Lewisville capitalizes on turnovers, drops McCormick

For the first time in 14 years, the Lewisville Lions won a road playoff game, blowing out the McCormick Chiefs 42-14 Friday night.

The Lions were down a key player in main receiver Mike Hill, who missed the game due to injury. Hill had caught 37 passes for 848 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season, but offensively the Lions were able to make adjustments without him.

“McCormick played real hard,” said Lions coach Will Mitchell. “We were lucky. Turnovers were huge for us. The rest of the team stepped up. It was a total team effort.”

Defensively, Lewisville (10-2) had to contain junior running back Mataeo Durant, who had missed the first five games of the season only to return and rush for over 1,100 yards and 14 touchdowns in the five remaining games, in which the Chiefs won all five.

McCormick (5-6) came into the game off a first-round bye and because of the playoff schedule being backed up on the calendar, the Chiefs hadn’t played football in a month until Friday night.

Once the game started, the Lions’ defense did what they needed to do and stopped Durant and the Chiefs on McCormick’s first drive. Lewisville came out and struck first on an eight-play drive that went 74-yards that saw junior Quentin Sanders score on a 12-yard run out of the Wildcat formation.

The Lions’ defense caused a turnover deep into McCormick territory on the Chiefs’ second drive of the opening quarter. The offense would then put together a three-play drive to score again as senior Jene Thompson would run in from a yard out.

In the second quarter, McCormick was able to get on the scoreboard after putting together a 60-yard drive capped off by a 18-yard touchdown run from Durant.

Lewisville didn’t let up in the second half as they took the opening kickoff and then went 70-yards in eight plays which saw Sanders add to the Lions score on a three-yard touchdown run.

In the fourth quarter, the Lions’ defense again stopped McCormick’s momentum after they picked off a pass from the visiting Lewisville. On the insuring Chiefs’ drive, Lewisville picked off a McCormick pass in good field position about midway into Chiefs’ territory. The Lions would again score off the McCormick turnover.

Turning point

Lewisville capitalized on McCormick’s second fumble of the first half about midway through the second quarter as the Chiefs bobbled a punt. On the first play after the Lions recovered, senior quarterback Trey Keels hit senior receiver AJ Robinson for a 27-yard touchdown which put them up by two scores.

On the next offensive possession for the Lions, Keels and Robinson again connected for a 74-yard touchdown pass to again extend their lead and put McCormick even further in the hole going into the half.

Critical

Penalties and turnovers stalled things for McCormick in the opening quarter putting them in a deep hole. On their second drive of the first quarter, the Chiefs were penalized three times for 20 yards and then fumbled giving the ball back to Lewisville. McCormick fumbled a second time in the first half and again the Lions wasted no time in capitalizing on the Chiefs’ mistake. In all, McCormick had three fumbles and two interceptions in the game.

Star contributions

Keels led from behind the center as he passed for 240 yards and Robinson caught three passes for 116 yards. Sanders rushed for 105 yards on 18 carries. For McCormick, Durant rushed for 167 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns.

On deck

Lewisville will play McBee next week in the third round of the Class A playoffs.

Lewisville 42, McCormick 14

SCORING SUMMARY

First quarter

L - Quentin Sanders 12 run (conversion failed), 5:28

L - Jene Thompson 1 run (Thompson 2-pt. conversion), 1:46

Second quarter

M - Mataeo Durant 18 run (Dillon Walters to Xavier Middleton 2-pt. conversion), 8:35

L - AJ Robinson 27 pass from Trey Keels (Quentin Sanders 2-pt. conversion), 5:47

L - Robinson 74 pass from Keels (Sanders 2-pt. conversion), 29.9

Third quarter

L - Sanders 3 run (conversion failed), 8:41

M - Durant 67 run (conversion failed), 1:03

Fourth quarter

L - Sanders 16 pass from Keels (conversion failed), 5:11

TEAM STATISTICS

L;M

First downs;16;13

Rushes-yards; 26-111;32-185

Passing;14-20-1;8-19-2

Passing yards; 240;73

Fumbles-lost; 1-0; 4-3

Penalties-yards; 7-95;4-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING Lewisville: Quentin Sanders 18-105, Trey Keels 3-(-10), Johnny Courtney 4-15, Jene Thompson 1-1. McCormick: Mataeo Durant 17-167, Dillon Walters 6-1, Silas Cannady 3-5, Kadarius Garrett 4-1, Jay Patterson 1-1, Lavar Fambrough 1-10.

PASSING Lewisville: Trey Keels 14-20-1 240. McCormick: Dillon Walters 8-19-2 73.

RECEIVING Lewisville: AJ Robinson 3-116, Quentin Sanders 3-36, Rhett Cox 2-13, Johnny Courtney 5-73, D'metrius Edwards 1-2. McCormick: Silas Cannady 2-22, Kadarius Garrett 3-30, Mataeo Durant 1-7, Xavier Middleton 1-2, Jay Patterson 1-12.

RECORDS Lewisville 10-2; McCormick 5-6.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Lewisville capitalizes on turnovers, drops McCormick."