Colleyville Covenant rolls past Arlington Grace Prep and into TAPPS state semifinals

Colleyville Covenant quarterback Austin Scheets threw for four scores and ran in another as the Cougars shut down Arlington Grace Prep, 40-3, in a TAPPS Division 3 Regional football game on Saturday at Pennington Field.

Covenant (6-0) advances to the semifinal round for the fourth time in five years, and will face Fort Worth Lake Country (9-1), a 21-7 winner against Lubbock Trinity Christian. The game is tentatively set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at Globe Life Park.

Grace Prep trailed 6-3 after Scheets scored on a 1-yard run for the Cougars and Ethan Childress booted a 36-yard field goal for the Lions, the latter at the 4:10 mark of the first quarter.

The teams then traded punts, but Daniel Calabrese gave Covenant a spark when he returned Grace Prep’s boot 75 yards for a score on the first play of the second quarter to give the Cougars a 14-3 lead.

Covenant’s defense was stellar all day, but Grace Prep played well early allowing the Cougars only 51 yards of offense until late in the first half when the whole game changed.

The Lions (6-3) took over at their own 45 with 6:40 left in the second quarter and benefitted from a roughing penalty before using some trickery. Quarterback Jaylon Talton tossed a lateral to wide out Audie Isbell who found a wide-open Daryn Carruthers for 37 yards down to the Covenant 2. But Enow Etta, Nathan Kaja and the rest of the Cougars’ defense stepped up forcing Grace Prep to lose the ball on downs at the 8-yard line.

On the ensuing play, Scheets, as the pocket was collapsing, found Calabrese on the left hash who dodged three defenders before turning on the jets for a 92-yard TD.

“Our defense is amazing and our D-line, I think, is the best in the state,” said Scheets, who completed 12 of 24 passes for 268 yards. “It was a huge turning point to go from 14-10 to 21-3. Right after that stop Daniel made a huge play, breaking three tackles, then scoring. After that we were just rolling on offense.”

Rolling they were. Grace Prep’s next play from scrimmage was an interception by Christian Wells at midfield, his second of the first half. Six plays later, Scheets hit Caleb Turner with a 13-yard TD pass to up the lead to 27-3 with 46 seconds left before intermission.

The Cougars defense ruled the second half allowing 57 yards of total offense. Grace Prep finished with 166 yards, 80 on the ground and 86 through the air. The Covenant secondary picked off five Lion passes including three in a row in the fourth quarter.

“I couldn’t ask for a better team and we have great coaching,” said Etta, who wreaked havoc on the Grace Prep offense. “For a team that was scoring 20 or 30 a game it was crazy that we only allowed a field goal. We have dogs on the line and what happened should have happened.”

Scheets continued making big plays after the break. The first year senior tossed a 51-yard TD pass to Jayce Wells, Christian’s older brother. An interception by Sam Burdi at the Grace Prep 42 set up a 38-yard scoring strike from Scheets to Calabrese to cap the scoring with 8:27 left in the game.

In addition to the 75-yard punt return, Calabrese finished with three catches for 129 yards. Running back Isaiah Swift had 73 rushing yards on 14 carries.

“My line did a great job today,” said Scheets. “I was only on the ground a couple of times. And when you have receivers like I have it makes it a lot easier. They can run past anybody and break tackles on three yard passes and turn them into 30 and 40 yard gains. We have a really good, selfless team this year.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 9:04 PM.