Game Night: Southlake Carroll Dragons vs. Keller Central Chargers

Oct. 4. 2013

My son, who’s on the Crew spirit group at Southlake Carroll Senior High, figured he was going to have a busy night.

 Members of the Crew, chosen for their high energy, creative flair and general goofiness, do pushups at football games after every Dragon score, the number matching the Carroll total at the time. It’s all part of the traditions to which Southlake devotes so much T-shirt real estate promoting and protecting.

 So when I tell you that the Dragons last night obliterated the Keller Timber Creek Falcons, 77-6, you’ll understand why Ethan came home with sore arms and a dim assessment of the Falcons. “It wasn’t much of a game,” he opined.

 Indeed, it wasn’t.

 The Dragons scored on 10 of their 12 possessions. Five of their six possessions in the first half were for six plays or less. As usual, it was the Ryan Agnew show, with our junior QB completing 13 of 17 passes for 255 yards and two TDs and rushing for another pair.

 RB AJ Ezzard led Dragon rushing, rolling to 117 yards and three TDs. Sophomore Lil’ Jordan Humphrey bullied his way to 111 yards on 10 carries, and Grant McFarlin, another hard-charging sophomore, shredded the exhausted Falcon D-line in the meaningless fourth quarter, rolling to two TDs.

 In fact, the Dragons could have hung 80+ on the poor, pitiful Falcons even with their backups playing most of the second half. Some football parents thought the coaches kept the starters in too long, and they’re probably right.

 Even when the backups got in, they were handed the thankless task of not running up the score on a virtually defenseless foe. It’s a damned dirty shame, too. These kids – who play an essential, but largely unheralded, role in preparing the starters for Game Day during the previous week’s practice – want to play full-bore when they finally do get in the game, and who can blame them? In my mind, they’ve earned that right.

 But if they had done so last night, the final score could have been in the 90s, for God’s sake. Our critics would have had a field day, crowing about Southlake Carroll arrogance and bad sportsmanship. So the Dragon coaches shackled our sturdy backup quarterback Garrett Hale to a clock-consuming, slow-tempo ground game. Even then, our boys did everything but collapse after the snap to keep from scoring on the final Dragon drive.

 The Timber Creek game was the first of a three-game road show for the Dragons. They meet the Richland High Rebels next week in the Birdville Fine Arts/Athletic Complex, an excellent football venue that the unfortunately named Rebels (at least they don’t wave Confederate flags at games) will be hard-pressed to live up to. Go Dragons!