Ellis County Sports Your source for Ellis County Sports News
By Travis M. Smith | KBEC Sports
It wouldn’t have been unwarranted for Midlothian Heritage football fans to leave shortly after the king and queen were crowned Friday night.
After all, the reeling Jaguars, losers of two straight, trailed perennial playoff-contender Stephenville 29-6 at the half of the homecoming showdown at Midlothian ISD Multipurpose Stadium.
Those same fans would’ve kicked themselves Saturday morning.
The Jaguars came out in the second half of the non-district game and dominated, pulling off the 33-29 come-from-behind win to improve to 2-2 on the season.
Heritage senior quarterback Cade Sumbler tossed four second-half touchdown passes to make the most of the defensive shutout and two Yellowjacket turnovers.
Sumbler finished the game 12-of-19 for 252 yards with four touchdowns to one interception. He also scored the lone Jaguar touchdown in the first half — a 12-yard run with 6:46 to play in the first quarter to give Heritage a 6-0 lead.
Stephenville went on to score 29 consecutive points following the Sumbler run — four touchdowns and one 22-yard Trace Morrison field goal — to build its halftime advantage.
Heritage senior Jay Wilkerson finally posted his breakout game of the 2019 season, hauling in five passes for 187 yards and three touchdowns.
Wilkerson, who holds several Division-I Power 5 offers, caught touchdown passes of 67, 47 and 65 yards in the second half to pull the Jaguars within one possession, 29-26 with 11:47 to play in the fourth quarter.
The ensuing two possessions ended in a Stephenville punt and a 42-yard field goal missed by the Heritage special-team unit.
The Jaguars defense then forced a second punt in the quarter and capitalized two plays later when Sumbler found Haydon Wiginton for a 28-yard touchdown pass with 2:57 to play in the game.
Greg Johnson then intercepted a Kade Renfro pass on the ensuing Stephenville possession to seal the Jaguars 33-29 victory with the Yellowjackets threatening in the Heritage red zone.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Jaguars out-gained the Yellowjackets 416-375 on the evening, despite picking up 10 fewer first downs (11-21).
Sumbler finished the game 12-of-19 for 252 yards and four touchdowns to one interception.
In addition to Wilkerson (5-187, 3TD) and Wiginton (5-56, TD), Logan Prewitt caught two passes for nine yards.
Latray Miller led the Jaguars rushing attack with 19 carries for 167 yards (8.8 YPC).
UP NEXT
Midlothian Heritage will now face defending 4A Division I state champion Waco La Vega at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Waco.
The Pirates are currently 3-1 on the season, having suffered a week-two loss against Argyle (49-35).
PHOTO GALLERY
All photos by Kirk Holt/KBEC Sports
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Travis M. Smith, @Travis5mith
tsmith@kbec.com
