A defeat, not a beating: Southlake Carroll 38, DeSoto 45

 

Eagle Deondrae "Tiger" Riden ran like a man possessed and couldn't be stopped.

Everything a playoff semifinal should be

Even the most devoted of Dragonheads had to admit that the best team won yesterday’s semi-final playoff matchup between the DeSoto Eagles, defending Class 6A, Division II state champions, and the Southlake Carroll Dragons.

And it’s only right that the Eagles will meet Humble Summer Creek this Saturday in AT&T Stadium to attempt to be the first DFW 6A team to win back-to-back state titles since Allen did it in 2013-14.

Here’s the long and short of it: The Dragons played well, forcing the Eagles into a series of uncharacteristic mistakes and scoring regularly against its storied defense.

But the Eagles played better, overcoming those miscues with grit, determination and patience and stopping the Dragons when it really, really mattered.

For fans, it was everything a contest between two of the best high school teams should be – a hard-hitting, back-and-forth contest in which the lead changed five times and both teams combined for 1,158 yards of total offense.

Winning on the ground

But the battle was won yesterday on the ground, and that’s where DeSoto ruled the roost, outrushing Carroll 442 yards to 218.

DeSoto’s incredible junior running back, Deondrae “Tiger” Riden Jr., strode rampant across Allen stadium, rushing for an eye-popping 254 yards on 34 carries and 2 touchdowns. He averaged 7½ per carry, slicing through Dragon defenders with ease or brushing them effortlessly aside.

Riden, who missed games in regular season because of injury, has been making up for lost time in the playoffs. He ran yesterday like a man possessed. And perhaps he was: Possessed by such a fierce desire to win that nothing – and nobody – could stop him.

If he hadn’t been destroying Carroll’s hopes with every stride, it would have been a pleasure and privilege to watch Riden work. After the game, DeSoto head coach Claude Mathis spoke reverentially about his star.

“We unleashed him today,” Mathis told Dallas Morning News sportswriter Lia Assimakopoulos. “He asked me to. I had to. I had to take the strings off of him. He just took over.”

DJ Bailey led the DeSoto offense, keeping his cool and directing his comrades with confidence and precision. He completed 9 of 12 passes for 189 yards and 2 TDs, a 40-yard missile to his brother, Tristan, and a 50-yard toss to Antonio Pride Jr. That score gave the Eagles a 42-31 cushion they needed to smother a Dragon rally in the last period.

Rushing power

Bailey also was the Eagles’ second leading rusher, rolling to 81 yards on 8 carries. That was only a few yards ahead of Jaden Trawick, who rushed 8 times for 75 yards, including a 54-yard sprint that gave the Eagles their first lead near the end of the 1^st quarter.

While the Dragon D never was able to lasso the redoubtable Riden, it did force the Eagles into committing four turnovers – three fumbles and a Bailey pass intercepted by Eric Garza.

Tiger Riden, who ran for 254 yards and 2 TDs, asked his coach to let him run free. And he did.

Seniors Garza and Zack Engelhardt led Carroll’s defensive effort yesterday, spreading their disruptive influence all over the field. Trouble was, it just wasn’t enough to ground the soaring Eagles.

Carroll, trailing by only 4 points when Garza made his grab, was unable to capitalize on the gift and handed the ball back to the Eagles after a 3-and-out.

Four plays later, Bailey zipped his 50-yarder to Pride.

What hope the Dragons still harbored of overcoming an 11-point DeSoto lead vanished when Knowles threw an interception fielded by DeSoto at the Dragon 14. Two plays later, Riden rumbled across the goal line, but the score was erased by a holding call. Instead, the Eagles extended their lead to 14 by kicking a 25-yard field goal.

With 4 minutes left in the game, Carroll staged a 72-yard drive down the field to score its final TD, a 12-yard strike to Clayton Wayland (6-114), his second TD catch of the night. That narrowed DeSoto’s margin to 7 with 1:17 left on the clock.

Carroll’s only chance, a pitifully slim one at best, was to recover an onside kick and score quickly against DeSoto’s stubborn defense, its confidence bolstered by a dwindling clock and the whiff of Dragon desperation.

The gray fox saga

But Dragonheads couldn’t help but remember a memorable semifinal playoff game in 2011 against Dallas Skyline in which Carroll, trailing 24-21, recovered an onside kick with time running out and drove the field to win the game.

That drive featured a midfield encounter between Southlake quarterback Kenny Hill and a gray fox that had slipped into SMU’s Ford Stadium and trotted past Hill as he leaped over tacklers on his way to the goal line.

One week later, Carroll won its 8^th state championship, and the tale of the gray fox entered Dragon yore.

Of course, such magical comebacks occur only once in the life of a program, and Carroll’s doomed effort evaporated when the Eagles fell on the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Earlier in the game, another sequence of plays also sparked memories of past playoff matchups, this time a 2012 playoff encounter between the Eagles and the Dragons.

In that contest, also played at SMU, the Eagles ousted the Dragons – at that point defending state champions – from the playoffs by keeping Kenny Hill out of the end zone on three successful plays from the 1 as time expired.

Here’s how it played out yesterday.

In the 3^rd quarter, DeSoto had just recaptured the lead, 35-31, after the pass connection between the Bailey brothers. On the ensuing Carroll drive, Knowles marched his team inside the Eagle 5. From the 1, Knowles tried to sneak across the line on 4^th down but was blockaded – it was close, folks, so very, very close – and DeSoto took over the ball.

Ultimate outcome

If the Dragons had managed to score on that drive and retake the lead, who knows what the ultimate outcome might have been? Momentum shifts are funny things and can have a powerful impact on outcomes. Failing to punch the ball over from the 1 can be ego-deflating and spirit-sagging.

Riley Wormley gets smothered by the Eagle defense, but he still ran for 134 yards and a TD.

My hunch is that a Dragon touchdown then and there would have changed the entire script of yesterday’s game.

Unlike 2012, however, the game didn’t end with the Dragons’ goal-line failure, and they had another shot at salvaging their playoff journey.

