The blood of helpless lambs
To borrow a phrase, the Southlake Carroll
Dragons announced their presence with authority last night in the 6A Division I playoffs.
They put on a stunning display of skill
and dominance on both sides of the ball, setting a school record for points
scored in a half (63-0) and tying a Carroll record for total points scored
against an opponent. In raining 84 points on the humiliated Lewisville Fighting
Farmers, Carroll tied the number of points scored by a 1988 Dragon squad against
Whitesboro back in Southlake’s 3A heyday.
The thing to remember about this game is
that the 7-4 Farmers – an athletic and well-coached team from a tougher
district than 5-6A– are not as bad as the Dragons made them look. And let’s
face it, they looked damned bad.
After all, this is the same team that scored
50 points against Lewisville Marcus last week. And its worthy quarterback,
junior Taylen Green, has a strong arm and a cadre of speedy receivers. He’s
also a purposeful and effective runner.
And yet the Dragon defense limited him to
a negative 14 yards rushing and held the entire team to a paltry 49 total
rushing yards. When Green turned to the air, the Dragon D continually harassed
him as he sought to connect with receivers downfield.
Astounding receptions
The junior still managed to complete half
of his 31 passes for 203 yards, and his receivers made several astounding
receptions. But in the end, the Farmers were held scoreless until midway
through the 4th quarter – long after the Carroll defense had been taken
over by substitutes.
Once they wash the blood of helpless lambs
from their hands, the Dragons take the next step in their hoped-for goal of a record
ninth state championship. For the fourth straight year, they’ll face the DeSoto
Eagles in the area round. This is beginning to get tedious.
They’ll face the 9-2 Eagles at 4:30 p.m.
Friday as part of a playoff double bill at Cowboys Stadium. That’ll be pretty
rough for those of us who still work for a living. But it very well could be
worth playing hooky to see. (Cough, cough. Gee, I feel a fever coming on…)
Carroll ran over DeSoto 41-20 last year
with a team lacking the offensive firepower and defensive might that this year’s
squad possesses. The eyeball test convinces me – and buddies more knowledgeable
about the Xs and Os agree – that this team can play with anyone.
My-oh-my, wouldn’t I love to see a replay
of last year’s fourth-round contest with Duncanville in the next couple of
weeks. Payback for that dismaying ass-whumping would be delicious.
No pushovers
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Eagles
will not be pushovers, and I suspect they too would like a little payback for the
2018 shellacking at the hands of the Dragons.
Carroll players displayed little swagger
after the lopsided score against Lewisville. Instead, they demonstrated a
fierce focus on the task ahead, a result I strongly suspect of the mental
conditioning they’ve received from head coach Riley Dodge and his coaching
staff.
“Tomorrow,
we’re going to put this behind us and get back to work,” said wide receiver
Wills Meyer (6-133), who caught two touchdown passes last night. “It’s
definitely a great thing, but it’s just one step closer to our ultimate goal.”
Nobody expected the bloodbath that ensued
last night. The first round is usually easy going for first-seeded teams like
the Dragons. But everyone expected the Farmers to give a better accounting of
themselves.
It got to the point where I was hoping that
Carroll wouldn’t score again. That doesn’t happen very often, believe me. Come
to think of it, it has never happened. Dodge admitted after the game that he was
trying to keep scoring down. But restraining eager backups during their brief
time in the spotlight is difficult – and even a little unfair.
“You approach a game like this, and you
never expect an 84-6 score,” he told Dragon Radio. “Looking at this game,
looking at the film, we really thought this was going to be the best team we
faced this year. It got out of hand fast.”
17 seconds
The first hint of the tsunami to come
arrived 17 seconds into the game.
After Carroll fielded the opening kickoff
at its own 34, quarterback Quinn Ewers took the first snap of the night,
dropped back and zipped the ball to speedy Brady Boyd.
Boyd, who would finish the night with 3
receptions for 94 yards, then bolted 66 yards for the end zone, ringing up the
first score of the night before a good many tailgating Dragon fans had made it
to their seats.
