Area rout: Southlake Carroll 41, DeSoto 20

A thorough beatdown

MANSFIELD – The Southlake Carroll Dragons, peaking at precisely the right moment in their storybook season, strode confidently into Vernon Newsom Stadium yesterday and easily dispatched the well-regarded DeSoto Eagles to advance to the third round of the playoffs.

Carroll, 12-0 and playing to perfection on both sides of the ball, gave the hapless Eagles what amounted to a classroom demonstration of the unstoppable force of team discipline, inspirational leadership and clockwork execution.

The shaken Eagles never stirred, succumbing meekly to a relentless Dragon offense and a pitiless Dragon defense.

The triumphant Dragons now face an old foe, the 10-1 Euless Trinity Trojans, in the Division I, Region I semi-finals this Friday in UNT’s Apogee Stadium in Denton. It will be a jim-dandy, for sure.

But first, let’s talk about yesterday.

Third straight

It was the third straight year that the Dragons have faced the Eagles in the second round of the playoffs. They beat DeSoto last year 33-15 in a tough contest that featured the stellar play of T.J. McDaniel, who rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Will Bowers, who passed for 170 yards and 3 TDs.

In 2016, it was a different story. Shawn Robinson, who now plays for TCU, was the DeSoto quarterback, and he led the hard-nosed Eagles to a 48-30 victory. And if you go all the way back to 2012, there was the 49-45 heartbreaker at SMU’s Ford Stadium, when a determined Eagle defense kept Kenny Hill out of the end zone three times from the 1.

In short, DeSoto is no pushover. It’s a good program, strong in talent and discipline and well coached. Which makes the results of yesterday’s contest all the more remarkable – and noteworthy.

The final score, which reflects a couple of late-game TDs by DeSoto, doesn’t properly communicate the thoroughness of the beatdown or the completeness of the Southlake victory.

But perhaps this does. When DeSoto received a Dragon kickoff midway in the 2^nd quarter, a holding penalty moved the ball to the Eagle 35. That represented the deepest penetration of DeSoto in the game up to that moment. With Carroll already leading by four scores, 28-0, DeSoto had yet to make a first down.

Eagle quarterback Shun’Darion Ward, harassed all day by an inspired Dragon defense, seized on that rare opportunity and hefted a 50-yard pass that set up DeSoto at the Dragon 15. Two Ward passes later, the Eagles scored their only TD of the first half, then suffered the indignity of seeing linebacker Michael Parrish block the extra point.

Ward, a heralded double-threat quarterback known to favor the long ball, was off target most of the day, thanks to a surging Dragon pass rush and a stiff southern breeze that kept the flags taut. The wind affected both teams, but it had less impact on the short-pass scheme employed by the Dragons' Bowers.

Ward finished the game with 21 of 42 for 220 yards and 1 interception. He ran 5 times for 22.

Lethal on the ground

At the half, the Eagles, trailing 31-6, had 23 total rushing and 103 passing yards. By game’s end, they were able to manage only 68 and 220.

The extraordinary McDaniel performed as expected in the Eagle rout, racking up 163 yards on 23 carries and rolling to two touchdowns.

As lethal as he was on the ground, McDaniel also proved adept in the air, leading the Dragons in receiving with 3 passes for 77 yards. Most of the yards came on a 63-yard pass from Bowers that set up the Dragons’ first score, a 15-yard dash by the senior quarterback.

In transforming McDaniel into a passing threat, the Carroll coaching staff continues to produce tweaks to the offensive game plan that keeps the Dragons unpredictable, dangerous and, and yes, fun.

Bowers was calm and steady in managing the game. As expected, the Dragon ground game dominated the offensive strategy. He completed 6 of 17 passes for 122 yards and ran for 49 yards, scoring the Dragons' initial two touchdowns within the first 5 minutes of the game and then keeping the scoring fires burning bright.

Standout defensive back R.J. Mickens, who also lines up at receiver and fields kickoffs and punts, also performed some heroics on the ground. Fielding a razzle-dazzle reverse from McDaniel, he plunged 17 yards for the Dragons’ third unanswered score.

Receivers lining up as runners, and runners snagging passes. It was a world gone mad yesterday, and the Dragon Nation, which traveled to Mansfield in force to watch their resurgent Dragons cruise past the Eagles, loved it.

Carroll’s offensive front, which has performed magnificently all season, manhandled the Eagles’ highly respected defense, blowing it off the line on play after play. In capping one scoring drive, McDaniel glided untouched through the center of the Eagle line to cross the goal line with ease.

Even the Dragon kicking game got into the act, with the reliable Joe McFadden booting field goals of 43 and 21 yards to gild the lily.

