ROGERS — The momentum changed in hurry for Rogers Heritage on Friday night.

Heritage returned a fumble for a touchdown and a blocked punt for another score in a 1 minute, 54 second span in the second quarter as the War Eagles erased a 14-0 Rogers lead and went on to post a 41-28 victory over the Mounties at Gates Stadium.

Heritage (7-3, 4-3 7A/6A-West) earned the No. 5 seed to the Class 7A playoffs with the win and will travel to West Memphis next Friday. Rogers (6-4, 3-4) gets the No. 6 seed from the West and will travel to Conway on Friday for a first-round playoff game.

“That changed the momentum of the game,” Heritage coach Perry Escalante said. “It seemed like our kids were waiting for a spark, and that kind of did it.”

Rogers took a 21-20 lead early in the third quarter with an 80-yard scoring drive capped by Wary’s 16-yard run. But Heritage answered with touchdowns on two of its next three possessions for 34-21 lead.

Rogers was within 34-28 after Wary’s fourth touchdown but a costly personal foul penalty helped keep a 80-yard Heritage scoring drive alive that ended with a three yard touchdown run by Brandon Gates with 25 seconds left in the game. Gates finished with 113 yards on 22 carries while catching four passes for 22 yards.

“We got enough offense to get Rogers to chase,” Escalante said. “When Rogers is in chase mode, it’s hard for them to comeback.”

Mounties coach Shawn Flannigan said the early mistakes changed the complexion of the game. Heritage has now won three of the five meetings between the two schools.

“We gave them a defensive touchdown and we gave them a special teams touchdown, that’s the story of the game,” Flannigan said. “Heritage played a great game, but we shot ourselves. We made plenty of mistakes to help their cause.”

Rogers grabbed a quick 14-0 lead on a pair of short touchdown runs by Wary. But Heritage quickly stopped the bleeding when quarterback Josh Qualls hit Forrest Johnson for a 61-yard catch and run that cut the lead to 14-7.

The War Eagles defense then turned the tide.

After Wary was hurt after a 27-yard run, Heritage linebacker Forrest Ward stripped the ball form Mounties backup quarterback Max Harrell and raced 71 yards for a touchdown. Harrell suffered a dislocated elbow on the play.

Carson Scott then blocked a Rogers punt on the Mounties next possession and Utah Julius return the football 21 yards for a touchdown that gave the War Eagles a 20-14 lead at halftime. The two returns accounted for 92 yards and the War Eagles offense had just 87 total yards in the first half.

With Gates rushing for 107 yards and Qualls passing for 81 yards, Heritage generated enough offense to pull away for the victory in the second half. Heritage finished with 277 yards of offense. Wary led Rogers with 161 yards on 26 carries and all four Rogers touchdowns.