Playoffs, Regional Round: Southlake Carroll Dragons vs. Euless Trinity Trojans

When it was over, the victors said they won in memory of fallen comrades killed in a car wreck before the season began. Now how are you going to beat a team like that?

The Southlake Carroll Dragons and the Euless Trinity Trojans met last night in another classic contest, a desperate back-and-forth battle in the third round of the playoffs that hinged on the game’s only turnover and ended with Trinity triumphant.

 After the game, Trinity players reminded sportswriters that this season is dedicated to two former Trojans and a junior high student killed in an automobile accident. At halftime, one told the Star-Telegram, “We just thought of our three fallen angels, just thought about that and remembered who we were doing it for.”

Everyone expected a battle royale between the Dragons and Trojans, and they weren’t disappointed. The lead changed hands six times, five in the second half, and the outcome remained uncertain until the last seconds of the game. In the end, it was Trinity 42, Carroll 38.

Senior Trinity running back Isaac Ellsworth shredded the overwhelmed Dragon D-line all night, compiling 245 yards on 18 carries and three touchdowns. Three times he blasted through the front line and outsprinted pursuing Dragon defenders on TD runs of 42, 70 and 51 yards.

His compatriot, sophomore RB Ja’Ron Wilson, running behind the Trojan O-line’s behemoths, blasted 114 yards on 17 carries and one TD.

 Meanwhile, Trinity quarterback Christian Hammack proved what everyone has been saying of late: The Trojans also can throw the ball. He completed five of seven throws for 105 key yards and engineered the Trojans’ final score, a 23-yard pass with 9 minutes left.

He wasn’t the best quarterback on the field last night. That honor, as usual, belonged to Dragon QB Ryan Agnew, who tried his mightiest to keep Carroll in the game, completing 39 of 48 passes for 449 yards and three touchdowns. It was another dazzling display for the junior standout.

But, alas, Hammack and the Trojans will proceed to the fourth round to face the fearsome DeSoto Eagles, while Agnew and crew will be Christmas shopping. Nobody said life was fair.

Ultimately, it came down to this: The weaknesses in the Carroll defense – a concern all season, even during its cruise through the weak sisters of District 4-5A – were exposed last night. The D-line couldn’t contain the Trinity running game, and the secondary couldn’t disrupt its infrequent aerial attack.

The Southlake kids tried. God knows they tried and never gave up. Linemen A.J. Tolbert and King Newton were defensive stalwarts.

But the muscle and gristle of the Trinity O-line was simply too much. The Trojans’ Big Guys blasted the smaller Dragons off the line by three or four yards on every play. Trojan runners must have averaged more than 5 yards per carry. And they carried a lot – rolling up 448 rushing yards for the night.

For a while, it looked as if Agnew and his receivers would be able to win the day. Senior wide receiver Luke Timian was a monster, catching 13 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns in the best game of his life. It’s a damn shame it was for naught.

Likewise, backup running back Lil’ Jordan Humphrey – subbing for senior RB AJ Ezzard, who was shaken up in the first half and never returned – had a brilliant night, right up until the moment, with less than six minutes left in the game, when he coughed up the ball on the Trinity 20 as Carroll was driving for yet another go-ahead touchdown.

Trinity was leading at the time, 42-38, and Hammack staged a vintage Trinity rushing drive, a clock-draining, soul-sapping, run-it-down-their-throats drive that ended when Trinity handed the ball on downs to the Dragons with 19 seconds left to travel three-fourths of the field. It was a masterful display of dominance – and clock-managing finesse – that Dragon fans watched with grim-faced admiration.

So the Dragons’ season is over. A loss in the third round is no humiliation, particularly when you come as close as Southlake did to beating a team as good as Trinity, but it does leave a sour taste in the mouth. That’s probably because they came so close, so very close.

But it is, after all, only a game. Soon, the pain will ease and then likely disappear, except for the dull ache when old photos are dug out of an album years from now. For the seniors, there is the anticipation of graduation. For the rest, there is the promise of a new season. Life goes on, don’t it? Until next year, go Dragons!

Playoffs, Area Round: Southlake Carroll Dragons vs. Midland Lee Rebels

By the end of the first quarter last night, it was pretty apparent that the Southlake Carroll Dragons were going to have an easy time of it against the overmatched Midland Lee Rebels. The same couldn’t be said for the miserable fans of both teams who shivered in the icy rain and gasped as a sharp northern wind sliced through them.

