LEWISVILLE — Lake Dallas generated plenty of momentum Friday night to take into the Class 4A Division II playoffs next week.

The Falcons’ 28-9 victory over The Colony secured their sixth playoff berth in a row, one for every year they’ve been in 4A, and their second district title in three years. The Falcons, who won the District 9-4A crown outright in 2007, will share the 5-4A crown with Ryan and Guyer after the Raiders’ win over the Wildcats Thursday night.

Their share of the district title was all the Falcons had on the line Friday, as they sewed up their playoff berth a couple of weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Cougars (2-8, 1-6) played a defensive back and a rover at quarterback due to injuries and kept the ball on the ground in an effort to move the chains and keep the Falcons’ explosive offense off the field.

But the Falcons played well enough to have head coach Michael Young optimistic about a deep playoff run, which starts next Friday night at Saginaw High School when they face Birdville at 7:30 p.m. in a bi-district showdown.

“I told the kids that while it’s a tri-championship, they should be very proud of it,” Young said. “I think sharing a district title with a couple of teams as talented as Ryan and Guyer is something for them to be proud of.”

The Cougars ran 34 first-half offensive plays to Lake Dallas’ 11, but that still wasn’t enough to deter the Falcons from building a 21-9 lead behind the fleet feet of junior running back Tyler Waller.

Waller scored all three touchdowns in the first half for the Falcons — all of which came in the first quarter on drives totaling just 10 offensive plays. Waller started the scoring with a 32-yard touchdown run with 5:03 left in the quarter and followed that with a 36-yard touchdown reception, which featured him side-stepping two certain tackles to reach the end zone. That score was set up by a Colony fumble at the Cougar 26.

On the ensuing drive, The Colony had a minus-2 punt that gave Lake Dallas the ball at the Cougar 22, and Waller then delivered a 13-yard touchdown reception, which featured a nifty sidestep of another Cougar tackler at the 2-yard line.

Waller tacked on an 8-yard score in the third quarter as he finished the game with 84 yards rushing on 10 carries and 49 yards receiving on two catches.

“It’s nice to see that part of our running game coming together,” Young said. “That’s the third week in a row that Tyler’s put together a nice game for us.”

Meanwhile, The Colony’s strategy was simple: keep the ball out of the hands of James Franklin, whose numbers were solid despite the few touches he had. The quarterback had 29 yards rushing and 120 yards passing, including two touchdowns.

The Cougars executed their plan brilliantly in the second quarter, when they put together a drive that lasted 11 minutes and 57 seconds. The drive started with six seconds remaining in the first half and ended with nine seconds remaining in the second quarter on a 34-yard field goal by Nate Fox.

Thanks to injuries, the Cougars were using their fifth quarterback of the season, as senior defensive back Jordan Downey and junior rover Aaron McCarthy rotated behind center. Downey, in his final game, was exceptional, rushing 22 times for 126 yards and moving the chains with seemingly every carry.

But, despite The Colony’s healthy time of possession advantage and an opening-drive score, the Falcons still managed to build a two-score lead by halftime.

“[The Colony] came in and did some different things,” Young said. “They had a plan and they executed it pretty well. I think our defense did a pretty good job, except for that long drive in the second quarter. We were able to get enough going on offense to stay in control of the game.”

Lake Dallas 28, The Colony 9

Lake Dallas      21        0          7          0          —        28

The Colony      6          3          0          0          —        9

Scoring summary

First Quarter

TC — Josh Morrison 1 run (kick blocked), 7:35

LD — Tyler Waller 32 run (Adam Goodnight kick), 5:03

LD — Waller 36 pass from James Franklin (Goodnight kick), 2:53

LD — Waller 13 pass from Franklin (Goodnight kick), :06

Second Quarter

TC — Nate Fox 34 field goal, :09

Third Quarter

LD — Waller 8 run (Goodnight kick), 6:29

TEAM STATS

            LD       TC

First downs      14        10

Rushing            30-129 42-167

Passing yards    120      19

Passing 11-15-0           1-3-1

Punts-avg.        1-34     3-50

Penalties           1-5       3-25

Fumbles-lost     0-0       1-1

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING — LD: James Franklin 10-29, Tyler Waller 10-84, Dontonio Jordan 1-4. Raymond Thelemaque 8-10, Christian Price 1-2. TC: Chima Akolam 9-16, Jordan Downey 22-126, Josh Morrison 3-3, Gerald Thomas 3-3, Beau LaFave 3-15, Hunter Boyd 1-1, Aaron McCarthy 1-3.

PASSING — LD: Franklin 11-15-0-120. TC: Downey 1-2-1-19, Aaron McCarthy 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING — LD: Jordan 2-11, Waller 2-49, Jake Baine 2-6, Tyler McGee 4-29, Kevin Domingue 1-25. TC: Sean Houston 1-19.