The Dragon defense, which has performed superbly all season, was equally impressive yesterday. Denied room to move on the ground, Ward was forced to the air. He enjoyed some success against the Dragon secondary, but only late in the game – after Carroll had ended its scoring at 41 and the Dragon Marching Band officially declared victory by playing “Hey, Baby.”

Linebacker Parrish played lights out against the Eagles, blocking the PAT and styming a fake punt that gave the Dragons excellent field position at the Eagle 24 and set up one of McFadden’s field goals.

“This was our best defensive performance so far,” he told Dragon Radio after the game. “We took it to them.”

Relentless all night

Head coach Riley Dodge, agreed, telling The Dallas Morning News, “Our defense played a heck of a game. Just relentless all night.”

As for Trinity, Dodge said his team will go through their regular preparations.

“They’ll come in Monday morning with eyes wide open, and we’ll get to work,” he told Dragon radio. “We’ll figure it out.”

The News couldn’t resist drawing comparisons between the upcoming Trinity match with the classic game played by the two teams in 2006. Both were returning state champions who met in the second round of the playoffs in old Texas Stadium.

Southlake came out on top, but just barely. Riley Dodge, then the quarterback playing for his father, the legendary Todd Dodge, won the game 22-21 with a 2-yard TD plunge in the closing seconds.

It still is the best high school football game I’ve ever watched. At the end, as the Trojans performed the haka before their fans, a tradition at Trinity win or lose, I wasn’t the only Dragon supporter with tears in my eyes. I know. I guess you had to be there.

Friendly rivals

Remarkably, Carroll and Trinity are friendly rivals, located only 10 miles apart, with dramatically different fan bases. Euless is gritty and working class. Southlake is upscale and ritzy. But respect and admiration mark the relationship between the two programs.

 Most Dragons fans would agree with me when I say that I always root for the Trojans except when they play the Dragons. No Carroll-Trinity game I’ve ever seen has disappointed, even the ones we lost.

In their first two playoff games this year against worthy opponents, the Dragons have been able to bring in backups in the late stages. Will they be able to accomplish that against the tough-as-nails Trojans? I doubt it.

I suspect it’ll be a close-run affair, with plenty of drama and lots of smash-mouth football. It’ll be great to watch, and if you love high school football, you’d be a fool to miss it. I’ll see you there.

Go Dragons!

The simple pleasures of Thanksgiving

Following tradition

Thanksgiving Day has dawned bright and gorgeous in Grapevine, the kind of day that inspires joy and a spirit of peace and contentment in venerable Gunnels Manse.

Despite the seismic changes that have occurred around here of late – Marice and I finally have achieved the dreaded empty nest – traditions are being followed.

The applies I peeled and sliced last night have been turned into a delicious pie, despite Marice’s misgivings about the amount of sugar added, also a tradition strictly observed.

The apple pie joined a beautiful pecan pie on the cooling rack. And even though the pecans no longer come from the trees grown by my grandmother in the sandy loam of West Texas, the pie will be wonderful, as always.

Later today, the kids will show up, and we’ll be a united family again for a few hours. Rachel and Ethan top the list of things I’m most thankful for on this day of national thanksgiving. They represent my only real accomplishment of note, and I am exceedingly proud of them.

Like families across this country, we will try to avoid talking about politics today. But I strongly suspect we will fail because things are not normal in this country, and no amount of pretending they are will change that.

Luckily for us, there will be no serious arguments over turkey and cranberries. Marice and I have raised a couple of strong progressives, which is to say, liberals. Lest you think we politically indoctrinated our children, I assure you we did not. But when Marice and I talked about work and the world around us, they listened and drew their own conclusions.

Today, they are people of strong mind, stout heart and sturdy character who conduct themselves with honesty, integrity and compassion. If things ever get better in this country, it will be because of people like them.

So political discourse will have to wait. Today, we’ll concentrate on other things – Rachel’s impending move, Ethan’s new job, Marice’s latest home improvement project, my empty threats to strangle the Westie if she doesn’t stop barking. We will simply enjoy being a family again. The future, with all its problems, complications and disturbances, will come soon enough.

To all of you, family and friends, my wish is that you, too, will spend today enjoying the simple pleasures of being around the people you love. In the end, they are all we have.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bi-District win: Southlake Carroll 54, Coppell 10

Something to prove

Southlake Carroll running back T.J. McDaniel acknowledged he had something to prove Saturday when the Dragons faced their oldest rivals, the Coppell Cowboys, in the first round of the 2018 playoffs.

And prove it he did.

McDaniel, who transferred to Carroll from Coppell for his junior year, led the fire-breathing Dragon offense, both on the ground and – shockingly – in the air, to its 11^th-straight win this year.

