Complex.
Richland (3-1 overall, 0-1 in district) began the extra play on offense.
But the Royals couldn’t get a first down and lined up for a 35-yard field goal. The snap was low and the Richland holder couldn’t secure it before scrambling and throwing an incomplete pass.
Heritage (2-0, 1-0) was backed up to the 35 after a holding call, but the Panthers got 18 yards on a reverse from Hogan Wasson. Ash rushed for 11 yards before his game winner.
Ash had a game-high 108 yards rushing on 24 attempts. He scored three times.
Trailing 42-28 with 10 minutes left, the Panthers scored on a 25-yard TD pass from quarterback AJ Smith-Shawver to Mason Murdock midway through the fourth.
Heritage forced a Richland punt with under five minutes left and completed a 9-play, 56-yard drive, all runs, and Ash’s 2-yard TD run tied the game at 42 with 71 seconds to play.
Both teams threw an interception late, BJ Roney for Heritage and CJ Nelson for Richland.
It was the second pick for both players on the night.
Heritage out-gained Richland 540-368 in total yardage. Smith-Shawver accounted for 382 yards and four TDs. Wasson made 11 receptions for 107 yards and one score.
The win spoiled Richland’s homecoming and a career game from Nelson on the offensive side. The junior receiver made 12 catches for 290 yards and five TDs. He left the game with an injury following his second pick and never returned.
Richland started the game with a 21-0 lead before Heritage scored 28 unanswered.
Trailing 28-21, the Royals used another 21-0 run to go up 42-28 with 10 minutes left. Nelson had six catches for 177 yards and three scores in the second half. His 16-yard TD from QB Cole Benson gave them a 14-point edge.
Nelson came into the night with 16 grabs, 360 yards and four TDs this season, and 10 career TD receptions.
Benson and Nelson also connected from 61 and 65 yards on back-to-back passes that turned a 28-21 deficit into a 35-28 lead late in the third quarter. Roney’s first interception helped the Panthers take their first lead, 28-21, on a 9-yard TD run from Smith-Shawver with 7:17 left in the quarter.
Benson completed 21 of 39 passes for 297 yards and five TDs.
Richland began the first 10 minutes playing perfect football that would see the Royals go up 21-0.
The Royals opened the game with an 11-play, 75-yard drive that took over three minutes. They converted two fourth downs on the drive, a 6-yard run by Nate Morcom on a fake punt attempt and a 2-yard run by EJ Gipson-Smith on a fourth-and-inches. Following Gipson-Smith’s run, Benson hit Nelson from 36 for a 7-0 lead with 8:41 left in the first quarter.
Then disaster struck when Heritage couldn’t get a punt attempt off.
The ball wasn’t secured and rolled to the Heritage 15, a loss of 29 yards to set up Richland’s next score, a 15-yard TD run by Gipson-Smith that extended the lead to 14-0 with 3:29 in the period.
After a Heritage three-and-out on the next drive, Richland went up three TDs three plays later. Benson threw a third-and-9 pass to a crossing Nelson, who turned on the jets for a 56-yard score with 2:07 left in the first.
The Panthers woke up when Smith-Shawver hit Murdock for a 33-yard gain to the 1 and then threw a TD pass to Leon Covington to cut the lead to 21-7 under a minute left on the clock.
Following a Richland turnover on downs, the Panthers pulled within 21-14 after a 4-play drive was capped off by Ash’s 4-yard TD run midway through the second quarter.
Heritage drove inside the Richland 5 before lining up for a 23-yard field goal, but following back-to-back Richland timeouts, coach Kirk Martin went for it and Smith-Shawver hit Wasson on a 6-yard TD to tie the game at 21 just before intermission
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 11:19 PM.