Three plays after the Eagles took over at the 1, Bailey fumbled the ball and Garza recovered it at the 13. A holding call sent the Dragons back to the 23, from where Knowles hit Wayland at the 10, and Davis Penn took it to the 4.

The Dragons would get no further, however, and Eagle defender Aundre Wisner blocked kicker Kyle Lemmermann’s field goal. (Lemmermann completed three others – for 50 yards, a season record, 39 yards and 34 yards.)

Did the goal-line debacle and the blocked field goal – considered together – take the air out of Dragon sails at a time the team needed it the most? Seems plausible, doesn’t it?

After all, the Dragons traded punches blow by blow with the Eagles for three quarters. They trailed by only 21-20 at halftime.

Carroll runners, although they didn’t enjoy the carefree capering on display from Riden, had solid games. Junior Riley Wormley ran for 134 yards on 12 carries, including a thrilling 49-yard dash up the middle to give the Dragons a 7-0 lead.

Sophomore David Penn ran 91 yards on 9 carries. Early in the 3^rd quarter, he gave the Dragons their last lead of the game, 31-28, with a 75-yard rumble that perked up sagging Dragon fans.

Knowles played like a champion, completing 19 of 32 for 309 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT. Those are statistics any quarterback would love to own – unless, of course, your team has just been booted from the playoffs.

‘We have a chance’

Mathis, the DeSoto coach, explained to the DMN’s Assimakopoulos how important winning back-to-back championships is to his team.

“We’ve been talking about this all year,” Mathis said. “We have a chance. Until somebody knocks us off, we’re the defending champions. Now we’ve got a chance to win it back-to-back. They’ve been working so hard all year to get back to this point, and we’re back.”

I wish them good luck and God’s speed. Sincerely. DeSoto is a class act, and I’d like to see them win it all – again. Humble Summer Creek? Puh-leeze. Sounds like a summer youth camp.

Dragonheads – denied the distractions of the playoffs – can now concentrate on the joys of the season: Christmas shopping, holiday sweets and relaxing by the fire (glass of whiskey optional).

Still and all, a ninth state championship would have been nice, doncha think? Oh well, it wouldn’t have fit under the tree, anyway. Happy holidays and safe travels, everyone!

Go, Dragons!

The season is over for Brock Brady and Riley Wormley, but they're both back next year.

Sweet revenge: Southlake Carroll 56, Trophy Club Byron Nelson 7

Davis Penn roars through the Byron Nelson line on his way to 4 TDs.

A very different outcome

Whoever said revenge is a dish best served cold got it wrong. And that’s a fact, Jack.

Revenge is a dish to be enjoyed hot or cold: Cold – as the satisfying result of patience, meticulous planning, pinpoint timing and steady nerves. Or hot – as in the heat of battle, with everything riding on the outcome and no path open except straight ahead until morning.

Or a combination of the two, which was the direction taken by the Southlake Carroll Dragons last night in their fourth-round playoff destruction of the Bryon Nelson Bobcats.

On Oct. 27, the Bobcats, waving their undefeated record like a battle flag, breezed past Carroll 34-17, ending the Dragons’ 38-game district winning streak and their 35-game regular-season streak, and denying them a third straight District 4-6A title. It marked the first time Byron Nelson had ever defeated Southlake.

Like an undercooked Thanksgiving turkey, that butt-kicking didn’t go down well with the Dragons, who have been looking forward to – and preparing feverishly for – a shot at redemption ever since.

And last night, with the haughty Bobcats standing in Carroll’s way of making the state semi-finals for the third time in four years, the Dragons evened the score. And then some.

Not about revenge

Carroll head coach Riley Dodge said after the game it wasn’t about revenge – it was about staying in the hunt for a ninth state championship.

“It was about some way, somehow – whatever it looks like – getting back on the bus and getting back home with a victory,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Charles Baggarly and Darren Lauber.

But he acknowledged that avenging the Oct. 27 loss made last night’s win all the sweeter.

As did the way the Dragons avenged it.

A Carroll defense that has been gaining confidence and credibility all season long, reigned supreme in Arlington’s Choctaw Stadium.

It harassed hotshot Bobcat quarterback Tom Von Grote unmercifully, intercepting him three times and his backup once and limiting Bobcat runners to only 45 rushing yards all night.

And if that wasn’t humiliating enough, it held Byron Nelson scoreless until the last third of the 3^rd quarter, when Von Grote managed to slip into the end zone, thanks in large part to a 57-yard reception by leading receiver Landon Farco.

Among an outstanding defensive cast, defensive back Trey Ferri stood out. He intercepted two Von Grote passes and, along with his secondary brethren, completely disrupted, dismantled and discombobulated Byron Nelson’s passing attack.

Rushing machine

Meanwhile, Carroll’s O-line elbowed aside Bobcat defenders, clearing running lanes for the Dragons’ double-headed rushing machine.

Sophomore running back Davis Penn (20 carries for 113 yards) scored four TDs, and his junior running partner, Riley Wormsley (6 for 61) added another two.

Meanwhile, Dragon quarterback Graham Knowles kept the offense humming. He completed 13 of 16 passes for 224 yards, tossing a 28-yard TD missile to tight end Jack Van Dorselaer and a perfect 24-yard arch to leading receiver Clayton Wayland (7-123) in the corner of the end zone.

Tight end Jack Van Dorselaer heads for the end zone.

Carroll scored on six of its first seven possessions.  When Wayland’s TD catch put the Dragons ahead 21-0 early in the 2^nd quarter, the matter essentially had been decided.

The Bobcats entered the contest confident they would take up where the October game left off – by dispersing the Carroll D and smothering the offense. The opening kickoff only seemed to confirm it.

Fielding the ball at his own 5, Bobcat receiver Jonathan Kabeya sprinted 58 yards to the Dragon 37. Instead of reeling in shock, Carroll abruptly stuffed the drive, then sacked Von Grote (9-19, 130 yards)on 4^th down to take possession.