The Dragons meet the DeSoto Eagles in the area round next Saturday at Vernon Newsom Stadium in Mansfield.

“I knew there was going to be quite a bit of physical play today,” McDaniel told Dragon Radio after the game. “And there was. I guess they felt they had something to prove to me. And I had something to prove to them, too.”

Head coach Riley Dodge, who now has enjoyed the most successful first season as any Carroll head coach in history, knew Coppell was likely to key on McDaniel, the mainstay of the Dragon offense all season.

In anticipation, he and his staff prepared an offensive scheme for the game with a few distinctive twists, such as using the SMU commit as a receiver in certain situations.

No answer

It worked exceedingly well. McDaniel ran for 313 yards on 29 carries and made four rushing touchdowns. And he caught two Will Bowers passes for 27 yards and another score. The overmatched Cowboys, forced to contend with an elusive, hard-running rusher and a slippery, sure-handed receiver, had no answer.

Dodge said he understood McDaniel’s determination to perform well against his former teammates.

“I think that definitely had something to do with the way he played today,” Dodge said in a post-game radio interview. “His family has roots in Coppell. He played with some of these guys. But I’m proud of the way he prepared. He went about his business and treated it as just another game.”

Meanwhile, the Dragon defense picked the Coppell game to turn in its best performance of the year, both in the eyes of its coach and in my less-experienced but no less enthusiastic opinion.

“They were relentless,” Dodge said simply.

Linebacker Colton Hunter said the key to the D’s success wasn’t mysterious at all.

“The coach emphasizes getting off the ball quickly,” Hunter said. “And we did.”

One statistic tells it all. Coppell’s total rushing yards yesterday? 30 on 31 carries. Carroll’s defensive front, playing without standout nose guard Quentin Bunton, who suffered a knee injury last week, neutralized Cowboy quarterback Drew Cerniglia and corralled running back Ryan Hirt.

Meager impact

Cerniglia fared better in the air, completing 12 of 17 for 160, but with meager impact.

The Dragons held the Cowboys scoreless until the last 2 minutes of the first half after coasting to a comfortable – and as it turned out, unassailable – 24-point lead.

Only then did Coppell finally put together an effective drive, powered by a pair of Cerniglia passes and a late-hit call against the Dragons. That brought Coppell inside the Dragon red zone, where the drive stalled after the Cowboy quarterback was sacked on a 3^th-and-16 at the 25. Coppell had to settle for a 42-yard field goal from its superb kicker, Caden Davis.

Coppell would not score again until late in the 4^th, long after the Dragon defense, with Carroll holding a 45-3 lead, began thinking about next week’s matchup with DeSoto.

The Cowboys, facing the fury of an inspired Dragon D-line, kept shooting itself in the foot. At least two drives were ruined by bad snaps that led to quarterback sacks.

The bad blood between these two programs, which goes back decades, finally surfaced late in the game after Carroll starters had departed. As McDaniel noted, it had been a hard-hitting game all afternoon, and Coppell’s frustration with the butt-kicking being administrated by the Dragons finally boiled over.

Fielding a Carroll punt at about the Coppell 30, the returner veered to the right sideline where he encountered a cluster of Dragon defenders at the 42. As he fought for more yardage, the Cowboy threw a punch at his tormentors, causing Carroll fans to gasp in shock.

He didn’t connect, but game officials took a dim view of the matter, penalizing Coppell back to its own 7. Another bad snap backed Coppell up another 5 yards. Two plays later, Taj Gregory, Cerniglia’s reliever, bobbled a snap and was pushed out of the back of the end zone for a safety, adding insult to the injury already felt by the suffering Cowboys, who finish the season 7-4.

His first at his last

For the Dragons, some good came from the Coppell fiasco. On the drive following the ensuing free kick, backup quarterback Blake Smith brought his team to the 3, where senior backup RB Matthew Broadway, playing in his last game in Dragon Stadium, made Carroll’s final score – and his first varsity touchdown.

But it was starting QB Will Bowers and McDaniel who powered the Dragons’ domineering performance. Bowers was 14 of 19 for 166 yards and 2 TDs. His leading receiver was the remarkable R.J. Mickens, 3-58, who played brilliantly in all three phases for Carroll. WR John Manero also stood out, snagging five Bowers throws for 45 yards and a touchdown.

And then there was McDaniel, who unleashed the Dragon scoring spree on the third play of the game with a heart-pounding 70-yard TD sprint down the left side. For McDaniel, it was nothing special. In the two previous games, he scored on the first play of the game.

