After putting together its most dominant performance of the season, The Colony’s football team is having to step away from the gridiron for a bit.
Amanda Brim, Lewisville ISD chief communications officer, confirmed Monday afternoon by email that the Cougars have had to cancel each of their next two games due to COVID-19 reasons.
Games against Frisco Independence (Friday) and Frisco Lone Star (Nov. 27) will not be made up and are ruled as “no contest,” according to guidelines that had been set in place by the district executive committee for 5-5A Division I. The cancellations mean the Cougars have one game in the regular season remaining on their schedule: Dec. 4 vs. Frisco Reedy.
Brim didn’t have any information as to whether the positive test was from a player or coach, nor the number of positive cases, though the news comes at a time when the Cougars are playing their best football of the season.
The Colony dominated on both sides of the ball in a 42-3 rout of Frisco Heritage on Friday night, forcing five turnovers and using 21 second-half points to pull away for their fourth win of the season and improve to 3-2 in conference play.
Prior to Monday’s announcement of the two-week shutdown due to the virus, the Cougars (3-2 district) sat a half-game behind Independence (3-1) for fourth place and the final playoff spot in 5-5A Div. I, and those two teams were set to play this week.
Rudy Rangel, The Colony head football coach, confirmed the positive virus test Tuesday afternoon, adding that all of the team meetings for the next two weeks will be moved from in person to virtual.
“It was gut-wrenching,” he said. “We work 100 hours per week, if not more, as coaches. We felt really comfortable about Independence, had a really good game plan. But, it was a tough call. I presented my facts to my principal and he presented our facts to our COVID-19 experts in our district. It was just the smartest thing to do. It’s safety over everything else.”
Now, The Colony will look for some help from a few of their district rivals before returning to the field the first week of December and attempt to tame the Lions.
In order to extend their school record string of playoff appearances to eight straight seasons, the Cougars would need Wakeland (3-3 district), who holds the head-to-head tiebreaker by virtue of their 45-13 win over The Colony, to lose to Reedy (3-1) and Denton (0-6), and for Independence (3-1) to lose their final two games against Denton Ryan (4-0) and Frisco Heritage (1-5).
Rangel said his Cougars were excited to play Independence and Lone Star. The Colony lost in double overtime last year to Independence while each of the last two meetings against Lone Star has been decided by seven points or less, including a 41-38 victory for the Rangers in 2019. But with the Cougars now having to wait until the first week of December to return to play, all of their focus is on Reedy.
“We’re excited already about Reedy,” Rangel said. “It’s going to be a heck of a ball game.”
You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
Post a comment as anonymous
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.