Ignominious exit: Duncanville 51, Southlake Carroll 7

A crushing defense

FRISCO – It wasn’t a victory, it was a slaughter. It wasn’t success, it was a rout. It wasn’t a loss, it was complete humiliation.

The supremely confident and infinitely talented Duncanville Panthers dismissively ejected Southlake Carroll from the playoffs yesterday, bringing to an abrupt end the Dragons’ magical season with a historically domineering performance in The Ford Center at the Star.

It was the worst Dragon playoff defeat in school history. And yes, it was every bit as bad as that sounds.

Five turnovers

The crushing Panther defense ruled the day, forcing five turnovers by the Dragons, sacking QB Will Bowers six times, eventually knocking him out of the game, and rolling up 13 tackles for loss.

Duncanville players told The Dallas Morning News after the game that they have “one of the best defenses in the state.” That’s not hyperbole, either. In fact, they may be understating the power of the Panther defense.

As good as the defense was, and it was breathtakingly good, the Panther offense matched it in athleticism and effectiveness. Dual-threat quarterback Ja’Quinden Jackson, JJ to his teammates, roamed the field at will, charging through gaping holes ripped in the Dragon front by his surging O-line and peppering the flats with short, rifle-aimed passes.

Jackson was rushing leader, running 19 times for 156 yards and three touchdowns. He completed 11 of 15 passes for 124 yards and another score. Running back Trysten Smith (14-91-1TD) also bedeviled Dragon defenders.

But the Duncanville defense will be what Dragon Nation remembers about yesterday’s debacle.

The News said in its game story that the Panthers have scored 10 defensive touchdowns in the last nine games. During that span, they’ve held opponents to only five offensive touchdowns.

Pressure, pressure

“We pressure the quarterback,” Duncanville head coach Reginald Samples told The News' high school columnist Greg Riddle, “so a lot of times he throws in a hurry. And when he is throwing in a hurry, he is not accurate.”

Ask Bowers (12 of 20, 179) about that. Three of his passes were picked off by Panther defensive backs, and two were returned for TDs. Before yesterday, you could count the number of his interceptions all season on one hand and have fingers left over.

Running superstar T.J. McDaniel could do little, rushing 17 times for 91 yards. But that statistic is deceptive since most of those yards came on two lengthy runs, the first a 47-yard burst on Southlake’s second play from scrimmage. That briefly raised Dragon hopes that the day might go differently.

But Carroll would go no further, setting up a 42-yard field goal attempt by kicker Joe McFadden. He flubbed it, the first of two he would miss against the roaring Panthers.

 Two key plays revealed the mettle of the Duncanville squad, its discipline and determination. The first occurred at the end of the first half.

Carroll had just scored its first – and last – touchdown, set up by a 53-yard pass reception by R.J. Mickens, the junior phenom who finished the job two plays later with 16-yard TD catch with 2 minutes left.

 After kicking off to the Panthers, the Dragon defense stiffened, forcing the Panthers to a 3-3 at their own 43. The Dragons, hoping to secure enough time for another shot at the end zone before the break, had called timeouts on the previous two plays.

That’s when the worthy Jackson plunged through the line and darted 30 yards to the Carroll 27. Thanks to the Dragon timeouts, the Panthers had plenty of time. Three plays later, Roderick Daniels Jr. caught a 10-yard Jackson TD pass to send the Panthers into halftime with a 27-7 lead.

A bridge too far

Most of us felt at that moment that a 20-point lead against Duncanville was a bridge too far for the Dragons. That conviction was only strengthened when the Panthers took the second half kickoff and marched authoritatively downfield to extend their lead to 34-7.

To their credit, however, the proud Dragons never gave up. On the next series, Bowers carried his team to its own 45, where the Dragons faced 3-11. He then lofted a ball to Mickens (5-147), who raced for the end zone, closely pursued by Panther defenders.

In the second example of Duncanville resolve, the Panthers caught up with Mickens inside the 5 and knocked the ball loose at the 1. After a scramble in the end zone, Duncanville came up with it, forcing a touchback. From the 20, it swept 80 yards for another TD.

Question: How many teams, with a comfortable 27-point lead and in firm control of the game, would have pursued that particular play to its end?

The rest of the game was academic, and a stream of the Dragon faithful began leaving the Ford Center to make room for Denton Ryan fans arriving to see their team whip Birdville in the third game of the day at Ford.

A thriller

Some of us had arrived early enough to catch the last quarter of the Highland Park-Tyler John
Tyler game, a gut-wrenching, heart-pounding thriller that saw the Scots overcome a 21-point deficit to win 42-35.

We had hoped for some similar heroics by the Southlake stalwarts against the highly touted Panthers. We comforted ourselves with the hopes that the scary statistics compiled by the Duncanville defense all season were a result of the Panthers’ “strength of schedule” and not a reliable indication of their real merit.

Well, gang, we were wrong. Very wrong.

The Panthers are real, and their next opponents, the No. 1 nationally ranked Allen Eagles, had better keep their heads on a swivel or they’ll get them knocked off by the fired-up Panthers.

The News report offered this historical tidbit. Samples, the Panther coach, has taken three teams to the state semi-finals or beyond – Lincoln, Skyline and now Duncanville.

Back in 2014, his Skyline team met Allen in the semi-finals and surged to an 18-point lead. Eagle quarterback Kyler Murray, who won the Heisman Trophy yesterday, then took charge of the game and led his team to a 52-34 comeback win.

Think Samples would like a little payback for that disappointment? Regardless, the Allen-Duncanville game, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. next Saturday at Jerry’s World, promises to be a classic.

The Dragons are done, ending the season 13-1, and it’s a shame that things had to end with the kind of beat down they suffered against the Panthers. But their achievements shouldn’t be forgotten in the charred refuse of defeat. They exceeded every expectation their coaches and their fans harbored for them. And did so with dignity, integrity and respect.

They played like Dragons.

So many questions

Many of their number are graduating: Bowers and McDaniel, much of the receiving corps, Michael Parrish, Henry Mossberg and sizeable numbers of the offensive and defensive lines.

But Mickens is back, as are Brandon Howell and Preston Forney, Blake Smith and Wills Meyer, Graham Faloona and Quinten Bunten.

There will be questions about their young coach, who enjoyed an historic beginning to his head coaching career. For example, does the dreaded “sophomore slump” apply to coaches, as well as athletes?

Riley Dodge has built a solid foundation in the short time he’s been here. He’s reinvigorated a dispirited program and infused the Southlake community with new enthusiasm for its young Dragons.

The future is a mystery, no doubt. But I can honestly say that for the first time in a while, I contemplate the future with a spirit of optimism and excitement, rather than a nagging dread that the best days of this heralded program are behind it.

Happy holidays, everyone. And go Dragons!