His second TD came near the end of the 1^st quarter, when he sprinted 24 yards, hurtled a Cowboy tackler at the goal line and arrived in the end zone up right and sassy.

All in all, it was a perfect day. Just perfect. The weather was flawless, bright sunshine with a cool southwestern breeze. I actually got a bit of a sunburn. The week before Thanksgiving. That’s Texas for you.

Love the shellacking

As for the game itself, purists will tell you that blowouts don’t qualify as good games. I don’t disagree. But it’s good to see your team perform at a high level at the point in the season when it matters most. Beyond that, I loved the shellacking the Dragons gave the Cowboys. That program deserves it.

Coppell fans and players, by and large, are arrogant, rude and boorish. Not all, I’ll grant you. But many. I vividly remember one home game when Coppell students taunted the Carroll Marching Band and pelted it with soft drinks and other debris as the band kids waited to go on the field. We should have called the dogs on them.

And the thrown punch yesterday? I’ve seen such things at the end of a play, when youthful tempers flare. But to take a swing at an opponent to gain an advantage while the play is developing? That’s all kinds of wrong.

The irony is that the Dragon most responsible for the Coppell angst, the worthy McDaniel, has friends on the Cowboys, including his best friend, wide receiver/defensive back Jonathan McGill, another SMU commit.

“A lot of those guys are going to be my friends forever,” he told radio interviewer Chuck Kelly. “But today, they were my enemies.”

He said he and McGill probably will be roommates next year at SMU. They both knew that this game would end the season for one of them.

“I hate that he’s going home, but that’s the way it is,” McDaniel said. “I know that he’s going to be behind me for the rest of the season. I know that he’s going to be a Dragon fan from here on. I can’t love that guy enough.”

Hollywood moment

One of the topics for conversation between the roommates could be the play in which McDaniel uncharacteristically coughed up the ball inside the red zone as the Dragons were closing in for their fourth score. The Cowboy who recovered it? One Jonathan McGill. (The moment is captured in the photo below.) 

So DeSoto looms next. The Dragons will have their hands full with the 9-2 Eagles. Playoff games against the Eagles are always exciting, hard-fought affairs. Carroll ended DeSoto’s season last year with a 33-15 win.

The Eagles, who slipped past a good but not great Skyline 55-53 on Friday, are not the frightening juggernaut of previous years. But you can bet they’ll play tough and rough next week in Mansfield.  

Dodge says his team will be ready. And I believe him, based on the game story in today’s Dallas Morning News. In it, McDaniel, a senior, talked eloquently about the powerful emotional bond that girds the Carroll squad together and drives the Dragons to keep winning.

“After the season’s over, you don’t see them,” McDaniel told reporter Joe Hoyt, speaking of his teammates. “That’s why we talk about keeping the brotherhood alive because when football is over, these juniors, these sophomores, even the freshmen, they won’t see us anymore.”

Go Dragons!

Stan Lee, the man from Marvel

First Friday joy

When I was a kid, the first Friday of the month was a red-letter day.

That’s when new comic books arrived at the local 7-Eleven, a short bicycle ride down Birdwell Lane from my parent’s house in Big Spring.

And by comic books, I don’t been the anemic, boring and predictable DC staples like Superman or Batman, or the childish and ridiculous Archie.

I mean Marvel – Spider-Man, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and all the rest of Stan Lee’s ground-breaking superheroes who redefined the comic-book industry.

Marvel heroes were multi-dimensional – full of ego, angst and self-doubt. They spoke in the vernacular of the early 1960s –  clever taunts, witty comebacks and lots of attitude. Unlike the steady, sturdy and dependable Superman or the dull-as-dishwater Batman and the insufferable Robin, Marvel characters were imperfect and rough around the edges. They kept you guessing – and reading.

And behind all of these wonderful characters stood the grinning face of Stan Lee, the man who along with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and a few others, transformed a moribund comic-book company into an industry giant that took on and eventually eclipsed market-leading DC Comics. Today, it seems like every fifth movie released from Hollywood is about one of the compelling characters who emerged from Lee’s fertile imagination.

Stan Lee died today at the age of 95, a great man who lived long enough to see and understand his impact on his industry and on the entertainment community.

I mourn his passing because with him a little more of my distant youth slip slides away. But I also celebrate the brilliant creativity – and quirky sense of humor – that helped transport a pimply face kid out of the dusty oblivion of West Texas into the wonder of a wider and more magical world.

On those first Fridays so long ago, my friends and I would wait impatiently for the trip to 7-Eleven to catch up on the adventures of our favorite Marvel characters. I was a Spider-Man devotee. Scott liked Iron Man, and Eugene favored the Fantastic Four (mostly the Human Torch).

