South Grand Prairie rallies to down Arlington in key District 8-6A contest

The Arlington Colts were Dr. Jekyll in the first half and Mr. Hyde in the second of their football game on Friday night.

Arlington bolted to a 21-3 lead in the first half, but South Grand Prairie rallied with 27 unanswered points to down the Colts 30-21 in a key District 8-6A game at Globe Life Park.

South Grand Prairie (4-2 overall, 2-2 in district) broke a 5-way tie for third place, at least for a day, and took a leg up in the race for a playoff berth. Arlington (3-4, 1-3) has its work cut out for them now with games against Arlington Lamar and Arlington Bowie remaining on the schedule.

Arlington scored twice before South Grand Prairie even picked up a first down.

After missing a field goal on their first series, the Colts wasted little time with a 3 play, 66-yard drive on their second.

Quarterback Kris Sims found Joel Murray for a 12-yard gain and Murray added a 16-yard run. Sims then found a wide-open Lesley Odimara, who had single coverage on the right side, for a 38-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 6:11 left in the first quarter.

A 36-yard pass play from Sims to Murray gave Arlington a first and goal at the 4 on the Colts next series. Sims ran a perfect zone read on the ensuing play and Arlington had a 14-0 lead with 1:58 left in the opening frame.

The Colts’ defense stifled South who went three-and-out on each of their first three series. The Warriors finally moved the chains around the 10:45 mark of the second quarter, but that drive stalled as well.

SGP finally got on the board late in the second quarter on a 21-yard field goal by Maddy Moran to cut the lead to 14-3, but Arlington answered right back.

Murray got the Colts to the South 13 with a 14-yard run and a 25-yard reception from Sims. Another perfect zone read by Sims put the Colts up 21-3 with 1:31 left before halftime.

South Grand Prairie quarterback Sean Stegall engineered the Warriors best drive of the half with little time left. Stegall took off on runs of 10 and 11 yards and had passes of 18 and 11 yards, both to Josh Nicholson, to set the Warriors up at the Arlington 8.

Stegall bulled his way in with 8 seconds left to cut the lead to 21-10.

It was all South Grand Prairie after the intermission as the Warriors offense exploded for 20 third-quarter points and the defense held Arlington to 34 total yards, all on the ground, and two first downs.

Stegall tossed TD passes of 25 and 19 yards to Nicholson and Troy Whitaker, respectively.

Running back Javarius Crawford preceded the second scoring pass with a 2-yard scoring run. The ensuing kickoff was fumbled by Arlington and Dwight Nunoo pounced on it at the Colts’ 19.

That set up Whitaker’s score 14 seconds later that gave the Warriors a 30-21 lead at the 3:21 mark of the third quarter.

Arlington ran a mere 15 plays in the second half as the SGP offense controlled the clock behind the running of Crawford and Stegall. South’s final drive started with 8:32 left in the game and the Colts’ never got the ball back.

Crawford finished with 93 yards on 21 carries and Stegall added 77 yards on 17 totes. Stegall threw for 194 yards completing 16 of 24 passes with Nicholson hauling in 8 for 121 yards.

This story was originally published November 14, 2020 at 12:37 AM.