Not this time

It was Carroll’s way of signaling to the Bobcats, “Not this time, fellas. Not. This. Time.”

From the 33, Wormsley promptly reeled off a 42-yard run to the BN 24, and Wayland caught two short passes to push the Dragons to the 1. From there, Wormsley darted across the line and opened the scoring floodgates.

After another 3-and-out, Knowles engineered a 69-yard scoring drive that ended with Van Dorselaer’s TD reception.

At that point, at the beginning of its third possession, the mighty BN offense that had played bully boy to opponents all season, had compiled exactly 4 yards.

Things were not to get much better. On the third play of the drive, Trey Ferri picked up his first of two interceptions, setting up the Dragons on the BN 39. While the Dragons were unable to capitalize on the misstep, the Bobcats never regained their footing.

That’s because Von Grote’s receivers were draped in Dragon defensive backs, and the D-line held leading Bobcat rusher Tucker James to only 35 yards on 13 carries.

Meanwhile, the Dragon offense scored four times in the decisive second period.

Knowles completed a 24-yard pass to Wayland, and Penn zipped 1-yard untouched into the end zone. Then Wormsley smashed through end zone defenders from the 6, getting shaken up sufficiently to sit out the rest of the game, and Penn finished his first-half hat trip with a 5-yard run to pay dirt.

The Dragon strolled into halftime with a 42-0 lead.

Demonstrated dominance

 As the half drew to a close, a sequence of plays demonstrated both Dragon dominance and Bobcat disintegration.

With Carroll leading 28-0, BN managed to put together a drive that took it near the Dragon red zone. Trey Ferri then snatched his second interception of the night and ran the ball back into Bobcat territory. Three plays later, Wormsley ran it in from the 6.

On the second play after the ensuing kickoff, Von Grote tried to complete a pass downfield, but defensive back Carter High grabbed it instead. It took the Dragons only five plays before Penn found the end zone from the 5.

Riley Wormsley fights for yardage.

Perhaps the wildest play of the night came in the 3^rd period. After BN had scored its only TD of the night, the Bobcats tried an unsuccessful onside kick, which the Dragons recovered near midfield. Three plays later, Knowles connected with sophomore Brock Boyd as he sped toward the end zone. But the usually surehanded Boyd lost control of the ball at the 30. And Penn, running just behind him, scooped up the ball in midstride and crossed the goal line, leaving the impression that was the plan all along.

Byron Nelson head coach Travis Pride was refreshingly candid about his team’s performance.

“I think we made some early mistakes,” Pride told the Star-T. “I don’t think we played very physical. I think that sometimes the big game can get you. The kids have come a long way, and our program has come a long way, but it was a big game for them tonight, and I think we played like it was too big.”

Dragonheads were as surprised as anyone at the total deconstruction of the Bobcats at the hands of the Southlake stalwarts.

Most of us expected a knock-down-drag-out street brawl, with the outcome teetering back and forth all night. And some of us – including me, guilty as charged – feared that perhaps, just perhaps, this was Bryon Nelson’s year. That the football gods had already decreed the outcome, leaving us in the grip of a force over which we had no control.

 Karma alert

And it turns out, such fears can probably be blamed on indigestion brought on by holiday over-indulgence. But one thing’s for sure. Karma rules the universe, and it’s bad karma to crow too loudly about Byron Nelson’s disgrace.

After all, the next Carroll opponents are the redoubtable DeSoto Eagles, reigning Class 6A, Division II state champions. They are always formidable – well-coached, well-prepared and athletically talented.

 The current incarnation of the Eagles are dead-eyed, cold-blooded assassins, and the Dragons will need every bit of discipline, dedication and grit to get past them.

But they’re not invincible. The Dragons have whipped the Eagles in the past, and they can do so again. Particularly if they play the kind of game they did against Bryon Nelson.

For the time being, though, let’s just enjoy a heaping dish of revenge, courtesy of the Bobcats. Served hot or cold. Diner’s choice.

Go, Dragons!

Quarterback Graham Knowles prepares to hand the ball to Davis Penn.

 

Crushing the Scots: Southlake Carroll 45, Highland Park 14

 

David Penn takes the handoff from Graham Knowles on his way to a 3-TD night.

Unimpressed by hype or history

The proud Highland Park Scots, who boast for all to hear that they’re the winningest high school football program in Texas, demonstrated in dramatic fashion last night that pride cometh before the fall.

The Scots got unceremoniously booted out of the 2023 Class 6A, Division II playoffs last night by a Southlake Carroll offense firing on all cylinders and by a stingy defense unimpressed by Highland Park hype or history.

The Dragons dismantled an overwhelmed, outgunned and outcoached Highland Park squad that had no answer for the unstoppable rushing tandem of sophomore Davis Penn, who rushed 210 yards for 3 TDs, and junior Riley Wormsley, who ran 125 yards for 1.

The Dallas Morning News said it was the worst playoff defeat Highland Park has suffered in the last 20 years. The DMN game story pointed out that the regional-round matchup pitted HP, with a state record of 886 all-time wins, against Carroll, whose 78 percent all-time winning percentage is the second-highest in state history.

By demolishing Highland Park, Carroll moves on to the state quarterfinals for the eighth consecutive year. It will face the winner of today’s clash between Byron Nelson and Coppell.

Bobcat rematch?

My money’s on Byron Nelson in that little dustup, which would set up a fourth-round rematch between the Dragons and the Bobcats, the villains who delivered the only blemish on Carroll’s season record and who denied our heroes the District 4-6A title.

Carroll players still are smarting from the knowledge they were caught napping by the Bobcats, who outplayed them in every phase of the game when the teams met last Oct. 27. The Dragons are itching for another shot.

If they get it, Byron Nelson had best come ready to rumble.

“We don’t look ahead, obviously, for a game, and we’ll take whatever we get, but obviously we would love the opportunity to go back and right our wrongs against Nelson,” Carroll quarterback Graham Knowles told Fort Worth Star-Telegram sportswriter Darren Lauber. “Ever since that moment (when we lost), we’ve had a bit of a chip on our shoulder, and we’ve regrouped and reloaded.”

