Season opener: Southlake Carroll 35, South Grand Prairie 20

A lot to like

I’ll say this about last night’s season opener for the Southlake Carroll Football Dragons.

As unsatisfying as it was to watch the Dragons struggle against a less-talented South Grand Prairie squad, the game most definitely wasn’t the rolling train wreck that last year’s Week 1 contest against the Warriors was. Thank heavens!

In my account here of that game, I described the first half as the worst high school football I’d seen in more than a decade. I wasn’t exaggerating.

Last night was better. Much better. In fact, there was a lot to like about it.

Riley Dodge, beginning his second year as a head coach, wasn’t doing hand springs over his team’s sluggish start, but he was philosophical about it.

“It was a typical first game,” he told Dragon radio. “We have some things we have to clean up, and we will. But we’re in a better position now than we were at this point in the season last year. That’s for sure.”

Here’s what I liked about it.

Full of promise

First of all, sophomore quarterback Quinn Ewers is brimming full of potential. Yes, he’s a sophomore, so occasionally he makes a rookie mistake. But he’s got a powerful arm and the kind of accuracy that makes my mouth water at the prospects of him at the helm of the Dragon offense for the next three years. The kid’s good and the needle is pointing straight up.

His stats last night, while not eye-popping, are impressive considering his tender age and lack of varsity experience. He completed 16 of 26 passes (61.5 percent completion rate) for 1 touchdown.

And he’s got legs. (Who knew?) He carried the ball 6 times for 69 yards and another TD.

Most of those rushing yards came in the third quarter. With the Dragons in Warrior territory, Ewers faked the handoff and plunged through the South Grand Prairie line, sprinting 43 yards untouched for the score.

Dodge had measured praise for his young quarterback’s first outing with the varsity.

“He played a really clean football game,” he said. “We’ll have to look at film tonight, but I think he’s in a good place.”

To compensate a bit for his inexperience, Ewers has a talented, soft-handed receiving corps, led by John Manero (5 catches for 71 yards), Blake Smith (3 for 35, 1 TD) and Wills Meyer (5 for 48). Carroll appears poised to return to the aerial strategy that it employed before the arrival of one T.J. McDaniel, running back extraordinaire.

Take it to heart

Meyer spoke as much in a radio interview after the game.

“Last year, we had T.J. and, well, you know, with T.J., passing wasn’t as, well, important,” he said. "This year, Coach has told us that winning is going to depend on the passing game, and we’ve taken that to heart.”

Speaking of running backs, junior Kannon Kadi, who gained 101 yards on 21 carries, was an unexpected pleasure to watch, displaying a gritty determination to fight up the middle and doing so with good effect. Averaging almost 5 yards per carry, he toted most of the rushing load last night and appeared to establish himself as the primary Dragon running back.

Meanwhile, the Dragon defense, frequently a worry for Carroll fans, showed early promise last night despite some troubling injuries in its secondary. Once superstar R.J. Mickens, out with a foot injury, returns as safety, the Dragon D could be a force to reckon with. It’s instructive to remember than most, if not all, of Carroll’s state championship teams have fielded talented and disciplined defensive units.

As expected, linebackers Graham Faloona and Preston Forney were disruptive all evening, tracking down Warrior runners all over the field. Quinten Bunten ruled the interior Dragon line and Brandon Howell was secondary king.

Don’t be misled by the 35-20 spread against the Warriors. South Grand Prairie’s last 13 points came in the fourth quarter, when the Dragons took their foot off the pedal and began limited rotations. With the end result still in doubt, Dragon defenders stood tall and kicked butt.

In fact, without a pass interference call against the Dragons, the drive that resulted in the Warriors’ first score, a 16-yard pass from Drake Logan to Kelan Robinson midway through the third quarter, would have died near midfield.

Stumbling around

Carroll spent most of the first quarter stumbling over its own feet. After missing a 42-yard field goal earlier in the period, Joe McFadden broke the scoring drought by booting a 40 yarder in the closing minutes.

A few minutes later, Ewers capped an 8-play, 54-yard drive with a 14-yard TD pass to Smith, handing Carroll a 10-0 lead.

After the Warriors turned over the ball on downs during the following series, Ewers marched the Dragons 76 yards in 7 plays before Kadi barreled across the goal line from the 2.

McFadden added a 30-yard field goal to end scoring for the half at 20-0.

The third period proved decisive. South Grand Prairie opened the second half with a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive aided by Dragon miscues.

Carroll responded quickly with a 7-play, 72-yard effort that ended when Ewers’ scamper to the end zone faked out the entire Warrior defense. But the sophomore wasn’t finished. After the Dragons lined up for a 2-point conversion, Ewers lateraled to Meyer and headed for paydirt. Meyer then lofted the ball to his quarterback as he stood alone in the end zone.

At this point, Faloona sealed the deal for the Dragons. After fielding the ensuing kickoff at the 20, the Warriors lined up for the first play of the drive. As Logan received the ball from center, he fumbled it, and Faloona scooped it up and darted into the end zone.

In a matter of 20 seconds, Carroll had added 15 points to the scoreboard and put the game out of reach for South Grand Prairie. The Warriors’ face-saving 13 points in the final period proved meaningless.

Next week, the Dragons cross Highway 26 to face Northeast Tarrant rival Colleyville Heritage. They’ll close out non-district play with a brutal Friday the 13^th trek to West Texas to face the Odessa Panthers in venerable Ratliff Stadium.

Both of those contests should be manageable for the Dragons, as should most in District 5-6A. The exception, of course, is Denton Guyer, which hosts the Dragons on Oct. 4.

Surviving a shootout

Guyer survived a shootout last night with the Aledo Bearcats, 60-57, and looks to be a real beast this year. The Dragons beat the Wildcats with some last-second heroics last year to secure the 5-6A championship. But only by the skin of their teeth. Can they manage a similar outcome this time around? Mebbe. It’ll take a lot of hard work, seasoned with a little luck. Doesn’t everything that’s really worth having?

But as the coaches always say, you play the opponents before you, and you don’t worry about the ones to come. Easy to say. Who can actually do it?

I was struck last night in listening to player radio interviews with the importance they placed on brotherhood. It was heavy on their minds.

Meyer, in particular, talked a lot about it. He’s been plagued with injuries during his football career, and he knows he probably will not be playing at the next level.

“It’s great to be out here, playing with my brothers,” he said. “I missed that when I was out. It feels great to be here, with them. This is something special, very special. We are brothers. We support each other. We’re here for each other.”

The sense of family is strong in Dragon Nation. Perhaps that’s why I love it so much.

Go Dragons!