We knew from experience that the newly arrived comics wouldn’t be displayed on the racks near the checkout counter until mid-afternoon. Our regular activities were put on hold. The anticipation made it too hard to concentrate on anything else.

We had saved our money for weeks in anticipation of this day. And we knew to the penny what our budgets could bear.

Comics sold for 12 cents a copy. Candy bars were a nickel and cokes (a generic term despite the efforts of Coca-Cola) were 15 cents a bottle. If we were lucky, and if we had managed our limited cash supplies well, we would be able to buy all our favorite comic books and still have enough for a Dr Pepper, a package of peanuts and several candy bars.

When the magic hour finally arrived, we’d leap on our bikes – mine was a stripped-down Hawthorne from Montgomery Wards – and race to the store.

Selection was quick and easy. We didn’t have to look at the covers to make our choices. We simply grabbed our favorites, hit the candy rack and pulled drinks out of the refrigerated case.

Three minutes later, we were back on the bikes and headed home.

Routine was rigid – and strictly followed. First, the peanuts went into the Dr Pepper, then the candy was unwrapped. Only then, refreshments at the ready, did we examine our treasures.

We carefully perused the covers. If Stan Lee was listed as a writer, our hearts leaped. Lee wrote the best stories, his plots were the most imaginative, his dialogue the most fun and idiosyncratic. Our appetites whetted, we carefully opened the magazines and submerged ourselves in the delightful Marvel universe.

Hours later, we would emerge, our souls replenished and our imaginations re-energized. It’s possible, of course, that our soaring spirits were simply sugar highs from the Dr Peppers and candy. Possible. But no. Mostly, it was Stan Lee and Marvel. Of that, I’m sure.

Once our reading marathon was over, I carefully would wrap my comics in cellophane and place them in a drawer in my room where I kept my growing collection.

By the time my comic-reading days were over, that meticulously preserved collection – which included dozens of early-edition Spider-Man books – numbered close to 200. I often wonder what it would be worth today.

I’ll never know. During one of my trips home from college, I discovered to my utter horror that my mother had tossed out the entire collection, convinced that I had put aside such childish things and moved on.

Even now, the memory brings a dull ache. My sweet mother, when she saw the anguished look on my face, was horrified in turn. I tried to reassure her, as best I could through the pain, that it was no big deal. I doubt she believed me.

Here’s the irony. My treasured Spider-Mans were dispatched to the garbage bin. But the Playboy magazines I had hidden for years in the back of my closet – which I’m sure my mother discovered during one of her cleaning binges – remained untouched. I’ve often wondered why, but I was always too embarrassed to ask.

Perfect season: Southlake Carroll 53, Keller Timber Creek 13

A night to remember

Cameron Shoupp, a backup linebacker for Southlake Carroll, was one of the beneficiaries of the Dragons’ dismemberment of the hapless Timber Creek Falcons last night in Dragon Stadium.

Shoupp, a senior, got plenty of playing time against Creek, and he still was a bit giddy about it when Dragon Radio stuck a microphone in his face after the game.

“It was cool, really cool,” he bubbled, before turning his thoughts to the scene of his glory.

“This is the last regular season game we’ll play here,” he said of the Dragons’ home field. “Of course, we’ll meet Coppell here next week, but it’s kind of sad to think about never playing here again.”

I suspect many senior Dragon players were having similar nostalgic tugs at the thought of putting their playing days at Dragon Stadium behind them. Many have played games there since they were grade schoolers as members of the Red Dragons, White Dragons or Blue Dragons of Dragon Youth Football.

But the nostalgia didn’t stop the Dragons from punctuating the regular season in a definitive way and handing Riley Dodge the perfect ending to his first year as a head coach.

When he got the top job, many thought Dodge, son and grandson of legendary high school football coaches, was too young and too inexperienced to handle a premier program like Carroll.

But the modest and unassuming Dodge, at least in public, accomplished something few freshly minted head coaches anywhere – including here in Southlake – can claim: He’s 10-0 in his first season.

Dodge declined to dwell on that in post-game interviews. Instead, he turned the focus on his players.

“We get better every week,” he said when asked about the secret to Dragon success. “These kids work so hard, and they are so coachable. We get in the film room and clean some things up. They’ve achieved a lot so far, and they deserve the credit.”

Last night, the Dragons charted the course of the game in its first few seconds.

After recovering an onside kick from the desperate Falcons, cellar-dwellers in District 5-6A, 2-8 for the season, 1-6 in district, the Dragons set up shop at their own 49.

Quarterback Will Bowers, who entered the game with a 70 percent completion rate, then dropped back and lofted a 51-yard touchdown pass to Glenn Michell. It was the second straight week in which the Dragons scored on the first play of the game.