But let’s don’t get ahead of ourselves. Best to savor a bit the whupping the young Dragons administered to the Highland Park swells.

A lot of pre-game commentary was devoted to extoling the coaching brilliance and football expertise of Scots head coach, Randy Allen, who looked like a mafioso as he stalked the sidelines in coat and tie with a black fedora pulled low over his eyes.

Allen has the second highest winning percentage in Texas high school football history. Bully for him.

The commentator for the NFHS Network live-streaming of the game, condescension dripping from his lips, noted smugly that Allen had been coaching for a decade when Southlake Carroll head coach Riley Dodge was born.

It should be pointed out that the NFHS commentators were unabashed Highland Park homers, and the implication of the pre-game comparison couldn’t be clearer – or more insulting: The student inevitably must bow to the master.

The Dragons quickly called BS on that and weren’t bashful about doing so.

Set up shop

The Scots are widely expected to drop down into Class 5A after next year’s realignment. HP has fared well in the state’s largest classification, but after last night’s drubbing, the return to 5A probably can’t come soon enough.

The beatdown started early. After the Carroll D held the Scots to a 3-and-out on the opening kickoff, Knowles (9 of 16 for 132 and 1 TD) and company set up shop on the HP 42. Three plays later, Knowles zipped a 32-yard pass to tight end Jack Van Dorselaer, who loped easily into the end zone.

When Dragon defenders blunted the second Scots drive, Sam Fuller blocked the ensuing punt and Carroll recovered the ball at the HP 3. Penn immediately bullied his way to the end zone, and the Dragons widened a lead they would never surrender.

The next HP drive ended with an unsuccessful 34-yard field goal attempt, and the Dragons, thanks to a 24-yard catch and a 26-yard run by Wormsley, moved rapidly to the HP 26. Knowles then zeroed a pinpoint pass to sophomore Brock Boyd on the right side of the end zone.

Once again, Carroll’s defense smothered Highland Park quarterback Parker Thompson’s efforts to counter the rampaging Dragons. But the next Dragon drive ended in ignominy when Knowles’ pass was intercepted in the end zone and returned to the 18.

It was Knowles’ only misstep of the night, and his defense prevented the Scots from benefitting from it. But the next Carroll drive also stalled, and it, too, was forced to punt.

That launched a dazzling sequence of events that ended the first half with a flourish – and sealed the Scots’ doom.

Signs of life

After fielding Carroll’s punt at its 42, Highland Park’s offense finally showed signs of life, and Thompson moved the Scots to the Dragon 15. But disaster struck when the Scots coughed up the ball, and Dragon defensive star Dustan Mark fell on it at the 10.

On the next play, Penn zipped through the HP line and outran the Scots secondary 90 yards to the goal line with a minute and a half on the clock.

On the fourth play of the next HP drive, Thompson connected with Canon Spackman for a 30-yard TD pass. That put the Scots on the scoreboard and offered the promise, with only 44 seconds left, that HP might carry some much-needed momentum into halftime.

But Wormley, who fielded the ensuing kickoff at the Dragon 39, had other ideas. On the very next play, he grabbed the ball and surged untouched 61 yards to the goal line, giving the Dragons an unassailable 35-7 lead with 27 ticks on the clock.

 

Riley Wormsley has made a big difference in the Dragon running game.

Three of Carroll’s five TDs in the first half came on one-play drives: Penn’s 3-yarder after a blocked punt, his 90-yard sprint after a fumble recovery, and Wormsley’s 61-yard gallop to end the half.

One-two punch

Thus the Dragons displayed the true explosiveness of their offense, particularly the one-two punch that Penn and Wormsley deliver. Both ended the night with triple-digit rushing yards.

“I ran with a lot of confidence behind our game plan and good things happened,” Penn told the Star-T’s Lauber. “We we’re firing on all cylinders. We have great team chemistry and everything just matched up perfectly.”

A potent, double-barrelled run game? Are you sure we’re talking about pass-happy Southlake Carroll here?

Head coach Riley Dodge knows a good thing when he sees it.

“It’s a blessing for us,” he told Dallas Morning News sportswriter Greg Riddle after the game. “We feel like we’ve got two starting running backs. It’s been able to keep them fresh. It’s something we haven’t had. They feed off each other, and they are both very unselfish and great teammates.”

  Penn added a third TD early in the 3^rd quarter, and kicker supreme Kyle Lemmermann booted a 43-yard field goal to finish Dragon scoring. Backup HP quarterback Cade Trotter, facing mostly Carroll backups, completed a 20-yard pass to Benton Owens in the 4^th quarter to give the Scots some final pride points.

The success of the running game is particularly satisfying to Dragonheads. We wondered how the Dragons would fare in the post-Owen Allen era. Allen, who graduated last year, ran for more than 6,300 yards and scored 98 TDs in his four years on varsity.

  We need not have worried. Penn started the season in overdrive and hasn’t slowed down since. However, the addition of Wormsley, who joined the lineup in midseason after settling some UIL eligibility problems, has propelled the offense into a new dimension.

Virtually unstoppable

Here’s how Riddle put it in his DMN game story:

“The Carroll offense has been virtually unstoppable since Wormley made his season debut Oct. 5. He has run for 706 yards and 16 touchdowns in eight games. And with him in the lineup, Carroll has averaged 55 points and has scored more than 60 four times.”

“We work off each other’s energy,” Penn told Riddle. “We really boost each other.”

I expected last night’s contest to be more of a shootout. And even when Carroll jumped to an early lead, I kept my guard up, mentally willing the Dragons to keep the pressure on. After all, the Scots, trailing McKinney last week 21-6 in the 3^rd period, had staged a nifty comeback.

I figured Thompson, who played backup quarterback last year for the Dragons before transferring back to his hometown of Highland Park, was capable to doing it again.

