Senior Ethan Fisher gets a pat on the head after yesterday's game. It's a sad substitute for a state title. Hanging on to the bitter end
ARLINGTON – The Vandegrift Vipers certainly didn’t
look like the Grinch. No reptilian features, no greenish hue. But steal
Christmas joy from Dragonheads everywhere – that they surely did.
Oh, it wasn’t an embarrassing beatdown to be sure. But
with a state championship title hanging in the balance, a single-score victory
is as good as a blowout. And perhaps more excruciating for the vanquished.
In a blowout, all hope dies quickly, and the blast of
pain is intense but soon over, to be replaced by a dull ache and miserable
disposition.
In yesterday’s Class 6A Division II championship
final, the Dragons hung on until the very end – never able to overtake
Vandegrift’s narrow lead, but always within striking distance. Ah, hope. It can
be such a brutal and heartless companion.
It offers little solace to the Carroll faithful that
the Dragons largely brought the house down upon themselves. Committing three
turnovers in a championship game – turnovers that killed promising drives and
led directly to one touchdown – is courting disaster.
No crystal ball needed
Add to that a slew of procedural penalties from the
normally drilled and disciplined Dragons, and it doesn’t take a crystal ball or
a deck of Tarot cards to predict the outcome.
Even with all that, however, the Dragons had a last-gasp
chance to turn things around. And the second-guessing about how it all went
down began immediately – even before the championship trophy was handed over to
the celebrating Vipers – and is likely to continue for some time to come.
Here’s what happened.
Trailing 24-14 with half of the last quarter left, the
Dragons had launched their longest drive of the night and fought their way to
the Vandegrift 5-yard line. After failing to connect with receivers in
back-to-back endzone tosses, Dragon quarterback Angelo Renda faced a fourth
down call with 2½ minutes left.
Many of us – including more astute football minds than
mine – expected head coach Riley Dodge to order up a Gavin Strange field goal,
an almost sure shot at that range, then gamble that his desperate youngsters could
recover an onside kick and score a tying TD to send the game into overtime.
The odds of
such a risky strategy working weren’t great, but the Dragons had pulled it off
in the past. To many fidgeting Dragonheads, clinging to the edge of their seats
in Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, it seemed the most sensible course.
Slapped away
Instead, Dodge called yet another pass play. Renda dutifully
drilled the ball, which a Viper defender in the endzone contemptuously slapped
away.
Vandegrift took over, milked the clock to 40 seconds
before going 3-and-out, and then punted the ball to the Dragons at the Viper
47. Carroll moved to the 30, where Strange booted a 47-yard field goal with 1
second left.
Game over. And Vandegrift, who had made it to the
state finals twice but never won, finally took home the ultimate prize.
Dodge defended his decision in an interview with Dallas
Morning News sportswriter Ronald Harrod Jr.
“I felt we were in a situation where we needed a
touchdown,” Dodge told Harrod. “We were struggling to get down there to begin
with, and we felt like when we did get there, we needed to get 6 instead of 3.”
Met with skepticism
In the Jerry’s World suite where I was a guest of the
great Mike Golden, a scholar of high school football, that explanation was met
with skepticism. Mike was philosophical, as befits his character and general
outlook on life. Others opined that Dodge blew it, plain and simple.
The grumbling continued for a while, but faded rather
quickly among these football authorities as they all agreed that Dodge is a
remarkably gifted coach, son of another remarkably gifted coach, and that
Southlake is is extremely lucky to have a football guy of his caliber and
temperament in charge of the program.
In seven seasons, he has compiled a 93-9 record, taken
his team to at least the fourth-round of the playoffs every year, made two
trips to the state finals and, perhaps more importantly, rejuvenated the
football program and ignited flagging community support squandered by his predecessor.
Condemn him for a single call in a single game? For
heaven’s sake, don’t be silly.
Carroll got off to a decent start yesterday. After its
first drive went nowhere, the Dragons scored on their second, a 10-yard pass from
junior Angelo Renda to sophomore Brody Knowles (6-75) that ended a lengthy
drive and consumed much of the 1st quarter.
But Viper quarterback Miles Teodecki responded
quickly, lofting an 84-yard arc to receiver George Farley on the second play of
Vandegrift’s next drive. Viper running back Brendan Fournier soon added a
second TD with a 4-yard bolt in the second quarter.
On their next
possession, the Dragons were moving briskly downfield when Renda threw his
first interception. Vandegrift was unable to capitalize on that misstep,
however. When its drive fizzled out just inside the Dragon red zone, it muffed
a 35-yard field-goal attempt.
Fumbled away
But it got another chance after a subsequent Carroll
drive collapsed when junior receiver Brock Boyd, who had an otherwise
exceptional game, caught a Renda pass, then fumbled it away to an attentive
Viper.