Bowers had another excellent night, completing 11 of 17 passes for 224 yards and 2 TDs. Mitchell led the receiving corps with 2 catches for 107 yards. But he made the most of his opportunities. Both receptions ended in touchdowns, the latter a 56-yard toss from Bowers.

R.J. Mickens caught 5 for 65, and Carson White caught 4 for 64, including a 10-yard touchdown throw from quarterback Blake Smith, who took over from Bowers late in the 3^rd period.

McDaniel only played the first half, but he ran for 125 yards on 7 carries and scored three TDs before turning over rushing duties to senior Eli Furgal.

A lengthy playoff run by the Dragons will depend on the success of McDaniel, and the idea seems to be to provide him with plenty of rest before the post-season ordeal begins next week against the Coppell Cowboys.

Furgal’s success in his backup role – and the quality of Dragon opponents – have allowed Dodge and his staff to pull McDaniel early in the last three games without a noticeable falloff in production.

Last night, Furgal ran 7 times for 53 yards, including a 32-yard TD scamper in which he broke at least three tackles, twisted out of a couple of more and plunged upright into the end zone. It was a classic combination of power running, determination and sheer grit.

The Dragon defense had another flawless game, bottling up Falcon quarterback Jason Avers (10 of 22 for 132 yards and 1 INT) and his pair of running backs, Blake Irving (20-75) and Jacob Yochim (9-73).

The Falcons’ only scores came on a 13-yard run by Irving in the 2^nd set up by a muffed punt reception by the Dragons, and a TD drive in the 4^th long after Dragon defensive starters had taken a seat.

 All thoughts now turn to the playoffs. As first seed in 5-6A, the Dragons get home-field advantage against Coppell, the second seed in District 6-6A, in the bi-district round.

Coppell, which defeated lowly Irving Nimitz 35-17 last night, has had a desultory year, 5-2 in district and 7-3 overall. That’s a respectable record for most teams, but I’m sure Coppell fans aren’t satisfied. They're an arrogant and privileged bunch.

Coppell lost to the Allen juggernaut by a reasonable 21-0 and fell to district rivals Flower Mound, 6-6A champion, and Lewisville.

Best believe the Cowboys will come into Southlake next Saturday loaded for bear. As one of the few programs to enjoy victory in Dragon Stadium, Coppell lusts to be a Dragon killer once again.

But it is dangerous, not lethal. The Cowboys won three of their games by a score of only 1 or 2 points. If the Dragon defense plays to its potential, as it has for most of the season, it should be able to handle Cowboy quarterback Drew Cerniglia and running back De Heath.

Dodge said last night that his team is ready for the playoffs and eager to face an old and hated foe.

“We’ll enjoy this win for 24 hours, and then we’ll get ready for next week,” he said. “We’re looking forwarding to a playoff game at home against an old rival like Coppell. It’s all good.”

Does getting ready for the playoffs mean Dodge, a former Dragon quarterback, will dye his hair blonde like his players?

“That’s a negative,” he said emphatically. “I did that from the 6^th grade through the 12^th grade. That’s enough.”

Here’s hoping his reluctance doesn’t bring retribution from the football gods, who are jealous gods and mindful of careless slights of tradition.

Go Dragons!

District champs: Southlake Carroll 45, V.I. Eaton 0

Over before it began

JUSTIN – The numbers tell the story of how the Southlake Carroll Dragons clinched a 5-6A District title last night after obliterating the V.R. Eaton Eagles of Northwest ISD before a home crowd gathered to celebrate Senior Night.

First downs – Southlake 29, Eaton 3

Total yards – Southlake 565, Eaton 70

Punts – Southlake 0, Eaton 8 (35 avg)

And trust me, as dismal as those statistics appear for the Eagles, they fail to adequately illustrate how thorough the thrashing administered by the Dragons.

The Dragon offense was clicking on the ground and in the air.

McDaniel, who finished the night with 118 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown, made more yards on the first play of the game than Eaton did all night.

Quarterback Will Bowers, who entered the game with a 68 percent completion rate, peppered passes all over the field, completing 22 of 30 for 290 yards and 2 TDs.

Eight Dragon receivers caught in double digits, testimony to Carroll’s success in the air. Carson White (4-76-1 TD) led the pack, followed by R.J. Mickens (4-74-1 rushing TD), John Manero (4-48, 1TD), Glenn Mitchell (5-44), Eli Furgal (2-37, 2 rushing TDs), Eric Windham (3-29), Karsen Loveless (1-27) and Greydon Williams (2-23).