An adequate passer, Thompson is an elusive, sure-footed runner who has guided the Scots for the past four games after stepping in for the injured Warren Peck.

Shame on me for not giving the Dragon defense enough credit. Led by Dusan Mark, it sacked Thompson three times and limited him to 24 rushing yards on 14 carries, counting sack losses.

Dragon linebacker Eric Garza was a frequent presence in the HP backfield, harassing the quarterback and making a general nuisance of himself. Thompson (14-32, 189) had scant time to find receivers and when he did, they were draped with Dragon defenders.

Chance to regroup

The Carroll D never gave the Scots a chance to regroup, to develop a rhythm, to build any sort of momentum. Thompson and company were scrambling from beginning to end.

Even when the Scots managed to get a drive underway, the opportunistic Dragons proceeded to ruin the party. A big chunk of HP’s 125 total rushing yards came on a 67-yard run by Wilson Axley in the 3^rd quarter.

Zack Engelhardt pursued Axley downfield, and just before the Scots runner crossed the goal line, Engelhardt punched the ball out of his arms. Austin Davidge ended the threat by falling on the ball in the end zone for a touchback.

So, it’s pick your poison time for the Dragons. The fourth round is where the playoff road gets more treacherous, and nothing comes easy.

Will it be the undefeated Byron Nelson Bobcats, a nemesis of recent vintage, or the unbeaten Coppell Cowboys, an old and bitter foe? No matter. It’ll be a dandy matchup either way.

Go, Dragons!

The Dragons spent a lot of time in the Highland Park end zone last night.

A gunslinger’s end: Southlake Carroll 49, Wolfforth Frenship 14

 

It's the second year in a row that the Dragons have dispatched the Frenship Tigers in the second round.

A hard bunch to impress

Wolfforth Frenship quarterback Hudson Hutcheson strode into Wildcat Stadium in Abilene last night with a well-earned reputation as a cold-eyed gunslinger who could darken the skies with his pinpoint passes while effortlessly avoiding the grasp of opposing defenders.

Only last week, he had propelled the 9-2 Frenship Tigers into the second round of the playoffs by throwing nine – count ’em, nine – TD passes in an 87-58 victory over El Paso Eastwood.

Is it any wonder a performance like that can go to a guy’s head?

But the Southlake Carroll Dragons are a hard bunch to impress, particularly when they are playing with the laser focus fostered by the win-or-go-home atmosphere of the Class 6A, Division II playoffs.

Beaten and battered

 As a result, Hutcheson left Abilene beaten and battered after being harassed, sacked and intercepted by a supercharged Southlake Carroll defense playing its very best game of the year.

The Dragons, on the other hand, proceed to the regional round. They’ll face the winners of the Highland Park-McKinney contest held tonight at SMU’s Ford Field. Carroll’s third-round game probably will be held Friday afternoon at Choctaw Stadium, better known as the old Texas Rangers stadium in Arlington.

If Carroll survives that matchup, it is very likely to have a fourth-round rematch with the Byron Nelson Bobcats, who spoiled the Dragons’ perfect season last month and denied them the District 4-6A championship.

Byron Nelson has a long trek west today to face Midland, a game the Bobcats are likely to win easily. (I’m superstitious and believe that by predicting such an outcome, I might just jinx Nelson. One does what one can.)

Mighty sweet

Defeating the Bobcats at any time would be nice, but lordy, how sweet would it be to kick the rascals out of the playoffs. Let me answer that: Mighty sweet.

One game at time, however.

Let’s first dispense with last night’s massacre. As good as the Dragon D was – and it was very, very good, indeed – Carroll’s offense also muscled its way into the spotlight.

Junior running back Riley Wormsley ran for four touchdowns, and his rushing mate, sophomore Davis Penn, scurried for three more to lead the Dragons to a take-no-prisoners victory over their West Texas opponents.

None of the Dragons’ seven TDs came through the air, but quarterback Graham Knowles’ almost perfect execution set the stage for the success of Wormsley and Penn. He completed an astounding 20 of 21 passes for 218 yards. Calm, cool and collected in the pocket, he hit who he aimed for.

His favorite receivers were Clayton Wayland, who caught 8 passes for 115 yards, and sophomore Brock Boyd (5-50).

But without a doubt, the Dragon ground game was the straw that stirred the Carroll cocktail against Frenship. It scored on Carroll’s first six possession of the first half

Wormsley, who gets better with every game he plays, was spectacular. He scored TDs on his first three carries of the night, on runs of 12, 50 and 37 yards. He ended the night with six carries for 153 yards.

Wormsley’s 50-yard scoring run basically sealed the Dragon victory. Already leading 14-0 as the first quarter drew to a close, Carroll had forced a 4^th-down turnover and moved the ball to midfield.

Streaking untouched

From there, Wormsley took Knowles’ handoff and broke right, breezing past Tiger defenders on either side. As he entered the red zone, he cut in the afterburners and streaked untouched into the end zone.

His third touchdown was equally thrilling. After a Hutcheson sack on 3^rd-and-long forced Frenship to punt, the Dragons moved to the Tiger 37. Cradling the rock, Wormsley veered right again, then cut left to avoid a Tiger defender, juked again to evade another and cruised into the end zone. This kid makes it all look easy.

Penn (7-51), while less flashy, was no less effective. He scored on a 23-yard run and twice muscled the ball over from the 1.

This avalanche of scoring came behind the rampant Dragon O-line, which was simply magnificent. Carroll’s Big Guys blew the Tiger D off the line on every play and then tore huge chunks in the Frenship line for Carroll RBs to saunter through.

The Dragon defense played lights out against the Tigers by blunting their potent aerial attack.

For instance, consider Carroll’s last score of the game. On its first possession of the second half, leading 42-7, Carroll had marched 63 yards to the Tiger 7. Most of that yardage came when Wormsley cruised 45 yards around the left side, literally tiptoeing along the sideline for the last 25 yards as Frenship defenders stood agape.

One play later, he crashed through a large gap made by D-lineman John McLaughlin to score. McLaughlin and his beefy colleagues had been doing similar damage all night.