It wasn’t the first time Carroll has
scored early against an opponent. In fact, this Dragon squad has made that its signature
move.
Not to be outdone, the Dragon defense
stepped up on the Farmers’ very next possession. After Carroll corner James
Miscoll sacked Lewisville’s Green on his first play from scrimmage, Green sent
a missile downfield. But Miscoll’s partner, Dylan Thomas, who grabbed two
interceptions last week, intercepted the pass and raced to the Dragon 28.
Two plays later, Ewers connected with Meyer,
who cruised into the endzone. And exactly 1 minute and 21 seconds from the
opening kickoff, Carroll led 14-0.
At that point, I turned to the guy behind
me and said, “This could get ugly.”
And indeed it did. I’ve seldom seen a
Dragon opponent collapse so early and so completely, particularly in the
playoffs. But the Farmers simply were overwhelmed, out-played and out-coached.
Carroll scored on 12 consecutive
possessions, moving up and down the field with ease. On a couple of occasions, it
scored TDs within a minute of each other.
The sophomore Ewers was superb, completing
85 percent of his passes (11 of 13) for 306 yards and 5 TDs.
First time on offense
In addition to Boyd and Meyer, Ewers also
connected on TD passes to John Manero and R.J. Mickens, the latter on a 67-yard
scamper that reminded us he’s a potent threat on either side of the ball. Last
night was the first time he’s lined up for the offense all season.
Freshman running back Owen Allen (11 carries
for 177), who turned 15 two weeks ago, had a phenomenal night, shredding the middle
of the Farmer D-line again and again, chewing up huge chunks of yardage and
making four touchdowns. His stats would have been even more impressive but for
a penalty call that negated a 50-yard TD run.
Also participating in the Dragon scoring
binge were reserve running backs Cade Wood, who carried 8 times for 86 yards,
and Jack Abram (3-58), playing in his first game since the Odessa Permian matchup.
Backup quarterback Hunter Holden, a junior playing in his first varsity game, scored
Carroll’s final TD, a 6-yard dash in the 3rd.
Lewisville finally crept onto the
scoreboard midway through the 4th quarter, with the Dragons leading
84-0, when Green engineered a nice drive against Carroll’s attack squad, eventually
connecting with Tony Thomas on a 49-yard TD pass. But kicker Julian Perez missed
the extra point, an apt punctuation mark perhaps to the Farmers’ playoff
debacle.
A final point
One final observation. There was some grumbling
in my section of the green seats when Carroll, then leading 42-0 in the 2nd,
booted an onside kick that the Dragons recovered around the Farmer 38.
Some folks nearby questioned what they saw
as an effort to run up the score against an outmatched foe and darkly predicted
it would only invite retaliation by Lewisville.
The onside kick occurred after a personal
foul penalty against the Farmers – on the Dragons’ scoring play that featured a
57-yard reception by Meyer – had advanced the kickoff tee to the Lewisville 45.
It hadn’t been the first extracurricular
activity directed at Dragons by Farmer players obviously smarting from the
brutal ass-kicking they were receiving.
McFadden could easily have booted the
kickoff into the end zone, making any penalty yardage meaningless. Some of us
saw the onside kick as Dodge’s message to the Lewisville bench that actions
against his players would have consequences.
If that was in fact the explanation for
the onside kick, it didn’t work. Or did it? The Farmers committed several
personal fouls on the kickoff play, resulting in a 30-yard walk off and the
Dragons taking possession at the Lewisville 8-yard line. On the next play,
Allen crashed over to bring the score to 49-0.
On the ensuing kickoff, Carroll kicker Joe
McFadden was knocked over, drawing a roughing the kicker flag against the
Farmers. They began that drive on their own 9.
Actions have consequences.
From here on, the road gets steeper and
the competition gets tougher. Whether this team can make it all the way is
anyone’s guess. I asked a friend of mine, a clear-eyed realist who normally
eschews Dragon green-colored glasses, “Are we this good, or are they that bad?”
He answered immediately, “We’re a good team.”
Go, Dragons!
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