Bowers and his receivers need to work on the long ball as the Dragons ready for the playoffs two weeks from now, but the Dragon signal-caller looked sharp, focused and in charge last night.

And what can you say about the Carroll defense? It was simply magnificent, firing on all cylinders and making it impossible for Eaton quarterback Amari Blount to mount any kind of challenge to Dragon dominance.

 Although Eaton entered the game with a mediocre 5-3, 2-3 record, it had been a factor in all the games it played this year, at least in the first half. But it sputtered from the opening TD dash by McDaniel and remained virtually inert from start to finish.

Its two-back rushing attack, which had received some buzz before the game, could manage only a meagre 16 yards all night. That’s no typo. Sixteen yards. The Emerald Belles could have mustered a better performance. Come to think of it, they did.

Offensive highlights for the Eagles were skimpy to say the least. The only one of any note occurred at the beginning of the 2^nd quarter when Blount, playing at full strength after an injury-plagued season, completed a 56-yard pass that carried his team deep into Dragon territory. The drive stalled at the 27, and Eaton attempted a 44-yard field goal. It was unsuccessful, an emblematic moment that reflected Eagle fortunes all night.

All the while, the Dragon offensive never sputtered. Even when the Eagle defense attempted to slow the momentum, Bowers and company overwhelmed it. On four separate occasions, it successfully converted third downs for 10 yards or more, at least two for scores.

On its second possession of the game, Carroll demonstrated the McDaniel strike was no fluke. Bowers crafted a 15-play, 84-yard drive on the ground and through the air. He capped it when he faked a handoff to McDaniel, drifted to the right, then twisted and threw a cross-body pass to White in the left flat.

The Dragons punctuated the 1^st quarter came with an 11-play, 64-play scoring drive. It culminated with a 19-yard Bowers pass to Manero as he crossed in front of the end zone.

With a 3-touchdown lead, and three quarters to play, the evening turned into an offensive showcase of plays the Dragons had been practicing all year in preparation for the playoffs.

Backups played most of the 2^nd half, including quarterback Blake Smith, who completed 4 of 7 for 63 yards and rushed for 41 on 5 carries. He even caught a 2-yard pass.

Smith gets more playing time because the 6-5, 210-pound senior frequently lines up as a tight end.

He was asked after the game how he feels about playing a position other than quarterback.

“That’s what it means to be a Dragon,” Smith said. “You play where the coaches think you are most needed. When Coach Dodge asked me how I felt about playing tight end, I said, ‘Yes, sir, absolutely.’ So they designed some plays for me at that position, and we went from there.”

 Another standout was Furgal, McDaniel’s backup. He rolled up a 100-yard-plus game last week when McDaniel was pulled early after a 2-TD rampage.

Last night, Furgal only managed 18 yards on 9 carries, but he made them count, reaching the end zone twice. As noted above, he also caught a couple of passes for 37 yards.

Riley Dodge noted before the game that his team was plenty motivated for the Eaton matchup. After all, one of its chief goals of the season was to win the district championship, and beating Eaton accomplished that.

Eaton, too, had a stake – its playoff hopes would have been boosted by a win but aren’t completely dashed by its dispiriting loss.

“Our guys just wanted it more,” he said in a interview with Chuck Kelly. “They went out and played hard tonight. Things are coming together.”

Later in that interview, Dodge said something you don’t often hear from a football coach. Perhaps it’s because he’s a rookie head coach, still enjoying the luxury of an unbeaten season. Or perhaps it’s because this batch of Dragons, despite modest expectations before the season, truly are something special.

Asked the traditional question that coaches get as the brink of the playoffs – what does your team need to do to get ready – Dodge chose to answer this way.

“We played a complete game tonight,” he said. “I’m so proud of the way our guys approached this game and played hard for the entire night.

“We’re peaking at the right time. The team is performing at a high level. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

I like the sound of that. But the way of the playoffs is a rocky one, particularly on the D-1 side of the bracket, which is where Carroll almost certainly will land. Before we focus on playoff prospects, and attempt to unravel the byzantine mysteries of how the UIL runs the post season, Senior Night for the Dragons beckons.

Their final regular season opponents are the Keller Timber Creek Falcons, which fell last night to Keller Central. At 2-7, the Falcons should be easy pickings for the fire-breathers from Southlake. Here’s hoping that Carroll backups will have another lengthy opportunity to play under Friday Night lights.

Go Dragons!

A son – and life’s great adventure

Just the two of us, again

When my son moves into his own apartment this weekend, my wife and I will have the house to ourselves for the first time in more than 26 years.

We raised two kids in the two-story, red-brick house at the top of a hill in northwest Grapevine. At times, I know it must have sounded to our neighbors like we were killing each other. Yelling, wailing, shrieking, pounding, rattling, slamming. And the kids made a lot of noise, too.

