FRISCO – A single play can turn the course of a season.
After a failed fourth-and-goal with four minutes remaining gave The Colony a chance to seal the game with a few first downs from its power-rushing game, Frisco Wakeland senior Addisson Medigovich forced a fumble on the very next play.
Wakeland scored a play later, holding on for a 13-12 win at Frisco ISD Memorial Stadium.
“All we needed was one big play,” Medigovich said.
Medigovich broke his assignment on the game-changing play, not following the tight end as The Colony tried to load up its right side.
“They tried to get an unbalanced set – and I took a guess because they’d done it three other times,” Medigovich said. “There was a gap between the quarterback and the running back, and dove to try to rip the ball out.”
He got quarterback Andrew Lotz before the handoff, stripping the ball for teammate Tanner Euting to recover. With the ball on The Colony’s eight-yard-line, Wakeland scored immediately, on a sweep pass from Noah Anderson to Cole Hutchins, to take a 13-12 lead.
Anderson – a wide receiver who had played quarterback earlier in the season – set up Wakeland’s first score, finding Justice Williams on a similar sweep pass on the opening drive of the third quarter. Brent Altieri later scored on a five-yard run for Wakeland’s first lead, 7-6.
“The Colony’s very physical, and we’re somewhat of a finesse team,” Anderson said. “We don’t really have that power game that they did. So we needed a few big plays.”
Both teams combined for nine punts - with five three-and-outs – in the first half. Only a bit of brilliance by The Colony running back Khalil Banks kept the game from being scoreless, taking an off-tackle run 52 yards for 6-0 lead, thanks to a well-timed stiff arm.
Instead of falling into the jumble of teams fighting for position in the District 9-5A standings, the late turnaround put Wakeland (5-1, 3-1) near the top of the table. The loss was a bitter blow for The Colony (4-3, 2-3), finally healthy after missing as many as seven starters in losses to Frisco Heritage and Frisco.
As opposed of fighting for a playoff berth, Wakeland gets a shot at taking a share of the district lead next week, against Frisco Centennial.
“It goes through Centennial,” Wakeland coach Marty Secord said. “There’s no doubt about it. Everybody understands that in our organization because they’ve been the reigning district champs.”
On Twitter: @CorbettSmithDMN
