Game Day: Southlake Carroll 17, Austin Westlake 14

Todd Dodge didn’t get the victory he wanted when he came to Dragon Stadium last Friday with his Austin Westlake Chaparrals. But he came damned close, and he left Southlake with the immense satisfaction, I suspect, of knowing that his determined lads scared the bejeezus out of the Dragons and their coaches.

It started badly for the Dragons and didn’t get a whole lot better after that. After receiving the opening kickoff, senior quarterback Ryan Agnew, working behind a young, inexperienced and – as the night would demonstrate – outclassed offensive line, could manage nothing better than a sputtering three-and-out.

It then took the Chaps only four plays to march smartly to the end zone.

The shellshocked Dragons never were able to establish an offensive rhythm. Agnew scrambled all night and never had the chance to establish timing with his new batch of receivers. He completed 11 of 18 passes for only 100 yards and was picked off twice. Those aren’t the kind of stats we expect from the supremely talented Agnew.

But the offensive problems didn’t stop there. The O-line couldn’t deal with Westlake’s swarming defensive line, failing to open rushing lanes for junior running back Lil’ Jordan Humphrey, who is poised to have a stellar year. Instead, Humphrey, a 6-1 speedster who has bulked up over the summer, managed only 76 yards on 12 carries. Even the slippery Agnew, a skilled scrambler who gave D-linemen fits last season, was held to only 92 yards on 21 carries.

As a result, the Dragons could only manage a field goal by Jake Oldroyd in the first half.

Thankfully, the Dragon’s defensive squad, led by tackle King Newton and safety Andy Chelf, stepped up big time, shutting down the Chaps’ offensive firepower after their initial heroics until late in the fourth quarter.

In the critical third quarter, Agnew and Humphrey managed a rushing touchdown apiece, and that was enough to ensure a Dragon victory. But not before some last-minute histrionics by the Chaps, who staged a vintage Dodge-inspired rally that kept Dragon fans’ stomachs in knots until the final seconds.

A late score brought Westlake to within three points, 17-14, and everyone knew what was coming next. Despite the inevitability of the on-side kick, the Chaps managed to recover it, and moans were heard in my section of the home stands. But the Dragons’ Big Guys kept a lid on things and Westlake was held outside field-goal range.

Todd Dodge has reason to feel good about his young squad, which faces a tough district that includes powerhouse Lake Travis. He has a talented bunch of kids who fought hard and never quit. And it goes without saying that they are well coached. Don’t be surprised if they do well down Austin way, and make some noise in the playoffs.

As for the Dragons, defensive coordinator Tim Wasson has some work to do with the O-line, which needs to come together quickly to give Agnew both time to find his receivers and openings he can slice through to daylight.

If it doesn’t, this could be a very long season in District 7-6A for the Dragons, who meet Oklahoma’s Tulsa Union on Friday at Cowboys Stadium. The problem with being considered one of the best programs in Texas, and that means the country at large, is that you must defend that reputation every Friday night.

What a way to open the season

His name still is mentioned with reverence in the watering holes and backyard patios of Southlake.

Todd Dodge, the coaching legend who led the Carroll Dragons to five straight state championship games between 2002-2006, winning four and compiling a stunning 79-1 record, is coming home Friday. Sort of.

Dodge, the brand-new coach of the Austin Westlake Chaparrals, will be welcomed with cheers and probably a standing ovation when he appears on the opposing sideline.

Then the cheers will fade, and it’ll be time for the admiring Dragons to dismantle the Chaps and send Dodge back to Austin with a stinging rebuke on his debut as Westlake coach.

At least that’s the way Dragon fans would like to script the game. Dodge, who knows the Dragons’ offensive and defensive schemes better than any other foe they’ve faced, would like to write things differently.

We’ll see. Regardless, it’s likely to be a wonderful show, the perfect way to start a new season of Texas high school football and a new era for Southlake Carroll.

As a result of last winter’s UIL realignment, the Dragons’ new district, 7-6A, could very well be the state’s toughest. Some have even referred to it as the “little SEC.” It includes, believe it or not, both the Euless Trinity Trojans, who the Dragons have faced in three legendary playoff games since 2006, and the Coppell Cowboys, their blood enemies for more than four decades.

District 7-6A also includes Colleyville Heritage, a perennial playoff team that has never defeated the Dragons, and L.D. Bell, another playoff regular who greatly covets, and probably deserves, more respect that it receives.

Unlike the last few years, the Dragons are not the favorites to win district. That designation goes to the Trojans, who have won 59 consecutive district games and eight straight titles. In the statewide AP poll, Trinity ranks 5, followed by Carroll at 6. It’s going to be that kind of year.

The two teams’ playoff battles have resulted in one win and two defeats for the Dragons, but they all have been epic, back-and-forth struggles with the outcome uncertain until the final minutes. Moving such games inside district play will not change the dynamics, but it could interfere with the mutual admiration the Trojans and Dragons have shared over the years.

District rivalries can be intense and the animosities generated long-running. Take Coppell, for instance.  It and Southlake have been bitter district rivals off and on for many years, from the days the two schools fielded small 3A programs to recent years when they have battled in the top category. The hated Cowboys are one of only three teams to whip the Dragons on their home field since Dragon Stadium was built in 2001. Make no mistake, there is bad blood between these two.

Which brings us back to Westlake. The last time the Dragons and Chaparrals faced each other was in the 2006 state championship game in the Alamodome. Southlake, coached by Dodge and led on the field by his son, Riley, whipped Westlake handily, 43-29.

Friday night looks to be no different. Westlake has a new coach – a legend, yes, but one still finding his sea legs at a new school – a squad depleted of returning starters and a sophomore quarterback playing in his first varsity game.

