Unbeaten Spring gets their toughest test since their win over Spring Westfield in the regular season as they tangle with one of the DFW area’s top programs in once-beaten DeSoto. DeSoto last had to rally from a 12 point second half deficit to knock off defending regional champion Rockwall, 30-27. QB Samari Collier, an Illinois signee, had a monster game for the Eagles accounting for over 300 yards of offense and four touchdowns, two each rushing and passing. DeSoto’s defense, led by their outstanding defensive line.
The Spring (TX) varsity football team has a home playoff game vs. DeSoto (TX) on Saturday, December 26 @ 7pm at McLane Stadium, Baylor University Waco, Texas. This game is a part of the “2020 Football State Championships – 2020 Football Conference 6A D1 ” tournament.
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FIRST RECENT MEETING
DeSoto: Came back to beat Rockwall in area round, 30-27. QB Samari Collier ran for 2 TDs, threw for two scores. Facing a 27-15 deficit at one point last week, DeSoto’s defense held high-powered Rockwall to 123 total yards in second half. DeSoto is in the regional semifinal for the first time since 2016, when they won a state title.
Spring: Defeated Klein Oak, 31-14. Unbeaten Spring is the 14-6A champion. They have given up more than 17 points only three times this season (13.8 ppg allowed).
KYE NOTE
DeSoto football coach Claude Mathis directed his anger at star quarterback Samari Collier during a fiery halftime talk Friday night.
“I got on him. I was pissed. He can play way better,” Mathis said. “He was upset that he had let the team down at halftime. He was in the locker room beating his head. I went off. I lost it on him, because I know what this kid can do.”
Collier had run for DeSoto’s only two touchdowns to that point, but a mistake-filled first half had left the state’s 11th-ranked Class 6A team trailing Rockwall by five.
It had already been a memorable week for Collier, as the three-star recruit signed a national letter of intent with Illinois on Wednesday. Two days later, he led DeSoto to a stirring second-half comeback that will be remembered for his poise under pressure with the game on the line.
Collier rallied his team from a 12-point third-quarter deficit with two touchdown passes, including a game-winning 25-yarder to Johntay Cook II with 8:13 remaining that gave DeSoto a 30-27 win in a 6A Division I area-round playoff game at Children’s Health Stadium at Prosper ISD.
DeSoto (9-1) will play 15th-ranked Spring in the Region II semifinals at 7 p.m. next Saturday at Baylor’s McLane Stadium in Waco.
Four crucial fourth-down plays helped save DeSoto’s season. So did a spectacular second-half performance by the DeSoto defense, which held Rockwall star quarterback Braedyn Locke to 100 yards passing and no touchdown passes in the second half after Locke threw two first-half scoring passes.
The comeback started with DeSoto trailing 27-15 against the state’s 18th-ranked team and facing fourth-and-7 at its 39-yard line when Mathis decided to go for it. Collier completed an 11-yard pass to Mike Murphy for the first down, and Collier went 6 for 6 for 68 yards on the drive, capping it with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Arkansas signee Jaedon Wilson and a two-point conversion pass to Cook to cut Rockwall’s lead to 27-23 late in the third quarter.
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