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ARLINGTON – Glaspie Field is the newest high school football stadium in Texas as it officially opened its doors to the public on Thursday night when Arlington Seguin hosted The Colony.
Seguin is 5-0 for the second straight year as it defeated The Colony 68-30 in a District 3-5A Division 2 contest.
The $34 million Glaspie Field, which broke ground in 2023, is on the campus of Arlington Martin High School. Seguin previously held home games at Arlington Sam Houston’s Wilemon Field and Choctaw Stadium. Officially Michael Glaspie Field Athletic Complex, the bond on the project was passed six years ago. It will serve as the home field for Martin and Seguin.
“First and foremost, I want to thank our superintendent and athletic department, and all of our community and board members for making this possible,” Seguin coach Joe Gordon said. “Many years ago, they passed a bond for this to happen. This was just a dream and now it’s a reality. To actually come out here and play the first varsity game ever at Glaspie Field, it means a lot to us. Coming into it, we wanted to make it special for our community and for our fans, and our district and that was our goal tonight. Very excited and the kids came out and played hard, played fast and came out with a win.”
It’s the third high school stadium for Arlington ISD – with the third one at Arlington Lamar (Cravens). Additionally, AISD teams have played at UT-Arlington Maverick Stadium this season. There are plans in the near future that Cravens and Wilemon will have similar stadiums to Glaspie.
The stadium holds about 10,000 seats and has a much larger press box compared to Cravens and Wilemon. Still in the works, is a large area just adjacent to the stadium that will serve for fielding events during the track and field season. The track itself, circles around the football field.
The capacity at the old field at Martin only held 1,500.
Martin will host Grand Prairie on Friday night.
“It’s been a long time coming with a lot of effort from the community supporting us,” Arlington AD Eric White said. “Watching the kids come in tonight, and watching Martin kids practice here this week, to see their excitement…to have something right here in Arlington that’s ours and new, it’s really a great thing for the kids and the community.”
During its grand opening on Thursday, The Colony scored on the opening drive – an 8-yard run by QB Jaylen Gaines, serving as the first touchdown at Glaspie. Seguin answered on its first drive when QB Chevy Andrews ran in from the 3. Johnaven Polk added the two-point run and Seguin led 8-6 with four minutes left in the first quarter.
Seguin got a safety and led 10-6 when The Colony was called for an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone. On the kickoff, the ball bounced just shy of the goal line and The Colony had to start inside its own 5. The ball pushed back more after back-to-back false start penalties.
Seguin scored on the ensuing drive when Isaac Bly rushed in the first of two touchdowns to make it 17-6 late in the period. The Colony then turned the ball over on downs and Seguin got a big run from Ka’darrius Trotter inside the red zone.
Trotter got the hand off again and scored from 8 yards to give Seguin a 24-6 lead with under two minutes left in the half. The Colony was able to connect on a field goal to pull within 24-9 at the intermission.
“It was one of those games where we knew we had to respond and match their energy,” Gordon said. “They came and scored first and we wanted to see how tough our chins were. After that, it was all about the response and it was all about the expectation. The kids did a good job playing from the first whistle to the last whistle.”
Bly rushed in his second touchdown to give Seguin a 31-9 lead just past the five-minute mark of the third quarter. Less than three minutes later and The Colony scored from 23 yards out when Gaines connected with Rylan Kessler that made it 31-16.
The scoring continued with two more touchdowns before the end of the quarter. Andrews scored on a 29-yard keeper for Seguin and The Colony got a 35-yarder from Kendrick McClodden. Seguin led 38-22 after three. Andrews threw a 11-yard TD to Polk that extended the Seguin lead to 46-22. Andrews added a 7-yard TD run that gave Seguin a 54-30 edge midway through the fourth.
Gaines hit Vincent Canzano from 16 yards to pulled The Colony within 46-30 with 8:47 left to play.
The final two TDs came on an Andrews’ pass to Polk from 22 yards and a 4-yard run by DeShawn Ware. Seguin gained over 450 yards while Andrews accounted for 250 yards and five touchdowns. He missed on just two of his 13 pass attempts. Trotter led all rushers with 170 yards while Polk posted six catches for 110 yards.
Seguin improves to 3-0 in district play and will face Mansfield Timberview in Week 6 on Oct. 3. The Colony (2-3, 1-2) will play Mansfield Summit.
“We are in a great location. This will be a great place to host games,” White said about possibly hosting playoff games. “We look forward to having some great games here. Hopefully, we’ll have some of our teams here.”
