Frisco Lone Star's early season miracle sets up Texas high school district title
FRISCO, TEXAS - One long touchdown pass helped put Frisco Lone Star in a position to seize the District 6-5A Division I championship.
On Friday night, several long TD passes helped secure the district for the Rangers.
Quarterback Collin Blackstock connected with Davian Groce on two 75-yard scoring strikes against Frisco Heritage, the latter coming 14 seconds after the Coyotes had tied the score at 7-all in the third quarter. Blackstock then threw two more TD passes, finishing with four scoring tosses on the night, as the Rangers prevailed, 35-7, at David Kuykendall Stadium.
Friday's win helped secure the outright district title for Lone Star (9-1, 8-0), finishing one game ahead of Frisco Reedy. On Sept. 7, the Rangers beat Reedy with a miracle on the game's final play, a 42-yard TD pass from Blackstock to Winston Pollard.
Blackstock also threw a TD pass in the final seconds to Bryson Jones in a 35-31 win against Frisco Wakeland later in the season. The two hooked up for another game-winning TD pass in overtime in Lone Star's 35-28 win against Frisco Centennial.
Blackstock was able to overcome a frustrating first half Friday, in which he was intercepted four times - twice in the end zone - with his four-TD night, starting with two big scoring passes.
Late in the first half of a scoreless game, moments after Heritage (6-4, 4-4) missed a field goal, Blackstock threw a deep pass that was caught by Groce near the Coyotes' 40. Groce then bounced off a pair of defenders and broke loose to complete the 75-yard TD with 1:18 left in the opening half.
Chase Lanham added the PAT for a 7-0 Lone Star lead. Earlier in the half, the Coyotes had intercepted two passes in the end zone, while the Rangers also missed a field-goal attempt.
Heritage then took the second-half kickoff and marched down the field to tie the score at 7-all. Quarterback Jiyere Cogshell took a keeper 2 yards into the end zone; then Hector Santana kicked the PAT.
But 14 seconds later, from the Lone Star 25, Blackstock threw a swing pass to Groce coming out of the backfield. Groce sped around the right side and got down the sideline to complete his second 75-yard TD reception on the night, and Lone Star eventually led, 14-7.
The Rangers then forced Heritage to punt on the next series. Lone Star extended its lead to 21-7 with exactly three minutes left in the third on Blackstock's third TD pass, a 23-yarder to Jones, who jumped high in the air over a defender in the corner of the end zone to make the grab.
Then, set up by an interception by Lone Star's Jordan Deck, Blackstock had his fourth TD pass, and third to Groce, when the two converted on a 31-yard scoring play with more than 11 minutes left.
Lone Star tallied its final TD with less than five minutes remaining when Johnny Yanez scored on a run from 7 yards out.
Blackstock finished his night completing 21-of-36 passes for 382 yards. The Rangers finished with 460 yards of total offense.
Photo of Frisco Lone Star QB Collin Blackstock (10) by Smiley N. Pool, Dallas Morning News
-- Buck Ringgold | buck@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveTX
