Keeping it interesting
GRAPEVINE – The Southlake Carroll Dragons
made short work of the Colleyville Heritage Panthers last night. Ho-hum. No
news there.
At least the Dragons kept it interesting, for
the first half anyway, by staging a trio of disappointing, but not particularly
alarming, mistakes that spoiled scoring opportunities but avoided a
stadium-emptying exit at half-time.
But why dwell on that, I say, before
stating the obvious – Colleyville was overmatched, outplayed and generally
outclassed from the opening kickoff.
Southlake’s sophomore quarterback, Quinn
Ewers, and his talented receiving corps provided an entertaining offensive demonstration.
And the Dragon defense smothered the Panthers, limiting them to only three
first downs and 163 total yards, 90 of which came on an electrifying catch and
run by receiver Isaac Shabay midway through the second quarter.
Better and better
Ewers looks better with each offensive
drive. He threw for 307 yards and two touchdowns, completing 23 of 39 passes
with a single INT. His completion percentage would have been more impressive but
for several dropped passes by his normally soft-handed receivers. Perhaps it
was the heat.
Because it was hot, brothers and sisters.
Hot. So hot in fact that the game was delayed for 30 minutes in hopes the heat
would abate a bit for the participants on the field. That decision was prompted
when one of Carroll’s players collapsed after pregame warmups and was taken
away in an ambulance. Dragon radio reported later the unnamed player was doing OK.
It was pretty unpleasant in the west-facing
visitor stands, too. Radio reported that a Dragon fan also had collapsed in the
heat before kickoff. I don’t doubt it. Waiting for the game to start, with the sinking
sun shining directly in my face and sweat pooling on the metal bench beneath me,
I had a pretty good idea what it feels like to be a slice of bacon sizzling in a
frying pan.
But back to the game. If you live in Northeast
Tarrant County, you know there’s no love lost between Southlake and
Colleyville, two upscale communities who have more in common than either would
like to admit. In the past, the Dragons and Panthers have been in the same
district and regularly clashed on the gridiron and in the other sports.
Much darker
Unlike the mutual feelings of respect and
even affection that define Southlake Carroll’s relationship with its other
Northeast Tarrant rival, the Euless Trinity Trojans, the Southlake-Colleyville
dynamic is much darker.
Panther football fans have a chip on their
shoulders about the Dragons, and the reason seems petty and unnecessary to me. Colleyville
has never beaten Southlake in football. Never ever. It’s a failure that rankles,
and it has created a brooding resentment that reveals itself in a number of
ways.
Like the nasty note some Colleyville fan
left on my windshield last night because they were annoyed at the way I parked
in their portion of the parking lot. Granted, Dragon fans can be pretty arrogant
when Carroll is flying high – and I’d acknowledge the possibility we were
relatively insufferable in the early aughts when state championship trophies were
raining on Southlake – but Colleyville’s attitude still seems, well,
un-neighborly.
The Dragons struck first last night, staging
a grinding 14-play, 70-yard drive capped by a 1-yard TD plunge by running back
Kannon Kapri. It took up almost half the quarter and was followed by a
successful 2-point conversion by Graham Faloona, who took the snap from center
and darted easily into the end zone. It was the first of three such conversions
by the Dragons.
The Dragon defense stopped the Panthers cold
on their first drive, and when the ball was snapped over the punter’s head, he
kicked out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
Kapi tacked on another TD on the next
drive, followed by a Faloona 2-point plunge, and the Dragons led 18-0 with
almost 4 minutes left in the first period.
Dragon misfire
On the next drive, Ewers led the Dragons to
the Panther red zone when he misfired, missing his target, receiver supreme
Wills Meyer, and getting picked off by a Colleyville defender.
The Panthers could not capitalize on the
mistake, however, and turned the ball over on downs. Four plays later, from the
Colleyville 40, Ewers zipped a pass to receiver John Manero, who struggled across
the 20 and fought for more yards before a swarm of defenders jolted the ball
from his hands and recovered it on their own 10.
Two plays later, Panther quarterback A.J.
Smith found Shabay, who sped 90 yards down the left sideline to the end zone,
fruitlessly pursued by a gaggle of Dragon defenders.
Thus, two promising Dragon drives were
short circuited by uncharacteristic miscues. And another flub was looming.
The next Dragon possession started promisingly.
From the 20, Ewers carried for 12 yards. But a personal foul by Carroll killed
the drive, and the Dragons lined up to punt.
That’s when the ball was snapped over the
head of kicker Joe McFadden, who recovered it in the end zone for the second
safety of the night. That brought the score to 18-9 with half a quarter to go
before the break.
Just when momentum seemed to be seeping
toward the Panthers, the Dragons reasserted themselves with a 10-play, 83-yard
drive that ended with a 29-yard Ewers pass to Meyer. At one point in the drive,
disaster was averted when Manero fumbled the ball he had just caught before
quickly falling on top of it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a few extra ball-protection
drills are in store for Carroll this week.
As time expired, a 32-yard field goal attempt
by McFadden was blocked, another disappointment for the worthy kicker, who
missed two field goals in the season opener, then was left on the sidelines for
Carroll’s flurry of 2-point conversions.
The two things probably aren’t related. When
asked about his PAT strategy last night, head coach Riley Dodge just shrugged
his shoulders and said it was something he wanted to try. OK.
The second half was all Dragons and was
highlighted by the extraordinary work of running back Jack Abram. Brought in to
relieve Kadi, Abram demonstrated a hard-running style that shredded the tiring
Panther line.
Redemption
McFadden soon redeemed his earlier failure, opening second-half scoring by booting a 25-yard field goal. Ewers added to the
growing Carroll lead by connecting to receiver Brady Boyd with a beautiful 48-yard
pass, then zipped around the right end for the 2-point PAT.
Abrams ended scoring with a pair of
rushing TDs, a 26-yard dash at the end of the 3rd and a 3-yard burst
in the final period.
After the game, he still was flushed with
the exhilaration of his first outing with the first-team offense.
“I didn’t think I was going to get much
playing time tonight,” he admitted in a radio interview. “I figured I’d go in
at the end. Then coach told me to be ready and to stand next to him and he’d
tell me when to go in…I was so scared. I just prayed.”
In a word, the Dragon defense was superb. Smith,
the Panther quarterback, was never able to establish a rhythm, and his
offensive brethren struggled all night to combat Carroll’s swarming defensive
schemes. Dragon Radio heaped particular praise on the special-team play of
Mason Grawe, who made 5 tackles on kickoffs in the first half.
A man of few words, Grawe summed up his
efforts this way in a post-game interview: “I just grab ‘em by the throat.”
Presumably, he’s speaking metaphorically.
But good on him.
For his part, Dodge expressed satisfaction
with his crew, acknowledging the missteps without obsessing about them.
“They got off to a fast start on both
sides of the ball,” he told Dragon Radio. “They were doing well, and then we
just sort of hit a wall. But they did a good job of shaking it off and resetting
at half time. It was a good night for us.”
A good kid
He praised his young quarterback.
“I love him,” Dodge said of Ewers. “He’s a
really good kid, and he does a great job. He’s got a lot of good people around him.
I’ll have to see the film, but I think he had another good night.”
Next week, the Dragons go west, taking a
beeline down Interstate 20 to face Odessa Permian in Ratliff Stadium. Mighty
Mojo is off to a slow start this season, falling to DeSoto 35-14 last week and,
shockingly, losing 49-28 against El Paso Franklin on Thursday.
The Panthers usually handle Franklin quite
easily, so their drubbing raises eyebrows in these parts. But the Panthers always
play tough in their house so counting chickens before they hatch often means no
Sunday dinner.
After their western adventure, the Dragons
will have an open week before beginning district play against the Keller Indians
on Sept. 27, followed by the dreaded Denton Guyer Wildcats on Oct. 4.
Stay cool, folks, and I’ll see you at the game.
Go Dragons!
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