But the weather misery was all for a good cause, at least for the Southlake contigent, as the Dragons cruised to the third round of the playoffs by dispatching the Rebels 51-7. As if the humiliating defeat, for the second time this season, weren’t bad enough, Rebel players, coaches and fans had to drive westward home through sleet and over ice-covered roads.

Part of me – the part that still doesn’t harbor resentment at long-past games in which the Rebels manhandled my hometown Big Spring Steers much as the Dragons dealt with Midland Lee last night – was happy when the Rebels managed their only score of the night against our backup D-line in the fourth quarter.

Turning to the football dad huddled beside me, I said, “The Lee folks drove a long way to see that one.”

The Rebels aided and abetted the mauling administered by Carroll. They turned the ball over three times in their first four drives, all of which produced Dragon scores. Carroll led 24-0 at the end of the first quarter and never looked  back. At the half, the score was 45-0.

Quarterback Ryan Agnew, RB AJ Ezzard and WR Luke Timian – Dragon offensive stars of the night – sat out the second half. Despite that, Agnew completed 10 of 19 throws for 130 yards and two TDs (both to Timian) and rushed for 90 yards and one TD. Ezzard, meanwhile, rushed for 99 yards and two TDs.

For the second straight playoff game, starting linebacker Steven Bergmark scored a rushing touchdown. As the players lined up for a 15-yard field goal attempt by ace kicker Drew Brown, a football mom behind me yelled, “Bergmark’s in! Bermark’s in! It’s a fake!” Sure enough, Bergmark, who played running back his sophomore year, snatched a short shuttle pass from holder Joe Heineman and rumbled to the end zone. Who says women don’t understand football?

But the easy pickings are over for the Dragons. They advance to the third round, where they most likely will face Euless Trinity (who meets Mansfield Timberview later today) next Friday in Cowboys Stadium.

These two teams have history together, and the Dragons have triumphed in their two only encounters. In 2006, they met in Texas Stadium before a record crowd of more than 45,000 in the second round of the playoffs. At the time, both were reigning state champions, in different divisions, and their battle that day still is the best high school game I’ve ever watched.

The programs and their fan bases couldn’t be more different, but there is a mutual respect and admiration between the two that is rare in high school sports. I always root for the Trojans except when they play the Dragons, and I’m not the only Southlake fan who does. Likewise, many of the Haka faithful are Carroll boosters until games like next Friday.

The matchup against Trinity will be Carroll’s biggest challenge since its loss in Week Zero to the Allen Eagles. The outcome very much is in doubt, but one thing is certain. When these two teams meet, it’s football magic. And if we have to get booted, I’d just as soon it be at the hands of the Trojans as any other team.

Regardless, the Dragons are still playing after Thanksgiving, which is a very good thing. And next week, we won’t be shivering in a cold outdoor stadium with the wind howling in our ears. Instead, we’ll be sitting in the opulent splendor of the Death Star as Jerry Jones picks our pockets. Pretty sweet, huh? Go Dragons!

A remembrance of JFK's assassination

I was sitting in  seventh-grade math class, a pimply-faced 12-year-old worried about how I was going to explain to my mother that I was about to receive a C in math, when the announcement came.

The voice of the principal of Goliad Junior High School came over the PA system and stopped my math teacher in mid-equation. I don’t remember his exact words, but the news he gave was stunning: President John Kennedy had been shot during a visit to Dallas and was being treated for his wounds.

The rest of that class is a blur, but I recall there was a lot of excited chatter among my classmates, including the observation from one ignorant dumb-ass that Kennedy “deserved it.” The president was a revered figure in my house, despite some initial heartburn from my yellow-dog Democrat parents about his Catholicism. In the end, he had won them over, and they considered him a smart guy and an inspirational leader. So I told Dumb-Ass, who had about 20 pounds on me and was a surly, belligerent soul on his best day, to shut his mouth. To my surprise, and utter relief, he did.

My next class was Texas history, and we had barely settled into our desks when the principal was back on the PA to announce solemnly that Kennedy was dead.

