Mansfield Summit picks up another playoff upset, Jaguars knock off unbeaten Heritage

The Mansfield Summit football team finally got to play its District 4-5A Division 1 matchup with No. 10 Colleyville Heritage after the Panthers had to cancel on Nov. 13 due to a COVID outbreak.

It just happened to be in the third round of the Class 5A D1 playoffs.

Fourth-place Summit played lights out on defense and the offense scored touchdowns twice on 99-yard drives as the Jaguars incredible run continued with a 34-31 win over district champion Colleyville Heritage on Saturday afternoon at Bearcat Stadium.

Summit (7-4) will face another 4-5A D1 district mate in the quarterfinals in runner-up Red Oak (9-2). The game is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The Hawks downed No. 6 Lubbock Coronado 42-41 in two overtimes on Saturday.

Neither offense did much against the opposition’s defense in the first half. Each team punted three times each to start before Colleyville Heritage finally got on the board.

A 20-yard punt return by Hogan Wasson gave the Panthers the ball at their own 49, but the drive stalled six plays later and Heritage had to settle for a 37-yard field goal, into the wind, by Bryan Hansen with 1:23 left in the first quarter.

The Panthers upped the lead to 10-0 when defensive back Joshua Dobbins picked off a Summit pass and scampered 58 yards for a score with 9:26 left in the second quarter.

It looked as if that score would hold until the intermission when Hansen drilled a 71-yard punt down to the Summit 1 yard line.

But Jaguars’ quarterback David Hopkins wasn’t deterred. Hopkins led Summit on a 99-yard drive and capped the march with a 2-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 10-7 with 42 seconds left in the half.

Colleyville Heritage scored on its opening drive of the second half on a 1-yard run by Braxton Ash, but then Summit exploded.

The Jaguars scored TDs of four consecutive possessions starting late in the third quarter including another 99-yard drive.

After a 10-yard scoring run by Jaydon Lott, Hopkins connected for 6 yards to D’Szarion Brown and added an 18-yard TD to Hal Presley to cap the 99-yard drive.

Sean Smith’s 60-yard punt return for a TD gave Summit a 34-17 lead with 8:18 left in the game.

“Nobody got down, especially David (Hopkins) he never wavered,” said Summit head coach Channon Hall. “99 yards twice, that’s huge. And once that happened you start to believe in yourself and what’s going on and you just keep it moving and that’s what we did.”

Hopkins led the Jaguars with 110 yards rushing and added 116 more through the air completing 10 of 24 passes. Keon Hobbs also had a 100 yards rushing day for Summit with 105 on 9 tries.

A perfect storm of Summit’s defensive line, the Jaguars’ secondary and a stiff cross wind hampered Panthers’ star quarterback A.J. Smith-Shawver most of the day.

Smith-Shawver was pressured often and had passes deflected or jarred away from receivers all day led by Summit defensive lineman Kamren Washington and defensive back Jalon Rock.

“Coach said that if we get after their quarterback, because no one has gotten after him like we have, then we were going to get the job done,” said Washington. “We have a tremendous defense and once we lock in nobody’s going to compete with us.”

“I think we came in prepared well, but things just didn’t work out for us,” said Smith-Shawver who threw 57 times completing 22 for 276 yards. “It was a fun ride. They’re a very good, athletic team and it’s the high school playoffs in Texas and you never know what you’re going to get.”

Smith-Shawver did get some yards, but the Summit defense only allowed the Panthers 22 rushing yards on 22 attempts.

“If we don’t have the best defensive line in the state, or at least one of the top ones, then I don’t know who does,” said Hall. “Everybody we put in did their job.”

Colleyville Heritage made it interesting late with a 1-yard TD run by Smith-Shawver at the 5:52 mark of the fourth quarter and a 10-yard scoring pass from Smith-Shawver to Leon Covington with 25 seconds left to cut the lead to 34-31.

But the ensuing onside kick bounded out of bounds off of the hands of both Heritage and Summit players and the Jaguars were able to run out the clock.

“It doesn’t matter who the opponent is we’re just excited to be in the fourth round,” added Hall who lost to Red Oak 37-16 on Nov. 20 in district play. “You have to go to work. Red Oak is good and they’re rolling right now. They beat us so they’re going to come in with a lot of swagger and confidence, but we will too.”

This story was originally published December 26, 2020 at 11:19 PM.