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 2nd 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!
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