For two heartbeats, there was complete silence as we took in the news. Then a high-pitched scream pierced the silence. A girl was running down the hall, hysterical, screaming all the way. It was a sound that spoke of heartbreak, despair and, yes, fear. Even now I can hear it, echoing down through the years to put an indelible stamp on an unforgettable moment in American history.

It happened 50 years ago today.

C.E. Shuford and the death of a president

Much has been written in recent days about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago this Friday. Much more will be written in the days to come as the country continues to struggle to make sense of the senseless, to understand the inexplicable and to heal a wound that still scars the fabric of American society.

 In 1965, only two years after the death of the president, a professor at North Texas State University – now the University of North Texas – sat down to write about the events in Dallas that bright November day and in the heartbreaking days that followed.

 C.E. Shuford, known affectionately to generations of his students as “Papa,” was the founder of the journalism program at NTSU. A former newspaperman, he was a fierce presence in the classroom who demanded from his student journalists precision, clarity and a strict adherence to the rules of grammar and punctuation. A misspelled name meant an automatic F in the course.

 But a few of us knew something about Papa that he never discussed in his classes. He was a poet, and quite a good one, too. His poems first were published in a national magazine in 1933, and he already had won a national poetry award when he felt compelled to write about the assassination. The poem he produced won him another national prize, the William Marion Reedy Award from the Poetry Society of America.

 Here is an excerpt from “The Death in Our Family,” the section entitled, “The Walking Time.”

 So comes a slow, a walking time for grief,

a time of measured footfalls, rolling drums,
creaking cassons, and the clop, clop
of horses’ hooves.
                           And the silence falls
and fills the city with a sobbing sigh,
the long and measured breathing of the men
that still draw breath and stand in sunlight,
watching the passing of the fallen prince,
who tastes the sweet, sad air no longer.
                                                  Tears
water the earth behind him who had asked
no tears, and grief burdens the feet that gather
at the stations on his road to sleep.
                                                   There is
a place for him to lie beneath the flag,
a place for him to pause to rest, and all
that night the feet shuffle slowly past.
Children come; men and women come;
his princess comes, and in the darkest night
returns; it is a walking time for grief,
an echo time for sorrow like the sound
of distant cannon booming in the night.

Playoffs, Bi-District Round: Southlake Carroll Dragons vs. Arlington Bowie Volunteers

Madison Avenue copy writers didn’t have the Southlake Carroll Dragons in mind when they came up with the hair-coloring pitch that “blondes have more fun.” But the peroxided warriors of Carroll certainly had a great time last night as they obliterated the Arlington Bowie Volunteers 56-14 in Coppell’s Buddy Echols Stadium.

Many of us had expected a closer contest, considering the high-powered Vols offense led by double-threat quarterback Tony James and a stingy defense manned by several D1 prospects. But the Dragons scored first, scored last and dominated for most of the time in between, putting all the elements together in a satisfying start of the second season.

There are no do-overs at this point. Win or go home. Those are the rules from here on out.

Dragon players, coaches and fans understand the stakes as well or better than most. This isn’t our first rodeo. Eight state championship trophies attest to that. And while this team may not have the talent or the luck to go all the way this year, anything can happen during the playoffs, and there aren’t too many better ways to start out than with a blowout against a quality team.

The Dragons haven’t faced many quality teams this season. A district filled with weak programs isn’t the best way to prepare for the playoffs, but Carroll played the teams on its schedule and took care of business.

Just as they did last night. Despite some fancy running by James and a few pass completions by parttime quarterback Keaton Perry, Carroll had things in hand by halftime. A comfortable three-touchdown lead prompted some of us to tempt fate and guiltily look for scores in the Midland Lee-El Paso El Dorado game, since the winner of that contest would be next up for the victors in Coppell. (Lee won 47-28.)

 By the time in the third quarter junior quarterback Ryan Agnew skittered through the Bowie D-line and sprinted 40 yards for the Dragons’ sixth touchdown of the night, we threw caution to the winds and began making mental preparations to face the Rebels next Friday in Saginaw.

The Dragon players, as they should, concentrated on keeping the Vols scoreless in the second half, which they did in fine fashion.

Agnew, a superstar who is having an absolutely stellar year, was on target and on point last night. But he had to surrender the offensive spotlight to senior running back AJ Ezzard, who had his best game of the year, smashing through Bowie’s storied defenses repeatedly for good gains. Although he sat out for most of the second half, his nightly totals were impressive: 24 carries for 164 yards and four TDs.

