Accepting the dare
ARLINGTON – Southlake Carroll quarterback
Quinn Ewers, a sophomore making his first playoff appearance in the grandeur of
AT&T Stadium, refused to be intimidated yesterday.
The DeSoto Eagles’ game plan was designed
to cow Ewers by shutting down the Dragon running game and daring the youngster
to take to the air, all the while putting him in a pressure cooker by
overwhelming his outnumbered offensive line.
Accepting the dare, Ewers calmly faced the
loaded box and shattered the Eagles’ man-to-man coverage, rifling precision passes
– 5 for touchdowns – to his fleet-footed and soft-handed receiving corps.
Here’s how intimidated he was.
“I love it when they bring the heat,” he
told the Fort Worth Star Telegram after the game. “It tells us that they
don’t think we can beat them in coverage. It was a lot of fun.”
Said head coach Riley Dodge of his
cool-headed signal-caller, “He didn’t panic.”
Revenge is sweet
This is the third year in a row that Carroll
has ejected DeSoto from the playoffs. It bulldozed the Eagles 41-20 last year
and whipped them 33-15 in 2017, both in the area round.
That avenges somewhat the 2012 regional
finals game between the two rivals in SMU’s Ford Stadium. The Dragons were
reigning state champions with the redoubtable Kenny Hill at quarterback.
It was a classic matchup, hard fought and
bruising until literally the last second of the game. The Dragons, trailing by 4,
fought their way inside the Eagle 5, where Hill was stopped three straight
times as time expired.
I still say he made it over the goal line
on the final play, but the *!%$# refs disagreed, may they rot in … oh, well,
never mind.
Carroll’s next opponent – either Arlington
Lamar or Midland Lee – will be decided by their game this afternoon. If Lamar
wins, we’ll be back at AT&T next Friday night. If it’s Midland – well, who
knows? Please God, not a venue in the desolate west. Puh-leeze.
As for last night, DeSoto is drawing a lot
of fire for its failure to adjust to the Dragons’ offensive success. True, it smothered
Carroll’s ground game, limiting freshman phenom rusher Owen Allen to a mere 68
yards on 18 carries, many of those on the last Dragon scoring drive.
No answer
But it had no answer to Ewers’ air attack,
sticking stubbornly to its concentration of forces at the line of scrimmage
long after that strategy failed to stop the aerial bombardment.
Ewers finished the night with 363 passing
yards, completing 18 of 28 passes for a 64 percent success rate. It was the second
week in a row, and the third time this season, that Ewers has thrown for 5 TDs,
and the fifth time he’s thrown for more than 300 yards.
As impressive as his performance was, equally
satisfying was the success of the Dragon defense in stifling an explosive DeSoto
offense that has averaged 44 points per game.
While Ewers was leading Carroll to a 17-0
lead, the first four Eagle drives ended in three punts and a turnover on downs.
DeSoto quarterback Samari Collier (12-23, 121) was sacked repeatedly and under
constant harassment.
Dragon defenders Brandon Howell and Dylan
Thomas picked off two Collier passes, both in the end zone. Each resulted in
eventual Carroll scores. For Thomas, who has made four interceptions in the
last three games, it solidified his growing reputation as a ball hawk.
Only success
Collier’s only real success of the night came
late in the first half, with the Dragons ahead 17-0 and threatening to put the
game away. Facing a 3-and-4 at the Dragon 49, he broke free for a 39-yard dash to
the 10. On the next play, he zipped the ball to Lawrence Arnold in the end zone.
The Eagles would score only once more,
with 12 seconds left in the game, when Joshua Jackson sped 11 yards to the end zone against a sub-filled Carroll defense.
In post-game interviews, Dodge praised his
squad’s achievement against a worthy foe.
“Our guys were just relentless all night
versus a very explosive offense that put up a ton of yards and a lot of points
against a lot of people,” Dodge told The Dallas Morning News.
To the Star-Telegram, he said, “Statistically,
they’re the most explosive, and by yardage, the best in the area. We knew it was going to be a challenge for
our secodndary, but I think we had a good night.”
The Dragons got off to a slow start, at
least by the standards they’ve set this season, when on more than one occasion
they’ve scored within seconds of the opening bell.
On a 12-play series, the overloaded Eagle
D-line held Allen in check, and Ewers’ completed only 3 of his first eight passes.
But thanks to a 24-yard reception by Wills Meyer and a 38-yard grab by defensive/offensive
star R.J. Mickens, the Dragons fought their way to the DeSoto 4.
Never surrender
Two incompletions and a run for no gain
later, kicker Joe McFadden booted a 22-yard field goal to hand the Dragons a
lead they never surrendered.
After the Carroll D prevented the Eagles from
venturing much beyond midfield on their next two drives, the Dragons fielded a
punt on their own 24.
Two plays later, Ewers sailed a pass to
Meyer, who charged 76 yards to the end zone. He was the Dragons’ leading
receiver with 5 catches for 138 yards.
Later
in the half, Carroll would bolster its lead with a 30-yard TD pass from Ewers
to speedster Brady Boyd (3-43), his first of the night. Boyd would add a second
in the 4th quarter, a 4-yard zing to finish out Dragon scoring.
Just as many of us were settling back in AT&T’s
padded seats with satisfaction, DeSoto countered with its own TD, demonstrating
it planned to make a game of it. With the Dragons nurturing only a 17-7 lead at half, most of expected a donnybrook the rest of the way.
Except it didn’t happen.
On DeSoto’s first series after halftime,
Collier was sacked twice and the Eagles had to punt from their own 9. Taking
over at the DeSoto 42, Ewers ran it to the 30, then hoisted the ball to
Mickens, a Clemson commit, in the end zone.
With a 24-7 lead 2 minutes into the 2nd
half, the Dragons never looked back.
DeSoto would struggle in 15 plays to get near
the Dragon red zone before turning it over on downs. The following Dragon drive
ended with tight end Blake Smith making a dramatic 13-yard catch along the left edge of
the end zone while somehow keeping his big toe in bounds.
Final drive
The final Dragon drive was set up by Thomas’
INT in the end zone and propelled by Allen’s first rushing momentum of the
night. It also was aided by two personal-foul penalties by the increasingly
frustrated Eagles and ended when Boyd bolted to his second TD, a 4-yard
pitch from Ewers.
Next Thursday, most of us will sit down with
family and friends to turkey and dressing, with cranberry sauce and sweet
potato casserole on the side. The Dragons, however, will be on the practice field,
getting ready for the regional semi-finals.
It’s both a Dragon goal – and a cherished
tradition. Practicing on Thanksgiving means a deep run in the playoffs, and
Carroll’s gridiron heroes have achieved that. With two pre-season goals down –
a district title and Thanksgiving practice – only one remains: a state
championship.
Such a delightful scenario seems a bit far-fetched,
given the formidable obstacles ahead, which could include such juggernauts as Duncanville,
Allen, Katy and North Shore.
But don’t count out completely this Dragons
squad. Here’s what their coach says about them.
“They have that look in their eyes,” Dodge
told radio announcer Chuck Kelly. “They play for each other. They’re special.”
Go Dragons!
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