Season’s end: Duncanville 49, Southlake Carroll 35

Sweet revenge denied

McKINNEY – For a few brief, precious minutes, revenge – sweet, soul-soothing, life-affirming, spirit-restoring revenge – seemed within their grasp.

And then, in a moment, it vanished. And the Southlake Carroll Dragons found themselves once again blocked from their pursuit of a ninth state championship by the astonishingly talented Duncanville Panthers.

It was not the disgraceful 51-7 defeat the Dragons suffered last year at the hands of the Panthers.

This year, Carroll came armed with a balanced offensive scheme and a stingy defense. They rolled up 527 total yards against a Duncanville defense that had limited opponents this season to an average of 178.

The Dragons’ 14 points at halftime was equal to about half of the total points Duncanville allowed in the first half all season.

Duncanville’s grand old man of football, head coach Reginald Samples, paid due respect to the Dragon effort in his post-game interview with The Dallas Morning News’ Callie Caplan.

“We haven’t had a lot of tough games like this,” he said.

The Panthers will face Rockwall in the semi-final round this week. Rockwall, making its first appearance in the semi-finals since 1987, defeated Prosper 59-42 last night. But it will be a heavy underdog against 14-0 Duncanville, ranked No. 1 in the state by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football and No. 3 in the country by USA Today.

Repeat performance

From here, I’d say we’re looking at a repeat of last year’s 6A-Division I state championship between the Panthers and Galena Park North Shore. Duncanville lost that one in a heartbreaking Hail-Mary pass by the Mustangs on the final play of the game. You can bet it wants a little payback.

North Shore obliterated Humble Atascosita 76-49 yesterday and will face Lake Travis this week in the semis. It’ll be heavily favored to brush past the Cavaliers.

The Dragons, meanwhile, will be spectators this week. But they will leave behind for those of us who watched yesterday’s game one of the most electrifying sequences of Carroll football in many a year, all in the span of less than 30 seconds.

The Dragons, forced to punt on their first three possessions, had trailed the Panthers by at least two touchdowns for most of the game. After Duncanville’s phenomenal quarterback Ja’Quinden Jackson scored his third rushing TD of the afternoon with less than 6 minutes left, bringing the score to 42-21, the air went out of Dragon Nation and many of us started mulling our exit out of the parking lot.

But head coach Riley Dodge urged his players not to lose heart.

“I said, ‘Crazier things have happened,’” he told The News’ Greg Riddle. “We almost made it happen.”

Bringing them back

Yes, they did. Quarterback Quinn Ewers brought his team deep into Panther territory, then lofted a 33-yard pass to Wills Meyer (8-87, 1 TD), who breezed into the end zone. Joe McFadden’s extra point narrowed the lead to 42-28.

McFadden then carefully booted an onside kick into the hands of Blake Smith at the Duncanville 46. All of a sudden, memories came roaring back of a miraculous comeback in the 2011 semi-finals against Dallas Skyline that had been sparked by a successful onside kick.

You could almost feel the electricity coursing through the Carroll side of McKinney ISD Stadium. I swear I could hear a buzzing in my ears that sounded like angry bees.

Ewers rifled a pass to speedster Brady Boyd who carried it to the Panther 24. Every Dragon fan was on their feet, and the adrenalin rush had many of us gasping.

At that point, things got a little crazy. Carroll was penalized for being offside, and the Dragon faithful responded with a roar of disapproval, deservedly so since everyone in the stadium saw it was encroachment by the Panthers. Dodge drew a rare unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for the awful things he must have said to officials on the sideline.

The combined penalties sent the Dragons back to the Duncanville 44, where the Carroll offense faced a 1^st-and-30. The comeback could have, should have died right there, but the power of brotherhood, the will to keep the band together for one more gig, the disciplined focus to win was strong among these Carroll youngsters.

Ewers hoisted the ball to John Manero, who raced into the endzone as a wall of noise – so loud that it almost had mass and weight – swept over us.

Another extra point brought the Dragons to within 7. Another onside kick followed.

Not this time

Only this time, the Panthers pounced on it at their 49, and that’s where the fairy tale ended, not with a roar but with a sigh.

One play later, Duncanville’s Trysten Smith (19-174, 2 TDs) sped 48 yards to the end zone for the final sword thrust into the Dragon heart.

 “We talk about this all the time, tough games … and they responded today,” Samples said of his team to The News’ Greg Riddle. “In order to be a great team, you’ve got to answer the bell. You can’t fold. When you play a team like Southlake, they’re going to come back.”

Jackson, a Texas commit, lived up to his billing as one of the state’s most explosive offensive talents. He could be just what the Longhorns need to pull themselves out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves in the Big 12.

Yesterday, he completed all 8 of his passes, compiling 183 yards in the air and 2 TDs. On the ground, he rushed 12 times for 129 yards and three scores. He was, in a word, magnificent.