Knowles was quick to give credit where credit was due.

“The defining takeaway from this game is, man, we’ve got to love up our O-linemen because they went to work,” Knowles told Fort Worth Star-Telegram sportswriter Darren Lauber after the game. “I’ll go left to right, Ben Karlsson, Trent Wilson, Steve Cunningham, Johnathan McLaughlin and Harrison Moore. Those guys are some bad dudes, and they showed everyone what they were about today and made it really easy for our running backs.”

Wormsley chimed in.

“It was great,” he told Lauber. “We came out strong, and we came out fast. I really felt like the O-line was on point from the beginning. They gave me the opportunity to get the four touchdowns, and it felt great.”

Working in harmony

Defensively, the Dragons worked in harmony. The D-line, led by Dustan Mark, harassed Hutcheson mercilessly, sacking him a half-dozen times and knocking him about like tenpins in a bowling alley. Meanwhile, the secondary blanketed his receivers, increasing Hutcheson’s time in the pocket and giving Carroll linemen and linebackers time to reach him.  

From the 2^nd quarter on, Hutcheson was limping badly and in obvious pain.

To my eyes, he probably should have been ordered to the bench earlier. But I get it. He’s a senior and it’s the playoffs. Of course, he wanted to stick it out, and he did – until almost the bitter end, when he had to be helped off the field after yet another sack.

Despite his aches and pains, Hutcheson completed 26 of 47 passes for 280 yards, a remarkable feat considering the immense pressure he was under. He even managed to put the Tigers on the scoreboard in the 2^nd quarter, tossing a 17-yard pass to Leyton Stone (4-49).

Chase Campbell was his favorite target, catching 16 Hutcheson passes for 184 yards, an incredible performance by both young men under such dire circumstances.

The only other Frenship score came midway through the 4^th, when Jaden Tackett dashed 5 yards to the end zone long after Dragon starters had retired to their rest.

Penalties and miscues – proof of the Carroll defense’s disruptive influence –contributed to the Tigers’ agony.

At one point, Carroll pressure forced turnovers on successive Frenship drives. In the first, linebacker Bridger Pense intercepted a Hutcheson pass, his second in as many games. He almost snatched another on the next Tiger drive, which ended when Dragon linebacker Eric Garza pounced on a Frenship fumble.

Being competitive

The runaway Dragon victory is yet another example of the difficulty that West Texas teams have in being competitive when they meet Dallas-Fort Worth area squads.

Once upon a time, and in my lifetime, too, West Texas programs dominated the state. I’ve written often about the years when Odessa Permian, Abilene, San Angelo and Midland towered over the high school football landscape.

No longer. An article posted on The Dallas Morning News website on the day of the Southlake-Wolfforth game pointed out that no West Texas team has won a state championship since Abilene beat Katy in 2009.

The newspaper reported that from 2021-2022, DFW teams went 17-3 against West Texas programs in the Class 5A and 6A playoffs, with the victors winning by an average of more than 21 points.

That’s a persuasive piece of data.

The DMN credited the change in fortunes in part to population shifts in the state. While population drops in the arid west, folks are flocking to urban areas like DFW. More people, more kids, more athletic talent to draw from.

That reasoning makes some sense, I guess. But I suspect that money and resources also play a role. Don’t you?

Carroll players will tell you that success comes from preparation, dedication and discipline. All of that will be on display next week while many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving. Coach Riley Dodge and his staff will have the Dragons on the practice field on Thursday.

It's a playoff tradition.

Last night, Riley Wormsley, still humming from a 4-TD adrenalin rush, was thinking ahead.

“We have a lot of great players, a lot of athletes, and a lot of guys that can make plays,” he told the Star-T's Lauber. “I’m really excited to see how far we can take it this season.”

Ditto.

Go, Dragons!

The Dragons still will be playing after Thanksgiving. Another team goal achieved.

Coasting into the playoffs: Southlake Carroll 70, Saginaw Boswell 0

The Saginaw Boswell Tigers didn't put up much of a fight in the first round.

Befuddled and bedraggled

SOUTHLAKE – If you’re looking for an example of complete football domination, last night’s 6A Division II playoff contest between the rampaging Southlake Carroll Dragons and the befuddled and bedraggled Saginaw Boswell Pioneers will serve the purpose nicely.

The Dragons scored every time they touched the ball, smashing at will through the Boswell defense on the ground and in the air.

In the decisive 2^nd quarter, the Dragons, already leading 21-0, went on a 35-point scoring spree that crushed the spirit and broke the will of the Pioneers, sending them limping into halftime trailing 56-0.

They didn’t fare much better at the hands of Carroll’s backup players in the second half.

While the Dragon offense made mincemeat of the Pioneers, the Dragon D staged its second straight shutout.

It strangled the Boswell offense, limiting Pioneer quarterback Tye Renfro to 95 yards passing while snatching three of his passes. It also banished Boswell’s leading rusher, Colin Dixon, from the end zone. Dixon labored mightily all night, managing to gain 117 well-earned rushing yards to no useful result. Truth be told, most of his yardage came after Carroll had retired its starting defenders.

The Pioneers were hampered by costly mistakes generated by the chaos created by the Carroll D. One promising late Boswell drive ended when a Renfro pass was intercepted by Ethan Fisher in the end zone. A last-gasp Pioneer effort to get on the scoreboard failed when Boswell coughed up the ball near midfield and Dragon linebacker Hogan Bryan fell on it.

Low-key appraisal

As usual, head coach Riley Dodge was low key in his appraisal of the slaughter.

“We had a great week of practice,” Dodge told Fort Worth Star-Telegram sportswriter Mike Waters. “We came out early and attacked offensively. Our defense did a lot of great things. Just a good win for us.”

Quarterback Graham Knowles was poised and efficient behind center. He completed 9 of 15 passes for 329 yards and 3 touchdowns.

He also opened scoring for the Dragons with an 8-yard run that he had set up on the previous play by a 40-yard pass to junior RB Riley Wormsley.