In fact, the pass-heavy Dragon offense waged a ground war against the Vols, and they had no answer for it. In addition to Ezzard’s heroics, Agnew rushed 12 times for 94 yards, but still had time to complete 10 of 14 passes for 165 yards and one INT (only his sixth of the year).

Senior WR Luke Timian deserves special recognition for duty above and beyond. Timian battled the stomach flu all Friday, and only arrived at the stadium one hour before kickoff after being given IV fluids for dehydration. Asked before the game how he felt, he told the radio guys he was fine and ready to play. And so he was, catching four key receptions and gaining 90 yards. A gutsy performance by a gutsy guy (sorry).

It was a good night for the Big Guys, too. The Dragon D-line stymied and stalled the Volunteers’ high-octane offense, largely preventing speedsters James and Perry from mounting sustained drives to keep pace with Agnew and company’s brisk scoring pace.

Knowledgeable Dragon fans had expected the Vols to try to capitalize on the Dragons’ secondary, which has struggled this season. But Bowie’s game-planners decided to put their fate in a ground game. The Volunteers’ flashy quarterbacks managed to get around the ends for some significant runs. James ended the night with 15 carries and 124 yards; Perry completed 8 of 16 passes for 73 yards and one TD. But the histrionics mostly were for naught because the Dragon defense stepped up big.

Last night’s crushing victory against the Volunteers may finally ease memories of 2009, when a proud (perhaps too proud) Dragon team with its eyes on a state championship met Bowie in the third round in SMU’s Ford Stadium. The Vols brutally ended that dream with a 45-21 drubbing that offered a painful lesson in the dangers of hubris.

Two years later, the Dragons met the Volunteers again in the third round, narrowly brushing by them on the way to an eighth state championship. But last night’s victory was decisive and overwhelming and could go a long way in exorcising the humiliating sting of that night at Ford Stadium four years ago.

So now it’s on to Saginaw for a second meeting with Midland Lee, who the Dragons demolished in the second game of the season, 63-14. We’ll see if the Rebels have fixed some of the problems that made them such easy prey for the Dragons in Week One.

But Lee had best keep in mind that the Dragons aren’t the same team they were when the Rebels came calling in September. Agnew, who hung four rushing and three passing TDs on Lee last time, is more seasoned, more confident and completely in sync with his receiving corps. Meanwhile, the defense has come into its own – and just in time, too. It could be a long night and another long drive home for the West Texas boys.

All this and no road trip to the desolate western plains. Glory be, it’s the playoffs! Go Dragons!

Veterans Day Tribute: The only legacy my father ever sought

Last May, I posted this tribute to my father, Clyde Gunnels, a veteran of World War II who died in 1989. It seems fitting to post it here on the day before Veterans Day.

May 25, 2013

Dad was 24 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was a farm boy who picked cotton and worked on cars while he waited for his life to begin. He had just met a girl he liked, a 17-year-old from a nearby farm who still was nursing a broken heart from a failed marriage to a soldier a few months earlier.

Then the world changed. Within a few months, my father was in the U.S. Army, training in California for the invasion of North Africa and carrying a photo of the young girl – my mother – in his uniform pocket.

Instead of the desert warfare he was trained to fight, Dad and his unit – the 7th Infantry Division – were sent to the Pacific. There, he participated both in the first (Aleutians) and last (Okinawa) invasions of Japanese-held islands. He waded ashore four times, each time in the first waves, and never received a scratch.

My father hated the Japanese with a fierceness that never faded – until the day a family moved next door to us 20 years after the war. He was a serviceman who met and married his wife while serving in Japan. As a child, she had huddled in makeshift bomb shelters while B-29s rained fire and destruction on Tokyo. Hearing her stories, my father’s war-forged prejudices weakened and finally collapsed. “Well,” he said one night, “I guess people are just people.”

When the war ended, Dad came home, married my mom, began his family and worked for more than 40 years as an automobile mechanic. His only recreation was to piddle around in his yard, to wash and wax his string of excellently maintained used cars and to sneak an occasional swig of whiskey from the bottle he hid from my mother in the garage.