Brody Knowles celebrates with teammates after a touchdown. Moments like this were rare in yesterday's game.
Four plays later, Fournier scrambled 9 yards for his
second TD. The Vipers ended the half with a 21-7 lead.
The Dragons opened the second half by holding
Vandegrift to a 3-and-out, then charged downfield, thanks to a 56-yard pass reception
by sophomore receiver Caden Mackey. From the 15, Renda zipped a pass to Boyd
(13 for 178) at the 5 and he drifted quickly across the line.
As momentum shifted Carroll’s way, the Dragon D, which
struggled to corral Teodecki and disrupt his receivers, stalled a Viper drive
inside the Dragon red zone. When Vandegrift failed to convert on a 4th-and-2,
the Dragons appeared poised to tie things up.
But three plays later, that effort evaporated when
Renda threw his second interception of the day. The Carroll D once again rose
to the occasion and kept Vandegrift from extending its lead.
In the decisive 4th quarter, Vandegrift
controlled the ball on a clock-eating drive that ended when Wiley Olsen booted
a 33-yard field goal that gave the Vipers a 10-point lead.
That’s when Carroll launched its last drive that
culminated in the decision as the clock drained away to go for a TD rather than
a field goal.
Dodge acknowledged in post-game interviews that the
Viper defense succeeded in largely shutting down the Dragon running game. Vandegrift
limited the Dragons to 53 total rushing yards, compared to its own 193.
Carroll senior Christian Glenn, who stepped in to
replace injured rushing stars Riley Wormley and Davis Penn, managed only 30 yards on 10 carries.
Renda kept the ball 7 times for only 23 yards.
Success in the air
In the air, Renda enjoyed more success, completing 27
of 39 attempts for 351 yards and 2 TDs, balanced against the pair of ruinous
INTs.
Teodecki completed more than 80 percent of his passes,
14 of 17, and compiled 248 yards and a score.
By contrast, the Dragon D was unable to shut down the
Viper running game. Fournier had an extraordinary day, rushing 29 times for 169
yards and 2 scores.
So in the end, the Carroll awards cabinet won’t have to be
reorganized to hold a ninth state championship trophy. That day will come, but
not this year.
It’s important to remember that by all rights, this
team should never have made it to the state finals, anyway.
After all, during
the course of the season, it lost the services of not one, but two world-class
running backs. Renda, a talented, illusive runner, battled a serious case of
turf toe and was rendered virtually immobile for most of the regular season.
And as is normal for a Carroll team, its defensive squad was inexperienced and
undersized.
No happy ending
I’m a sucker for happy endings. And bringing Southlake
its ninth state championship seemed like the perfect ending to a story about a
group of young men who battled adversity, overcame the odds and achieved sweet
victory.
In the final minutes, Angelo Renda tried three straight times to connect with a receiver in the endzone. All three attempts failed, sealing Carroll's fate.
But storybook endings befittingly occur in, well,
storybooks. Real life is a little grimmer, the road it travels rockier and trickier
to navigate.
Dodge knows that. And because he’s the kind of coach
he is, his thoughts after the game turned to his players and staff.
“It hurts no matter what,” Dodge told the DMN’s
Harrod. “But I’m just once again proud of our kids and our coaching staff. It
wasn’t a lack of effort” that cost the Dragons the game.
As for that ninth state championship?
“It’ll happen one day,” he said. “I’m excited to see
what the future holds.”
What the future holds could be pretty bright for the
Dragons. The season is over for this group, but it’s a young team and many of
its most promising members will return next season.
Renda is a junior. So’s the recovering Penn. Receivers
Boyd and Luc Jacquemard are juniors. Knowles, Mackey and Blake Gunter are
sophomores.
On defense, backs Parker Harris and William Chen are
juniors, as are linebackers Marcus Brouse and Robbie Ladd. All were standouts
this year.
Gavin Strange, kicker and defensive back, and Zac
Hayes, defensive lineman and punter, both are juniors. So is backup kicker
Clark Lemmermann.
On the offensive line, brothers Luke and Nick Wilson
are a sophomore and junior, respectively.
I’m certainly missing others who will make a big
contribution next season. Apologies for that. My point is that although great
players and competitors are moving upwards and onwards from the land of
Dragons, a talented, experienced core group remains.
Next year holds great potential. Like Dodge, I’m eager
to see what awaits our Dragons.
Meanwhile, enjoy the holidays and remember to laugh.
Laughter is a soothing balm that sustains us through the bad times and reminds
us, in the words of an old friend of mine, that “life is a funny old dog.”
Go, Dragons!
Head coach Riley Dodge congratulates Viper quarterback Miles Teodecki after yesterday's game. A teaching moment for his devastated team.