Down 21-0 at halftime, St. Thomas More rallied with 24 second-half points as the Cougars survived a first half pummeling from Westgate and escaped with a 24-21 non-district win Friday.

Tyler Listi’s 32-yard field goal with 2:30 left in the game was the difference as the Cougars completed the improbable comeback.

“Our kids played real hard in the second half,” said STM coach Jim Hightower. “But our kids played really hard in the first half, we just left our feet on defense and they were able to make plays.

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“Westgate has some fine athletes on that team. Their playmakers made some plays.”

The Tigers had a final chance to pull out a win but Deon Anthony’s scramble on fourth down with under a minute left in the game fell just short of a first down when he was pushed out of bounds.

St. Thomas More turned the game from an almost sure loss into an improbable come-from-behind win by taking advantage of two key Westgate turnovers in the second half.

“The two turnovers inside the 20 were key,” said Westgate coach Brian Fine, whose team fell to 1-1 with the loss. “The first one was on the punt. We get a snap that’s a little off and our punter gets tackled down deep.

“Then there was the fumble on the kickoff return that gave them a short field after they just scored. That was a big momentum swing and it took us until we got a defensive stop to get any momentum back. But when you turn it over twice in the second half inside the 20, that allowed them back in the game, no doubt.”

Up 21-0 at halftime, Westgate came out in the third quarter and on the first play from scrimmage went for the home run as Deon Anthony threw deep to a wide open Jacoby Colbert, who dropped the ball.

Two plays later the Tigers, who had converted on six third down chances in the first half, couldn’t convert on this opening drive of the second half and were forced to punt.

A low snap sent Seigan Vergenal scrambling with the ball but his attempted pass was incomplete, giving STM the ball at the Westgate 24-yard line.

Three plays later the Cougars (3-1) scored to cut the lead to 21-7.

“We executed real well in the first half and kept our defense off the field and they had a lot of energy when they played,” said Fine. “But you get those turnovers on a short field, especially when our defense has just been out there, and you lose that assertion where you’ve been asserting your will on someone and it’s hard to get it back.”

Westgate came right back and took the ball down to the STM 39 yard line. On third-and-two, Anthony again dropped back and looked for a wide open Dionta Spencer but just overthrew the sprinting receiver forcing fourth down.

Anthony, who finished the night 9-for-17 for 101 yards and a touchdown, scrambled on the next play but the Cougars were able to stop the WHS quarterback to force another change in possession.

“We opened up the second half with that same play and Jacoby mishandled it,” said Fine. “We had it wide open again and Deon just overthrows Dionta a little bit.

“I don’t know how you can second guess that because we had it wide open both times. On fourth down I went for it because I felt like we had a good call. Our fullback got out into the flat but had his back to Deon. Even if something did break down I thought that Deon would be able to get away from the kid but he made a great play. I can’t second guess that call.”

St. Thomas More was able to go 61 yards in 14 plays with quarterback Emile Joseph going in from a yard out to cut the lead to 21-14.

Then disaster struck.

Vergenal took the ensuing kickoff but a hard hit forced the ball to go up in the air and the Cougars recovered. On the next play, Andre Ozene went 21 yards for the score and the game was tied 21-21. Ozene finished the night with 104 yards rushing for the Cougars.

Freshman fullback Brandon Malveaux led Westgate with 112 rushing yards.

“The turnover in the kicking game was the real turning point,” said Hightower.

After a change of possessions, St. Thomas More was able to get the ball around midfield and drove to the Westgate 15 to set up the winning field goal to complete the comeback which seemed out of the question when Anthony rushed for two touchdowns and threw for a third in the first half to build the big lead.

“Hopefully we don’t have to get down 21 points to start playing next week,” said Hightower.

Even with the loss, Fine found something positive in defeat.

“The one thing I told them in the locker room was the outcome might have been different tonight but when I watch the film I going to see a vastly improved football team from a week ago,” said Fine. “I thought we made a lot of progress in our caliber of play.”

Westgate travels to Sulphur next week.