At 71, he waged a courageous fight against lung cancer and died the day before the 4th of July. He rarely talked about the war, a trait he shared with many of the young men who fought in that desperate struggle and saved the world from a terrible tyranny. The ones who had the most to talk about were the ones who had the least to say.

Most of them are gone today. We are their legacy, the only one they ever sought.

Game Night: Southlake Carroll Dragons vs. Haltom Buffalos

The most important thing that happened at Dragon Stadium last night – at least for the Gunnels family – wasn’t the Southlake Carroll Dragons’ drubbing of the Haltom Buffalos, 65-7.

Yes, the game was the major reason we all were there. And the Dragons closed out the regular season much as they did last year – with a District 4-5A championship, an unbroken string of victories over lesser district opponents, and a 9-1 record, with only a loss to the mighty Allen Eagles marring the totality of their dominance. Talk about history repeating itself.

No, the significant thing that happened, the thing that I’ll remember long after the memories of that lopsided contest have faded, was the Senior Night recognitions before the opening kickoff.

I have looked forward to and dreaded that moment for a long time. As my friends and family know, I get pretty emotional over the passing milestones of my children’s lives. And so it was Friday night, as I stood on the field with Marice and Ethan and looked over the other parents and kids standing there before the gathering crowd.

I was thinking that when Ethan leaves for college next fall, Marice and I will have to figure out a new role for ourselves in our children’s lives. Because our front-line parental duties will be over. We’ll always be parents, of course, and we’ll always have a place in our children’s lives. But things will be different. They’re already different with my daughter, who graduates from UNT in May. And they’ll be different with my son, too, from the moment he pulls away from the curb on his way to UNT.

Our direct, daily impact on our children will end. We’ll have to hope that the values and hard-learned lessons we tried to impart will take root in the sandy loam of our kids’ heads and will help guide them to happy, successful and fulfilling lives. Our present roles as ATM machines and laundry maids, cooks and mechanics will continue for a while, yet, and no complaints there. But I was thinking last night about how much I was going to miss the tall, lanky kid with the goofy grin and big heart when he leaves. How much I was going to miss our nightly, bedtime routine. “Good night, Dad. Love you. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” “Goodnight, son. I love you, too.” (In case you were wondering, I DID NOT start bawling in front of everyone as I contemplated all this. But to be honest, it was a near-run thing.)

In the meantime, I hope Ethan will be able to enjoy his Crew duties during a deep run in playoffs this year. How I would dearly love to see him goofing around on the sidelines the weekend after Thanksgiving and beyond.

We’ll see about that. The Dragons’ real season begins Friday night in Coppell’s Cowboy Stadium when they face the Arlington Bowie Volunteers. The Volunteers have spoiled Dragon playoff dreams before, destroying a complacent Southlake squad 45-21 in 2009 at SMU’s Ford Stadium before a stunned Southlake crowd.

The Dragons got their revenge two years later, whipping the Vols 21-17 in frigid, near-gale winds at Pendleton Stadium in Bedford.

Bowie is pretty banged up this year and played a sloppy, losing effort against Martin on Thursday to draw Carroll in the first round. But the Vols always are dangerous customers, well-coached and disciplined, even when they’re riddled with injuries. The Dragons had best not put them in the same category as their last nine opponents, or they could be taking an early exit from the second season.

Last night, the Dragons had a couple of early hiccups against the Buffalos, going three and out on their first possession. But they scored on their next six possessions and iced the game early. The starters took their leave at halftime.

Quarterback Ryan Agnew completed 10 of 15 passes for 196 yards and three TDs. Two of them went to WR Luke Timian, who caught five receptions for 96 yards, and the other went to WR Keaton Duhon, who caught five for 62 yards.

On the rushing front, RB AJ Ezzard carried the ball 13 times for 72 yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, kicker Drew Brown booted a career-record 51-yard field goal to end the half.

Sophomore running backs Lil’ Jordan Humphrey and Grant McFarlin got plenty of playing time against Haltom. Both scored running TDs in the second half.

Haltom only managed 218 yards of total offense, and the Buffalos were a fumble factory, mishandling the ball five times and losing it four.

Southlake barbers – and more than a few mothers – will be busy this week dyeing players’ hair blonde, and athletic department equipment handlers will be readying black uniform pants. Both are playoff traditions at Carroll. The dyed hair in particular drives our opponents nuts, which is a perfectly good reason to do it, don’t you think? Go Dragons!