It took Duncanville only 4 minutes into the game to strike first with a 49-yard Jackson TD pass to Marquelan Crowell. But the Carroll defense kept the Panthers largely in check through the rest of the quarter.

Late in the 1^st, Carroll was mired at its own 32 when two consecutive holding calls drove it back to the 12. From there, Ewers threw two incompletions, drawing a flag on the later for intentional grounding. Facing a 4^th-and-39 from the 3, Carroll punted, and the Panthers returned it to the 25. One play later, Jackson sprinted 20 yards for his first rushing TD.

At that point, fears loomed of a repeat of last year’s shellacking. But the Dragons' sophomore quarterback led the Dragons back with a 7-play, 75-yard drive powered by straight-ahead bursts by freshman Owen Allen (27-115, 2 TDs) and ending in a 42-yard Ewers pass to Boyd (11-123, 1 TD).

Stepping up again

The Dragons then held Duncanville to a 3-and-out, and Ewers (33-52, 393 and 3 TDs) once again stepped up, engineering an exciting 9-play, 55-yard scoring drive that featured a 28-yard reception by John Manero (8-141, 1 TD). From the 1, Allen tied the game with a tad more than 3 minutes left in the half.

That’s when I began to believe the Dragons actually might pull off an upset. But the Panthers dulled that optimism pretty quickly when Duncanville’s Jackson staged three consecutive, unanswered scoring drives to gain a 35-14 edge. Ultimately, that proved too steep a hill to climb, despite the Dragons' 4^th-quarter heroics.

On the first of those drives, Jackson sped 61 yards to the Dragon 8 before surging across the goal line two plays later from the 1.

The Panther scoring spree continued in the 3^rd quarter, with a 14-yard TD run by Smith and a 58-yard Jackson pass to Roderick Daniels.

While the Dragons are saying adios to the playoffs, their District 5-6A colleagues, the Denton Guyer Wildcats, made it to the penultimate round in 6A-Division II, destroying Amarillo Tascosa 48-7 yesterday. They’ll face Spring Westlake this week in the semi-finals.

Good sportsmanship suggests I should offer good luck to the ’Cats in their quest for the Division II title. So as much as it sticks in my craw, here goes. G’luck.

There were many tears on the field last evening, as the Dragons commiserated their defeat. For the seniors, the loss hurt more because it spells the end of their time as Dragons. Family break ups are hard, and that’s what makes playoff losses so emotional. Anyone who has spent any time around these players – or listened to their media interviews – knows how deeply they care for each other.

Paying tribute

Their coach paid tribute to his seniors in a post-game Twitter post.

“I can’t put into words what this Football Team means to me!” Dodge tweeted. “This group is so physically and mentally tough on and off the field! Thank you Seniors for your sacrifice and commitment when no one else is watching! I’m proud to be called Coach.”

Many of the seniors on this squad are headed to NCAA Division I schools. We’ll be hearing about some of them on Saturdays, I’m sure, but the vacancies they leave will be hard to fill.

Receivers Wills Meyer and John Manero are departing. So is tight end Blake Smith. Safety R.J. Mickens is headed to Clemson. O-line stalwarts Andrej Karic, Addison Penn and Andy Strum are headed to the next level. So are defensive standouts Graham Faloona, Preston Forney, Brandon Howell, Quinten Bunten, Dylan Thomas and Josh Sweat. (I know I’ve left out important others, and for that, I’m sorry.)

But the cupboard is far from bare. Ewers is a sophomore who ended the season just short of 4,000 yards passing and with 45 TDs. Only green pastures lie ahead for him. And he’s got Boyd returning to form the nucleus of a new receiving corps. Allen began the season on the freshman team with no expectations of playing under Friday Night Lights. The 15-year-old ended the season with 1,262 yards rushing and 23 TDs. His next three years are going to be a hoot to watch.

As always, replenishing the offensive and defensive lines won't be easy for Dodge and his coaching staff, who must replace all 11 starters on defense and eight on offense. But I have no doubt they’ll rise to the challenge.

Great programs don’t rebuild, they reload. In two short years, Dodge has led the Dragons to a 26-2 record, at the same time rejuvenating the Carroll program and reigniting interest in football in Southlake.

Good ole days

The atmosphere yesterday at McKinney ISD’s marvelous $70 million stadium (it puts Allen’s cathedral to football to shame) reminded me of the “good ole days” of Dragon football dominance. The News said it was standing room only in the 12,000-seat facility that only opened last year. And my unofficial eye test confirms it.

But more than that, the Carroll side was crowded and boisterous an hour before kickoff and the excitement and sense of community were palatable.

The future remains bright for Carroll’s heralded program, and I look forward to seasons ahead in a way I haven’t since … well, since the days that Riley’s old man roamed the sidelines.

This will be the last gridiron post on this blog until next February, when the UIL announces district realignments for the next two years. I expect I’ll have some opinions about the district mates assigned to the Dragons. Until then, may you all have happy holidays filled with cheer and happiness among family and friends.