Knowles, a Georgia Tech commit, immediately followed that success with TD passes to Clayton Wayland, the night’s leading receiver (5 for 135, 2 TDs), who snagged throws of 37 and 38 yards on back-to-back drives.

Wayland, in a post-game interview with the Star-T’s Waters, credited the win to “preparation and sacrifice.”

 “We talk about that all the time in practice,” Wayland told Waters. “That is what this program is all about.”

The Dragons were relentless against Boswell, overwhelming its defense and smothering its offense.
Less than a minute into the 2^nd half, sophomore WR Brock Boyd, drifting down the left sideline, made a spectacular one-handed catch before sailing out of bounds at the Boswell 20. From there, sophomore RB Davis Penn (5-58, 1 TD) ducked his head and plunged through the middle of the Pioneer front line, slicing easily through sluggish defenders and crossing the goal line untouched.

Boyd said “a great week of preparation” resulted in the runaway victory.

A great win

“Our execution was excellent,” he told the Star-T. “We have a lot of talented receivers. The offensive line did its job. Just a great win for us.”

The Dragons’ merciless 2^nd-quarter spree hit high gear when Carroll defenders intercepted Renfro on two consecutive drives, turning both into Carroll touchdowns.

Senior linebacker Eric Garza grabbed the first and sped 25 yards to the end zone. Three plays into the next Pioneer drive, senior linebacker Bridger Jense snared the other and returned it 22 yards to the Pioneer 11.

Wormsley bullied his way first to the 1-yard line and then across the goal. With more than 8 minutes left in the half, the Dragons led 42-0.

After a Pioneer punt, the Dragons set up shop on their 41. Four plays later, Knowles zipped a 45-yard dart to Boyd (3-64, 1 TD) in the end zone.

The Dragon D smothered the next Pioneer drive, and the Dragons, behind the dogged running of Wormsley, marched quickly to the Boswell 32. From there, Wormsley (8-79, 2 TDs) barreled through the Pioneer line and breezed into the end zone, ending a catastrophic first half for the pitiable Pioneers.

Halftime signaled the end of the night for Carroll starters, who turned things over to the action squad to finish off the dazed and confused Pioneers.

By evening’s end, virtually everybody got into the act.

Sophomore Angelo Renda took over from Knowles to run out the clock before halftime. The elusive, hard-charging Renda was the Dragons’ leading rusher, carrying the ball 5 times for 102 yards and making Carroll’s penultimate touchdown on a 5-yard jaunt in the 4^th.

First varsity TD

Third-string signal caller Carter Lind also saw playing time. He and senior Jake Erwin (9-53) put together the Dragons’ last drive of the night. But it was Jacob Montes who got the ball at the 31 and rumbled into the end zone for his first varsity touchdown. And in the playoffs, too!

Disaster scenes like the one on display last night in Dragon Stadium are not uncommon in the first round of the playoffs, where often the best teams deliberately are paired with much weaker ones.

It’s an inevitable result of the UIL’s policy of sending each district’s top four teams to the playoffs. That increases participation and broadens interest in the postseason, but it doesn’t do much for the quality of play in the first round.

Most teams – including the Dragons – don’t mind the easy pickings at the outset of a brutal playoff road. It gives them a chance to rest starters, polish plays and get their players mentally ready for the win-or-go-home ethos of the playoffs.

Sad to say, however, the fourth-best team in almost any district you can name – with few exceptions – probably don’t deserve a playoff spot.

In games like last night’s debacle, it’s the young men on the field who pay the price. I felt a pang of sympathy for the Boswell kids, who had to endure an embarrassing butt-kicking in front of family and friends.

Next team up

Next up for the Dragons are the Wolfforth Frenship Tigers. The area-round contest will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Abilene Christian University.

Wolfforth, located southwest of Lubbock in the Texas Panhandle – in other words in the big middle of nowhere – won a shootout last night against El Paso Eastwood, 87-58.

The Tigers and Dragons also met in the second round last year, when Frenship fell to Carroll 69-14 in a not very competitive game.

Eastwood, you’ll recall, opened the Dragon season back in August, losing to the Dragons 70-21. If it can score 58 points on Frenship, what might Knowles and company manage?

On the other hand, Tiger quarterback Hudson Hutcheson threw nine TD passes and gained more than 500 passing yards in the effort against Eastwood.

Reckon he can repeat the effort against the Dragon secondary? I doubt it.

Remember, Frenship also came into the 2022 game against Carroll boasting impressive offensive stats. But the Dragons quickly tamed Hutcheson and his two hotshot running backs, and Frenship learned that success on the dusty plains of West Texas doesn’t mean much when those teams travel to the DF-Dub.

Still, it’s dangerous to under-estimate your opponents in the playoffs. From this point on, there are few easy patsies left in the field.

Go Dragons!

Next up: Another second-round matchup with the Wolfforth Frenship Tigers.

A thorough thrashing: Southlake Carroll 63, Keller Fossil Ridge 0

 

The blonds are coming, and they'll be dressed in black (pants). It's playoff time!

Understanding its fate

SOUTHLAKE – Pity the poor Keller Fossil Ridge Panthers.

At the end of a joyless season, the 3-7 Panthers trudged into Dragon Stadium last night for the inescapable beating at the hands of a Southlake Carroll squad lusting for redemption and reaffirmation after a dismal showing last week against the soaring Eagles of Trophy Club Byron Nelson.

Fossil Ridge, understanding its fate and bowing to the inevitability of a thorough thrashing, hardly put up a fight. Not that it had many weapons with which to counter the vengeful Dragons, who shredded its defense and dismantled its offense.

Staggering downfield

The Panthers’ only visit to the endzone came with only seconds left on the game clock, when Ridge staggered downfield long after Carroll had emptied its benches to give its backups some playing time on the last regular game of the season.

That spiritless drive ended when a Panther running back finally crossed the goal line after a 30-yard run, prompting a ragged cheer from the hardy handful of Ridge fans still huddled in Dragon Stadium’s visitors section.

