Colleyville Heritage rolls past rival Grapevine in the Battle of the Red Rail

The Battle of the Red Rail football game between Colleyville Heritage and Grapevine each season is usually wrought with importance.

This season the game was likely to decide the District 4-5A Division 2 title and playoff seeding, but more importantly on the line, as is each year, was bragging rights.

Colleyville Heritage, No. 5 in the Star-Telegram Class 5A rankings, could do little wrong and Grapevine couldn’t get a break as the Panthers rolled to a 43-7 victory on Friday night at Mustang-Panther Stadium.

“It feels great,” said Colleyville Heritage quarterback Luke Ullrich, who passed for 270 yards completing 18 of 26 passes with four touchdowns. “ We always say that the trophy is ours and we just got it back.”

The Panthers have now won eight of the past 11 meetings after Grapevine claimed the Red Rail last season 44-26.

Grapevine (1-3 overall, 1-1 in district) got one of its few breaks out of the gate when Bryson Davis took the opening kickoff back 88 yards to the Panthers’ 11 yard line.

But three plays later CH defensive back Ty Golden forced a fumble that went into the end zone where Darian Lloyd fell on it for a touchback, turning Grapevine away.

From that point it was all Colleyville Heritage (3-1, 2-0). The Panthers scored on each of its next three possessions with touchdown passes from Ullrich to Braden Blueitt from 20 yards and to Ryan Keleher from 38 yards out.

Those two scores were sandwiched around an eight-yard scoring run by Hayden Golden.

“Our offense did a good job all week of preparing for what they were going to give us,” said Colleyville Heritage coach Jerry Edwards, in his first year at the helm of the Panthers. “We knew that they were going to give us a lot of different looks up front which kind of limited what we could do run wise, but we knew that it would open up our passing game.”

Colleyville Heritage finished with 398 yards of total offense, with 274 coming through the air.

Ty Golden made it 29-0 with 6:06 left in the first half when he scooped up a Grapevine fumble and raced 27 yards to the end zone.

“Jacob Roppolo, shout out to my guy, he made them fumble, I grabbed it, six,” said Ty Golden, a defensive back. “This feels so good. Last year we didn’t get it, it hurt, so it’s great to come back senior year and close it out with a bang and get that trophy back where it belongs.”

The Panthers’ defense played lights out, especially in the first half, limiting Grapevine to 37 total yards at the break.

“We played phenominal,” added Ty Golden. “We’ve been preparing for weeks working on getting that triple option down. You have to play your keys when it comes to that. I’d say that we played pretty well, but I wish we could have kept it to a doughnut, but we couldn’t.”

Colleyville Heritage defensive back Bryson Burgess picked off a pass at the Mustang 39 to set up the Panthers’ final score of the first half. Ullrich found Blueitt, who made a terrific catch in the back of the end zone from six yards out, to up the score to 36-0 with 58 seconds left before the intermission.

The Mustangs finally got a big play out of their option midway through the third quarter when Rondale Carridine took a pitch and rambled 38 yards down to the CH five. Conner Bell carried it in from the two three plays later to cut the lead to 36-7.

Blueitt and Ullrich answered right away with a 12-yard TD pass to cap a nine-play, 75-yard drive. Grapevine lost the ball on downs on its next three possessions to close out the game.

“This is my first game back,” said Blueitt, a junior, who had nine catches for 149 yards. “I’ve been out since right before the season started. Unfortunately I went down with a tweaked hamstring and have been rehabbing that thing back up and I’m finally back to full speed.”

Grapevine was Colleyville Heritage’s biggest test in district play and with five weeks left the Panthers’ have the task of getting prepared for the playoffs without being pushed.

“I think we test ourselves every week in practice,” said Edwards. “I think Monday through Thursday is when you prepare yourself regardless of who you’re playing on Friday night.”

Edwards added that he preaches to his kids about having championship-caliber practices Monday through Thursday because at some point it’s going to come into play.

“We have to practice like champions each and every day because eventually we’re going to need that habit and we’ve already created that habit.”

While the game means plenty to the players and students at each school, the Colleyville Heritage student body rushed the field in celebration of the win, Edwards was experiencing it for the first time.

“This is my first year in the Red Rail, my first year here at Colleyville Heritage, and I’ve heard all about the game,” said Edwards. “It’s a great atmosphere, especially when you sell out Mustang-Panther Stadium, and you have two communities that are in the same school district battling it out.

“It was fun and this is why you play. Bring your community together playing football, it was fun.”