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COPPELL – When Coppell receiver Jordan Tollett caught a short pass and turned it into a big gain Friday night, it was easy to miss the player who made the key block to get him free.

But I'm guessing Devin Smith doesn't mind.

After all, the senior was impossible to miss the rest of the night, especially when he was sprinting down the sidelines three times in the second quarter of Coppell's 38-24 victory over Grapevine. That's when Smith caught a touchdown pass, returned an interception for a touchdown and nearly returned another pick for a score.

It's hard to top the 10-minute stretch that Smith had in the second quarter, when Coppell scored 24 points to take a 38-10 halftime lead at Buddy Echols Field.

It started on the second play of the quarter, when Tollett took an inside screen and got outside the defense to pick up 36 yards. Smith's block erased the defender with the best chance to contain the play. The play got Coppell (3-0) in range for a field goal that made the score 17-3.

Grapevine picked up its first two first downs of the game on its next possession. But on third-and-6, Smith intercepted a pass from quarterback Matt Harbin near the sideline and raced 62 yards into the end zone. He shook off Harbin's attempted tackle near the 20-yard line to give Coppell a 24-3 lead with 6:58 left in the half.

Grapevine (1-2) then had its highlight of the night, a sharp, 53-yard drive that ended with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Harbin to Bryan Houk. That cut the lead to 24-10, but it became only a brief intermission in the Devin Smith Quarter.

With less than two minutes remaining, Smith hauled in a 54-yard touchdown pass from Dalton Williams. The pass was on the money, and so was the Grapevine defender, but Smith grabbed the pass and blew past the defender to give Coppell a 31-10 lead with 1:22 left.

On Grapevine's next play from scrimmage, Smith intercepted another pass along the right sideline. He nearly returned it for a touchdown, too, setting up another Coppell touchdown that made the score 38-10.

After that, the game was pretty much over. Grapevine showed brief signs of being able to sustain drives, but not enough to threaten Coppell.

Both teams were plagued by dropped passes in their final tune-up for the district season.

Grapevine will open its district schedule next week against Haltom, needing to find a way to tighten up its pass defense and get more production from its offense. Coppell will also have some things to work on this week before it opens district play at Lewisville.

Coppell played reserves for most of the fourth quarter, but its offense did slow down in the second half.

Coppell also turned the ball over three times, had too many penalties and allowed a couple of big pass plays in the fourth quarter – including an 82-yarder to Chance Cochran cut the lead to 38-24 with three minutes left.

Fortunately for Coppell, the second quarter made the other three unimportant. And it has Smith to thank for that.