Game Night: Southlake Carroll Dragons vs. Keller Fossil Ridge Panthers

The Southlake Carroll Dragons got quite a scare Thursday night so it’s only right, I suppose, that it came on Halloween.

The ghouls responsible for the quickened heart beats and shallow breathing were the Keller Fossil Ridge Panthers, who almost staged the upset of the year in denying the Dragons their second-straight District 4-5A championship.

In the end, Southlake calmed its nerves and emerged from the fray with a 31-27 win. But it didn’t come without a struggle. Many of the Dragon faithful, myself included, had been yearning for a competitive district game. Well, on Thursday night we got one. What in the world were we thinking?

Ridge dominated the first half, with quarterback Jacob Gnacinski and speedy wide receiver Ryan Parker proving to be an unbeatable combination. Gnacinski, who threw 39 times by halftime, connected repeatedly with Parker on simple swing passes to the right or left. Each time, the slippery receiver, who had 11 catches for 151 yards, broke tackles and slithered for 10 yards or more. Dragon safeties appeared powerless to stop him.

At half, the Panthers led the shocked Dragons 27-17, and a sullen mood settled over the Southlake crowd, which impatiently endured half-time with the bands in anticipation of a rejuvenated Dragon squad taking the field in the second half.

But a smartly executed Dragon opening drive in the second half came to a crashing halt at the Panther goal line when quarterback Ryan Agnew, who had a solid rushing game Thursday, slammed across the goal line and promptly coughed up the ball. Everyone in the stadium, except the blind bats in white and black stripes, saw Agnew break the goal-line plane, thus scoring a touchdown. But, nope, the visually impaired ones ruled it a touchback and Keller took over at the Carroll 20.

I turned to my wife and observed through gritted teeth, “That may just have cost us district.”

Luckily, I’m no clairvoyant, and the Dragons put that stark injustice behind them and went on to hold Ridge scoreless for the entire second half, while piling up a couple more TDs in the third quarter to take and keep the lead.

And they did it with a bruising ground game. Ridge loaded its defensive backfield with six, sometimes seven, defensive backs and stifled Southlake’s potent passing game. Largely denied the airwaves, Agnew rolled to 143 yards rushing and two TDs, while sturdy running back AJ Ezzard piled up 105 and one score.

Agnew managed to connect on 14 of 16 passes, with one interception, but he was held to a mere 110 yards.

It’s not often – maybe ever? – that Agnew gets schooled in the air, but Panther signal-caller Gnacinski came close. On the one hand, he threw 60 passes, connecting on 40, and piled up 367 yards. In the wild second quarter, he guided Ridge to three straight scores, the last two within a minute and a half of each other (the last the result of the Agnew misfire). Pretty damned good, wouldn’t you say?

 Now, for the rest of the story. Gnacinski also threw four interceptions, two of which were snatched by junior Dragon DB Tariq Gordon. Those mistakes proved crucial to the Dragon’s eventual victory, stalling impressive Ridge drives and keeping Carroll in the game until it regained its composure and handed the Panthers three-and-outs on three consecutive drives in the decisive third quarter.

Thursday night’s scare could be a blessing in disguise. The Dragons looked disaster in the eye and rose above it. It’s the kind of challenge and response that could prove beneficial as Southlake contemplates the beginning of the second season two weeks from now. It was a chance to shake off the cobwebs collected during its trudge through cupcake-strewn 4-5A.

If the Star Telegram’s statistics can be trusted – and I suspect they can in this case – a defeat at the hands of Ridge would have broken Carroll’s winning streak of 22 straight district games. The last defeat in district came against Coppell in 2010, only the second district defeat suffered by the Dragons since they were elevated to 5A in 2002. The first also was at the hands of Coppell, an unforgettable 57-53 shootout in triple overtime.

But that was then, and this is now. The Dragons have clinched the district title and qualified for the playoffs for the 13^th straight year. They end their regular season at home next week, facing the Haltom Buffalos on Senior Night.

 It will be a bittersweet moment for Marice and me, as we stand on the field with our senior son, who is a member of the Crew spirit group, and look to the approaching end of our children’s association with Carroll ISD. The last 17 years have gone by with a flash. But what memories we have! Go Dragons!