Life in the Gunnels Manse has rarely been quiet and orderly. Gladiator bouts in the Roman Coliseum were more sedate than the scenes played inside and out of the Gunnels homestead.

Those wild and crazy days are largely gone, replaced by relative serenity as our children have grown older, gone away to college, returned and eventually moved out again.

The final stage

The only sound now emanating from the Gunnels household is me shouting at the West Highland terrier to stop barking at the gnat she just heard burp in the front yard.

For Marice and me, the final stage in our transition to empty nesters approaches. Soon, our son Ethan will gather the belongings he cares about – and the crap we’ve purchased for his new apartment – and depart for Dallas.

His new digs are closer to work and farther from his parents. Perfect.

We’ve been lucky as such things go. When our kids went away to college, they didn’t travel far – just up the road to the University of North Texas. We continued to see them regularly – Rachel because she kept her weekend job with the Grapevine Railroad, and Ethan because he apparently liked the way I did his laundry.

When Rachel graduated and got a teaching job, she moved back into her old room to save money for a new car and lots of new clothes. Eventually, she grew restless and moved into an apartment across town in Grapevine.

The right fit

By that time, Ethan had moved back home for his last semester at UNT in a cost-saving move of his own. Since his graduation last December, he’s been looking for a job with a future and one that speaks to his soul -- or at least makes him a pile of cash.

Now, he’s found the right fit, and he’s decided it’s time to strike out on his own. A few weeks ago, he announced he was looking for an apartment in Dallas. He signed a contract last week, and moving day is Saturday.

Much as his mother and I would like to stop the train long enough to catch our breaths, I don’t think we have a vote in the matter. Ethan is running the show, and that’s the way it should be.

So Marice is helping him get all the things he needs to set up housekeeping in his efficiency apartment near the M streets in Dallas. Pots, pans, plates, flatware, a crockpot, and that’s just the beginning of a dizzying list of must-haves he and she are stacking in the front room of our home.

Cold, hard world

As for me, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the last few days thinking about all the things I should have taught my son about the cold, hard world he’s entering, a world outside the warm embrace of his parents’ home.

How do you deal with apartment managers when the toilet clogs up? Where’s the safest place for your car in the apartment parking lot? How do you avoid being mugged on the way home from drinks with friends? And on and on. I come up with another 20 or so every night when I wake up in a sweat at 3:30 in the morning.

Intellectually, I know I’m being a little ridiculous. My son traveled alone in Europe two years ago, adapting admirably when an airport cash machine ate his only credit card and traveling solo by train across Switzerland and Germany. On an earlier study-abroad trip to Italy, he prowled the bars in Rome with a friend and had adventures he hasn’t shared with his mother and me. Good lad.

He’s smart and resourceful and utterly unafraid to venture into the unknown. Ethan has a good heart, but he’s nobody’s fool. Still, I wonder if he has a hard enough shell to protect him from the bumps and bruises of life on his own.

I wonder. And I worry.

My job

When I told a friend of mine about my anxieties, he nodded and patted me on the arm.

“That’s good,” he said. “Go ahead and worry. As a father, that’s your job.”

Ethan is a bit bewildered by the funereal expressions he sees on his parents’ faces and our generally downbeat mood.

“I’m moving to Dallas,” he says in exasperation. “Not Kazakhstan!”

The other night, his mother tried to make him promise to come home every week for Sunday dinner.

“Absolutely, not,” he said firmly. Then, seeing the hurt in his mother’s eyes, he added, “OK, maybe a couple of times a month.”

 We’ll see. That’s a lot to ask of a young man on the threshold of a great adventure, with a myriad of possibilities before him and life’s siren call waiting around every corner.

Marice already has plans to paint his bedroom and refurnish it as a guest room. He’s taking most of the furniture, so she’ll have a mostly clean slate with which to work.

Without him

I’m trying to imagine the Gunnels house without him. It took me months after his sister left to quit looking for her white Toyota Rav4 parked at our front curb.

I tear up at the thought of seeing our dining room table without his freshly laundered clothes stacked in piles. I’ve bitched at him incessantly about taking them to his room upstairs. Dear God, how I will miss seeing them there in all their untidy glory.

As I make a glum inventory of the things I’ll miss when he leaves, one thing stands out. I’m stunned at how utterly ordinary – and absolutely remarkable – it is.

Several times a week, my solemn and taciturn son bursts through the front door from the gym and wraps his sweaty, muscled arm around me.

“I love you, Dad,” he says with simple eloquence.

Sweet words that dwell in my heart forever.