The Wylie Prep Patriots once again are celebrating a year of state champions.

With new head football coach Trent Brown, the Patriots continued their run of success on the gridiron, defeating Waco Methodist Children’s Home Bulldogs 72-57 in the TCAF state championship on Nov. 20

Prep had to mount a huge comeback to win their second straight title, falling behind 24-8 after the first quarter.

“We were in trouble and in dire need of a momentum shift,” Coach Trent Brown said. “We made some tweaks offensively and made a big change defensively that allowed us to begin shifting the game back in our favor.”

The momentum did indeed begin to shift once the second quarter started.

At the end of the half, the Patriots completed the comeback to take a four-point lead, 40-36. Jake Durbin’s three touchdown receptions from Kole Von Runnen in the quarter sparked the Patriots rally.

In the third quarter the teams answered each other’s touchdown drives with scores of their own. However, the Bulldogs were unable to catch the Patriots.

The Bulldogs were unable to convert PATs after touchdowns, hitting just one of eight tries.

Another reason was Durbin’s ability to find the endzone. He hauled in two more touchdown receptions in the final quarter, giving him five for the game.

Wylie Prep began to pull away in the fourth quarter, and a game sealing 23-yard touchdown run with 48 seconds left by Von Runnen gave them their second consecutive state title.

Durbin was awarded the state game MVP award for his performance, while Von Runnen was awarded the All-State award.

The Patriots finished the season with an 11-1 overall record and a district championship.

Baseball team finishes in second place

The TCAF Division 2 championship was heralded before the game as a pitcher’s duel and it lived up to the billing.

Wylie Prep and Harvest Christian faced off twice in the regular season, with each side coming out on top once. The championship game was the rubber match.

The Wylie Prep Patriots entered the state championship and fell just short, losing 2-0 to Harvest Christian Lantana in the title game Thursday night at Springtown ISD.

Both teams put their best foot forward with their ace pitchers — Wylie Prep’s Ethan Tomsu and Harvest Christian’s Carson Lucky — which led to a scoreless game through five and a half innings. The Saints finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead and handing Tomsu the hard-luck loss after keeping the Patriots in the game. Tomsu, in total, pitched six innings while surrendering two runs on six hits and striking out six batters. He also walked two in the outing as well.

Wylie Prep finished the season 14-2 and runners-up in the state for their division, with both losses coming against Harvest Christian.

The Patriots had four seniors on the roster, including Seth Dowdle, Dye, Will Pickering and Andrew Benners. Dye signed to play college baseball at Missouri Valley College next season.

Girls basketball team reaches playoffs

The Wylie Preparatory Academy Lady Patriots entered the week knowing that they had accomplished something that hadn’t accomplished in two years—making the playoffs. However, they first had to play in a tiebreaker game to decide seeding.

Losing the tiebreaker placed Wylie Prep as the fourth seed and slated the Lady Patriots to play the one seed from TCAF Div. 1 District 1—Newman International Academy Cedar Hill Lady Warriors. The Lady Warriors had a regular season record of 7-6 and 5-1 in district.

It was a slow start for both teams in the first quarter as after one the Lady Warriors were leading 12-3. Newman picked up the pace in the second quarter. With a dominant offensive performance and good defense that stifled the Wylie Prep offensive attack, the Lady Warriors took a 26-6 lead into halftime. Newman went on to win 57-24.

Wylie Prep finished the season with an overall record of 9-10, an improvement from the 4-14 record of the 2019-20 season. The team graduates two seniors: Natalie Mann and Jordan Volk.

Boys basketball team finishes fifth in district

The Prep boys basketball team ended the 2021 season 9-12 overall and 2-8 in district play.

Leading the way for the Patriots were a couple of seniors. Colby Dye led the team in rebounds, steals and blocks per game during the season, while finishing second on the team with 11.3 points per game.

Jaden Rye led the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game and chipped in a team-leading 4.2 assists per game.

Prep’s two district wins came against Inspired Vision in Dallas, including a dramatic double overtime win in the second game of the year.

Wylie Prep had four seniors on the roster in 2021.

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