Advertisement

Sports

The Colony rallies to take 28-22 win over Wakeland and school's first playoff spot since 2002

THE COLONY — Just when The Colony looked as if it had lost its winning streak and possibly its top running back and his younger brother, it scored 15 points in the final four and a half minutes in a 28-22 victory over Frisco Wakeland to clinch the school’s first playoff berth since 2002.

“I have been around a lot of football, around a lot of football games,” The Colony coach Rudy Rangel told his team. “But I have never seen anything like that. A group of guys who refused to quit.”

The Colony senior tailback Bryan Hammond said he will have an MRI on his right knee to determine the extent of an ACL injury suffered early in the second quarter. Junior offensive lineman Bryson Hammond left in the second half with a leg injury as well.

Advertisement

Trailing 22-13, The Colony (8-0, 5-0 in District 9-4A) started its improbable comeback after a running into the kicker penalty turned a fourth-and-15 punt into a fourth-and-10, which junior quarterback Andrew Lotz then converted after scrambling forward to find junior receiver Tate Alanis open downfield for a 57-yard completion to Wakeland’s 4-yard line.

Sports Roundup

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis, scores and more.

Or with:

Ranked No. 7 in the SportsDayHS 4A poll, The Colony made it 22-20 after sophomore running back Alec Gibbons scored on a 1-yard run with 4:39 left. Wakeland recovered the ensuing onside kick but lost 28 yards on three plays as The Colony’s front of Julian Abdallah, Myles Benning, Grant Blankenship and Jordan Higashida applied pressure.

Starting on Wakeland’s 34, The Colony converted a third-and-four at the 17 with a 14-yard run by Gibbons, who ended with 125 yards rushing on 26 carries. Gibbons scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 1-yard run with 25 seconds left.

Advertisement

“It was crazy,” Gibbons said. “We were all just a bunch of guys believing in each other.”

No. 15-ranked Wakeland (4-4, 3-2) used a very diverse offense to rally from a 10-point deficit after the first quarter. Wakeland rolled off 19 consecutive points with the help of a blocked punt and The Colony fumbling a kick in the end for a touchdown to make it 22-13 with 3:25 to go in the third quarter.

“I knew we could put it back together after we lost Bryan,” Rangel said. “We did go into a tailspin before we got things figured out. I didn’t know how long that would take. We are a running team, but we can do other things and we practice doing other things. It was nice to be able to do some of those.”