Just win
Southlake Carroll quarterback Will Bowers
doesn’t have the dash and flash of some of his predecessors.
His resume lacks stupendous statistics
like 400-yard passing games and 4 or 5 touchdowns per night. In times of trial,
he doesn’t take the team upon his back and will it to win like Riley Dodge or
Kenny Hill did. His on-field exploits don’t leave Dragon Nation gasping with
awe and relief.
No, Bowers does none of those things. All
he does is win. Under his quiet and steady leadership, Carroll is undefeated
through 7 games and poised to capture yet another district championship.
Take last night, for instance. He wasn’t
even the star of the offense. As usual, that honor went to stellar running back
T.J. McDaniel, who rushed for 208 yards and made three touchdowns of 39, 75 and
4 yards.
Bower’s performance contributed mightily
to the Dragon victory over a spirited and determined Fossil Ridge team. But
while his 18 of 23 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns were admirable and
praise-worthy, they were hardly eye-popping.
Bowers says he’s fine with all that.
Football, after all, is a team sport.
“This team is all about consistency and
efficiency,” he said in a post-game radio interview. “Statistics are not a significant
thing with me. This is a team effort. We win together.”
Fossil Ridge had designs on spoiling
Homecoming for the Dragons, and it played tough football for most of three
quarters. But the Panther defense, although it managed to corral McDaniel at times,
could never really counter his ability to blow open a game in a single play.
Take the first drive of the game. The Panthers
forced Carroll to fight for every yard to its own 39. At that point, Bowers
handed off to McDaniel, who bolted unhampered straight to the end zone.
Later, when Ridge cut the Dragon lead to
3, McDaniel took the ball at his own 25 and swooped around the right end,
hitting the flat at full speed. By midfield, it was obvious no Panther defender
would get near him. He coasted across the goal line untouched.
Ridge stayed in the game for most of the
way. At half, it was 16-6. Early in the 3rd, Panther Brandon Lewis’
33-yard TD sprint brought his team within 3, 16-13.
That would provide the last drama of the
night. Later in the quarter, Carroll scored the first of three unanswered TDs
that finally overwhelmed the Panthers. Those scoring drives demonstrated the
balance in the Dragon attack, ending in a 4-yard burst by McDaniel, a 3-yard
plunge by Eli Furgal and a 15-yard toss from Bowers to R.J. Mickens.
Mickens played brilliantly on both sides
of the ball.
On defense, he was a major disruptor in
the Dragon backfield, batting away passes from Panther quarterback Scottie
Collis (14 of 24, 144) and crushing Ridge runners who had the temerity to enter
his range of play, which is the length and breadth of the field. Is it any
wonder he has offers from a dozen D1 schools?
On offense, he was the Dragons’ leading
receiver, snaring 9 passes for 126 yards.
Ridge was hampered by the absence of its
best receiver, Jaylen Hearst, out with an injury. It also suffered the loss of
its best defensive player, Wyatt Rohmer, when he was booted from the game for
his second unsportsmanlike conduct call on the play before McDaniel’s 4-yard TD
run ignited Carroll’s decisive offensive push.
Collis, who handled most of the signal
calling for the Panthers, spent most of the night throwing to Aharanne Pacheco,
who caught 9 passes for 165 yards and 1 TD.
That TD was Ridge’s first and set up an
unusual series of events as the Panthers attempted the point after. On their
first try, the Dragons blocked the kick, then recovered the ball and carried it
to the 40-yard line. A penalty, however, gave Ridge another shot.
But Dragon defender Michael Parrish
blocked the second attempt, too, and Graham Faloona scooped it up and ran it
back for 2 points.
For Parrish, another Dragon defensive
standout, blocking extra points and field goals has become old hat. Not even his
coach knows how many he’s accomplished.
“He’s relentless,” head coach Riley Dodge
said of Parrish “He’s always well-prepared, he pays attention to what’s going
on. He’s got 4 or 5, I don’t know how many, this year. It’s really amazing.”
The Dragon defense excelled, limiting
Ridge to 112 rushing yards. Panther runner Brandon Lewis, arguably Ridge’s
offensive stalwart last night, ran 11 yards for 78 yards and 1 TD, snaring a
25-yard pass for another.
Ultimately, however, the Panthers simply
were outclassed. They couldn’t handle the Dragons efficient and lethal balanced
attack, headed up by Bowers and McDaniel.
A Ridge misstep in the 4th
period, when it already trailed by 3 TDs, put the matter finally to rest. A Panther receiver coughed up the ball at midfield, and Dragon Griffin Gumm pounced
on it. That turnover set up a 26-yard run by Fergal and ended in Mickens’ 15-yard TD reception that put the Dragons ahead by 4 scores.
So Southlake takes another step toward
the District 5-6A championship. Three games remain on its regular season schedule,
road trips to Keller Central next week and V.R. Eaton the week after. It ends the season at home, facing Keller Timber Creek on Senior Night, Nov. 9.
They will be strong favorites in all those
contests, and a perfect season culminating in a district championship doesn’t
sound unreasonable at all.
It’s too early to think about the playoffs,
of course, but who can resist? Carroll almost certainly will end up in Division I,
the “large school” classification. This year that's the hardest route to the state
finals, but the Dragons will play the teams that the UIL says they must play.
One possible opponent in the first round?
The hated Coppell Cowboys, an old and despised Dragon foe. There’s no love lost
between Coppell and Southlake fan bases for reasons now obscured by time. Could it be because they're so much alike? But enough of such heresy. If that’s what comes to pass, so be it.
First up, another trip to shabby Keller
ISD Stadium. Oh, boy.
Go Dragons!
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