The Dragons, on the other hand, have returning quarterback Ryan Agnew, who rolled up 4,500 yards in total offense last season, including 1,250 on the ground. He ran for 20 touchdowns and threw for another 31. The Star Telegram reports the senior powerhouse already has six D-I offers, and he could garner more if he has the kind of season the Dragons need him to have. He is the key.

Missing from last year’s potent offensive attack are experienced receivers. WR Parker Fentriss, sidelined by injury most of last season, likely will be Agnew’s chief target. In addition, defensive back Tariq Gordon could be pulled into double duty as a part-time receiver. Kevin Lonnquist of the Star-Telegram reports that head coach Hal Wasson compares Gordon to two-way phenom Sabian Holmes, a hero of the Dragons’ last state championship team.

The Dragon running game will be in the hands of juniors Lil’ Jordan Humphrey, who ain’t little at all, and Grant McFarlin, who is.  Humphrey’s height – he grew 3 inches over the summer, have led some armchair observers (ahem) to observe he might serve time in the receiving corps. But he also added muscle in the off-season so he is primed to exceed the 600 yards rushing he compiled last year.

The defense returns five starters, including standout tackle King Newton. The Star-Telegram’s Lonnquist says Wasson is pleased with the progress of senior inside linebackers Clark Parr and Joel McClellan. At safety, Andy Chelf rolled up 100 tackles last year and leads the secondary.

Meanwhile, an offensive line low on experience remains a question mark. In the superheated competition the Dragons will face both in pre-district and district play, its progress will determine early Dragon success and its ultimate fate in what undoubtedly will be the state’s showcase district race.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot at stake in tomorrow’s contest for the two head coaches.

 Dodge now works in the district where his father-in-law was head coach and athletic director for many years. In fact, the Chaps’ stadium is named after him. The pressure is on Dodge to prove his phenomenal run in Southlake wasn’t a fluke. He would love to silence his critics who point out that he enjoyed a mediocre coaching career in the years before and after his Carroll tenure. A victory over his former team would be a good start on that redemptive road.

Wasson, on the other hand, has enjoyed great success in Southlake, compiling an envious 79-15 record as he enters his eighth season here and winning a state championship in 2011. But he doesn’t enjoy the immense popularity of his predecessor, with parents or with his players. A stumble against his former boss, for whom he coached before moving to Keller Fossil Ridge in 2004, and a rugged start in the new district could start the clock ticking against him, rightly or wrongly.

Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. The game is a sellout.

The meaning of it all

Forty years ago today, Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign from office, thus ending a shameful period of American history when the president of the United States betrayed his oath of office and attempted to cover up crimes committed in his name and with his approval.

During that bitter final summer of Watergate, I was a cub reporter at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, covering night cops. I hated the beat and I hated Lubbock. Feeling trapped and isolated, I used the gripping drama of Nixon’s fall from grace as a welcome distraction.

The year before, I had watched the televised Senate Watergate hearings with college friends, drinking beer while cheering the good guys and tossing an occasional empty can at the bad guys.

Watergate was the national soap opera running in the background for most of my college career. In the summer of 1972, only a few weeks after the Watergate break-in, I was an editor on the North Texas Daily when it became the first student newspaper in the country to call for Nixon’s resignation. Most of us believed even then that Nixon had a hand in orchestrating the burglary.  As evidence mounted, we felt a delicious surge of vindication and triumph.

So as the long, hot summer of 1974 neared its end, the finale of the Nixonian saga also came into view.

On the day before his resignation, when rumors were flying that Nixon was bailing, several of us on the A-J night shift went to our favorite watering hole after work, getting to the upstairs bar of the Brookshire Inn a little after midnight.  The late Austin singer/songwriter Allen Damron was performing, and the joint was jumping.

The crowd was in a celebratory mood, and Damron played to it, never mentioning Nixon by name but crafting an upbeat set full of songs that celebrated subversive behavior and taking it to The Man. Nixon would have hated it, but we embraced it with wild abandon. The last song of the night was a rousing rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” All of us were standing on chairs and on tables, clapping, stomping our feet and singing full-throatedly along with Damron.

 It was an amazing, spontaneous outpouring of emotion, fueled by alcohol and by the prospect for many of us that the hated Nixon – the man who had lied about his “secret” plan to end the Vietnam War, who had compiled an Enemies List that included almost every person we respected and admired, who lied about Watergate and tried to subvert an election, who held in utter contempt a generation of idealistic young people who sought to end war and extend equal rights to all, a vile, vulgar and odious villain – was headed for oblivion and perhaps, eventually, jail.

The next day, Aug. 8, Nixon did indeed announce his intention to resign in an evening speech to the nation in which he listed his accomplishments, admitted vaguely to some mistakes and steadfastly refused to admit wrongdoing. His successor, Gerald Ford, spoke for many of us when he said, “The nation’s long national nightmare is over.”

Later that night, we decided to make a return trip to the Brookshire, where Damron still was playing. If last night was wild, we wondered, what will tonight be like?

What a difference a day makes.

When we arrived, the bar was mostly empty, a few patrons sitting quietly and nursing their drinks, heads down and only half listening to Damron, whose songs fit the somber and low-key vibe. Lots of sad, moody ballads, full of shattered dreams and heartbreak. Once again, Nixon never was mentioned. But the full measure of his betrayal seemed to have settled over his countrymen like a shroud, and the good folks of Lubbock, Texas, were not exempt.

Damron, a wise and perceptive performer, understood his role that night was less to entertain and more to soothe and comfort. He ended the night with several stirring songs about country and family and keeping the faith, nothing overt but all vaguely patriotic. Then we got up and went home to contemplate the meaning of it all.