But the joy – if you can call it that – was short-lived when a holding penalty negated the lonely score, thus ending the slaughter, not with a bang but with a whimper.

The Dragons’ runaway victory will do little to erase the memory of last week’s defeat at the hands of Bryon Nelson, a 34-17 defeat that cost the Dragons a three-peat as District 4-6A champions and first seed in the playoffs.

Assuage the hurt

Only a successful rematch with the Eagles later in the post season – which is possible depending on factors too complicated for mere mortals to understand or explain – can assuage the hurt. That or a deep playoff run that ends with Carroll’s ninth state championship.

That, too, is possible, if not probable at this juncture in the road. It’s useful to remember – but also, perhaps irrelevant – that in the past only undefeated Dragon squads have garnered the championship trophy.

As widely expected, the Dragons will compete in Division II of Class 6A, the so-called “small-school” division. Their first-round, or bi-district, playoff opponents will be the Fort Worth Boswell Pioneers of District 3-6A next Friday at Dragon Stadium.

Boswell is 7-3 for the season and only 4-3 in district play. The Pioneers should be easy pickings for Carroll’s talented 2023 bunch. But as I say with boring regularity, these are the playoffs, where anything can and probably will happen.

For what it’s worth, Carroll played well against an overmatched and bedraggled Ridge team. The beatdown began early when Carroll linebacker Eric Garza stepped in front of Ridge quarterback Logan Cundiff’s pass and carried it to the Panther 20. From there, junior running back Riley Wormsley carried it in for the Dragons’ first score.

Extending the lead

On Carroll’s next possession, Wormsley scooted 41 yards to extend the Dragon lead to 14-0. The junior would add a third score early in the 2^nd quarter, muscling his way across into the endzone after a 15-yard sprint.

Wormsley, a Colleyville transfer, missed the first five games of the season because of eligibility problems. But he is demonstrating since getting the UIL seal of approval what a difference-maker he can be.

Head coach Riley Dodge acknowledged Wormsley’s value in a post-game interview with Fort Worth Star-Telegram sportswriter Charles Baggarly.

The Dragons will face Fort Worth Boswell in the first round of the playoffs.

“He’s gotten better and better each week, and it was good to see he was he was seeing it and feeling it tonight,” Dodge told Baggarly. “And it was good to get him going as we enter the playoffs.”

Thanks to Wormsley and his running mate, sturdy and elusive sophomore Davis Penn, the Dragon running game regained momentum last night after being largely stuffed by Byron Nelson’s swarming, swift-footed defense.

Beleaguered D

In addition to Wormsley’s hat trick, Penn would add two more scores against the beleaguered Panther D. His first was a 1-yard plunge, which he set up by surging 41 yards up the middle in the early seconds of the 2^nd quarter. Then he closed the 1^st half with a 9-yard scoring sprint.

With Carroll carrying a 42-0 lead at halftime, Penn and Wormsley, along with most of Carroll’s starters, sat out the second half.

The Dragon D took care of business. They harassed Cundiff all night, assaults that prompted 3 interceptions. Cornerback Sam Fuller was a defensive standout, accounting for two Ridge interceptions, one of which was negated by penalty.

Fuller also was involved in what, to my mind, was the best play of the game and, perhaps, of the entire season. It illustrates, better than anything could, why I love high school football. More than that, it reveals the character of the young men I write about every week.

Halfway through the 2^nd quarter, Ridge faced a 4^th-and-13 at its own 43 and chose to punt. But Garza, the Dragons’ senior linebacker, slipped in quickly and slapped the ball away. Fuller then snatched it up and headed for the endzone.

As he approached the goal line, Fuller turned and pitched the ball to Garza so that his teammate, who had blocked the kick, could cross the line and get credit for the score.

'Really good kids'

It all happened so fast that most Dragonheads – including yours truly – missed it. Even Dodge had to ask for clarification.

“That was wild,” Dodge explained to Baggerly of the Star-T.  “I didn’t see it until the very last second, and I was asking the guys on the headset, ‘Did he pitch the ball back?’ ... We have some really good kids and some really nice kids. And Sam thought since Eric blocked it, he should score the touchdown.”

Can you imagine such a selfless act – in the heat of the moment, as the adrenaline is pumping and the heart pounding? That, my friends, is the very definition of sportsmanship and comradeship and brotherhood.

All three Dragon quarterbacks saw playing time against the Panthers. Graham Knowles, who was intercepted once, led six successful drives during his half at the helm.

Junior Angelo Renda replaced him after halftime and demonstrated why he’s the odds-on favorite to take over as Carroll QB when Knowles graduates. On his first drive in charge, he threw a 20-yard scoring strike to receiver Brock Boyd, the night’s leading receiver with 8 catches for 65 yards. On his second possession, Renda ran untouched 21 yards around the right end to score the Dragons’ eighth TD.

Senior Carter Lind took over for the final quarter, guiding the Dragons on a methodical 47-yard drive before handing off to Jake Fullmer, who rumbled 3 yards to end scoring for the night.

In the Baggarly interview, Dodge revealed some good news for Dragonheads. He said senior wide receiver Jacob Jordan, sidelined with a foot injury two games ago, is “week to week” and that the Dragons hope to have the Oklahoma commit back in pads by the second or third round of the playoffs.

Explosive weapon

“He’s our most explosive weapon, and we can do a lot of different things with him,” Dodge told the Star-T.

The playoffs finally are here, thank heavens, and the really interesting part of the season is upon us. We’ll find out soon enough just how good this current crop of Dragons is. I know one thing: I like ’em and wish them great success.

I’ll let Dodge, as quoted by Baggarly in his excellent game story, have the last word.

“Regardless of who you’re playing, you’re in tournament play now,” Dodge said. “It’s a win-or-go-home mentality. We’ve been in the playoffs for a long time, and I’m excited about the opportunity our kids have.”

Go, Dragons!

It's win-or-go-home time, and the Dragons are ready to roll.