Colleyville Covenant rallies from 21-point deficit to shock Lake Country Christian
Down 21 points Friday night, Colleyville Covenant came out rusty after not playing a game in nearly four weeks. But just as the case of its last game, a 21-20 comeback victory over Lubbock Trinity on Oct. 3, the Cougars didn’t want to lose.
And tied up at 21 late in the game with the ball deep inside their territory, the Cougars weren’t settling for overtime.
They wanted to score.
Quarterback Austin Scheets threw a 71-yard touchdown pass to Jayce Wells, the son of former MLB all-star Vernon Wells, with under a minute left and the Cougars scored 28 unanswered to beat the Eagles on their senior night, 28-21.
Covenant improves to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in TAPPS District 1 Division 3 while Lake Country drops to 5-1 and 2-1.
“We wanted to score, go down there and win,” CC coach Phil Towe said. “There was no conversation or hesitation about kneeling it or going to overtime. That’s just how we play.”
Lake Country had a chance to take a lead late in the fourth when it killed over six minutes during a 10-play drive. The Eagles got to Covenant’s 3, but the Cougars stopped a fourth-and-1 run to get the ball back.
“That Jayce play was exceptional, but the stop at the 3 was the biggest play of the game. It was an amazing defensive effort,” Towe said.
Starting at the 2 with 2 1/2 minutes to play, Covenant converted a third-and-8 from the 5 on Scheets’ 14-yard pass to Christian Wells, Jayce’s younger brother.
After two penalties backed the Cougars to second-and-22 at the 7, Scheets hit Isaiah Swift for 13 and ran for 9 to pick up the first down. Then the QB launched a pass to Jayce Wells, who bobbled the catch, reeled it in and beat a defender for six with 25 seconds to play.
“I said a prayer right before the snap and the rest is history,” Wells said. “It was one-on-one and I knew I had to score. We were off for a month and to do that and be where we are now, it’s the best feeling in the world.”
Lake Country’s last chance came at its own 40, but Covenant picked up its third sack for a loss of 7. The game ended on a 10-second run-off when the officials ruled an intentional grounding on the Eagles.
“We have a lot of fight, grit and character. We came out flat, didn’t play in almost a month,” Towe said. “Lake Country came ready to play and ran it down our throat. But we made the necessary adjustments. They didn’t panic.”
Covenant out-gained Lake Country 372-241 in total yardage. Swift had a game-high 85 yards rushing on 14 attempts.
Lake Country was led by Hayden Whites’ 77 yards on 12 carries. Adam Lindsey added 67 on 11 attempts.
Lindsey was the early workhorse for Lake Country.
He rushed four times for 49 yards on the opening drive of the game, highlighted by a 25-yard touchdown run to give Lake Country a 7-0 lead with 9:46 left in the first quarter.
After the teams traded three straight punts, the Eagles extended their lead to 14-0 when Lindsey caught an 8-yard TD pass from quarterback Cade Hollingsworth. The score capped off an 8-play, 41-yard drive.
Lake Country led 21-0 early in the second quarter when Kevin Dodard hit a wide-open Zach Thames from 29 yards.
“It was rough, but we’re use to adversity,” Scheets said. “No one gave up. We trusted ourselves to come out in the second half, shut them down on defense and score.”
The Eagles only managed 96 yards the rest of the game.
The Cougars picked up some much-needed momentum when they scored two TDs to bring the score to 21-13 at intermission, first starting with a 1-yard keeper from Scheets with 6:16 left in the half.
“Our confidence shot up and we were back on track,” said Scheets, who accounted for 280 yards and all four TDs. “My nerves were going crazy, but after that first touchdown, I kind of settled down.”
Covenant forced a Lake Country punt just before the break and the Cougars scored in 30 seconds to bring it to a one-score game. Scheets hit Christian Wells on a 44-yard TD.
Wells caught a pass about 15 yards downfield, broke a tackle and broke loose to the outside.
Covenant made it 21 unanswered when Scheets’ 1-yard TD run capped off a 76-yard drive for the Cougars. Christian Wells passed to Daniel Calabrese for the 2-point conversion to tie the game with 2:20 left in the third quarter.
Said Scheets, “We know how good we can be when we’re firing on all cylinders. It’s a special team.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 10:54 PM.
