STERLING – Oh, the things you hear in the men's room.

The Newman Comets had a shot to change the complexion of their Class 3A semifinal bout Saturday against Aurora Christian late in the first half.

With just less than a minute left in the half, Newman was threatening and down 28-7. But things went from promising to foreboding when M.J. Zepeda sniffed out Dillan Heffelfinger’s field-wide lateral intended for quarterback A.J. Sharp and scored from 65 yards away. Instead of Newman cutting the deficit down to two scores, it slipped into a 34-7 pit.