Go Dragons!

Regional semi-final beatdown: Southlake Carroll 49, Midland Lee 27

A catch for the ages

Against my instincts, I ditched the three-hour drive to Abilene to watch the Southlake Carroll Dragons dismantle a proud and strong Midland Lee team in the Region 1 semifinals yesterday.

My bad. Turns out, my prediction that the Dragons would make short work of the Rebels turned out to be oh-so-true. But it was a heckuva game, nonetheless, and featured perhaps the greatest catch by a Dragon receiver in school playoff history.

Carroll’s victory in Abilene’s venerable P.E. Shotwell Stadium, reportedly the oldest high school football stadium still in use in Texas, sets up a rematch on Saturday between the 13-0 Dragons and the 13-0 Duncanville Panthers, named No. 1 in the state by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

Something to see

They’ll face each other in the 6A Division I, Region 1 final at 2:30 p.m. in McKinney ISD Stadium, and it should be something to see. The Dragons, of course, are eager to avenge the 51-7 paddling they got from the Panthers last year in the fourth round. And with the weapons they have on offense and defense this year, they may be able to do just that.

But Duncanville, while perhaps not quite as fearsome as the squad that fell before Galena Park North Shore in the state championship game last year, still is scary good. It put the hurt to Arlington Martin yesterday 45-17 to get to the regional game

This will be Carroll’s third straight year to reach the regional final. That’s quite an achievement in tough-as-nails Division I, where the biggest of the big boys play.

But first things first. Remember that play I mentioned earlier that had me rethinking my decision to put up Christmas decorations rather than sit on the weathered seats of Shotwell and cheer on the Dragons?

Junior WR Brady Boyd has been a stalwart member of the Carroll receiving corps all year, but he really outdid himself yesterday on a play that Dragon fans will be watching and rewatching for years to come.

Carroll had surged to a 7-0 lead on its opening drive, then held the Rebels to a quick 3-and-out.

Only a preamble

From their own 19, the Dragons battled to the 33, where quarterback Quinn Ewers hoisted a 41-yard pass to Boyd. As dramatic as that effort was, it was only the prelude. Three plays later, Ewers sent an arching pass to Boyd in the right flats. As the ball sailed over his head, Boyd leaped up, twisted his body and snagged it with his right hand, leaving Dragon fans gaping and Lee fans gasping in disbelief.

Boyd’s momentum carried him out of bounds at the 11. Four plays later, Ewers hit tight end Blake Smith in the end zone for the Dragons’ second score. For all intents and purposes, the game was over.

Boyd said afterward that he was just acting on instincts when he reached for the ball over his head. Asked on Dragon Radio if he practiced making catches like that, Boyd quickly denied it.

“Not at all,” he said with emphasis. “Sometimes we’ll be messing around, but the coaches hate it when we try to catch one-handed.”

Smith, 7 receptions for 104 yards, would catch two more TD passes for a career record. He and Boyd, 9 for 166 and 1 TD, led in receptions for the Dragons.

It was another outstanding game for the young Ewers, who completed 25 of 30 passes (83 percent) for 357 yards and four touchdowns.

He was sacked on the first play of the game, and the Dragons’ first drive seemed to stall near midfield. But when the Dragons lined up to punt, kicker Joe McFadden instead handed off the ball to Graham Faloona, who bullied his way to a first down.

The Rebels never seemed to be able to recover their balance from that bit of Riley Dodge trickery. Four plays later, Ewers drew first blood with a 14-yard scamper to the end zone.

The sophomore engineered passing scores on the next three Carroll drives, two to Smith and one to Boyd. By the middle of the 2^nd quarter, Carroll led 35-0. The sizeable crowd that traveled to Shotwell Stadium from Midland could only sit in sullen silence.

Out of hand

At that point, with the game well out of hand, the Rebels, who had been kept in check and off balance by the Dragons’ sturdy defense, seemed to stir a bit.

Facing a 4th-and-1 at its 34-yard line, Lee lined up in a wildcat formation and snapped the ball to Trent Low. Low galloped 66 yards through the middle of the Dragon D to finally put the Rebels on the scoreboard with less than 5 minutes left in the half. The extra-point attempt failed.

An emboldened Lee then held Carroll to a 3-and-out and struggled 53 yards in 15 plays to make the score 35-13 at halftime.

Rebel quarterback Mikey Serrano, who left the game with injuries in the 4^th, completed 16 of 28 passes for 181 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. He also ended the night with 59 yards rushing on 16 carries.

In addition to Low, runner Ryan Quiroz contributed 52 yards on 6 carries and Serrano’s backup, Shelmar Davis, carried 10 times for 37 yards.

A football-savvy friend opines that the Dragons are going to have to do better on defense, particularly against the run, when they face the Panthers on Saturday. After all, while the Dragons rolled up 550 yards in total offense, the Rebels managed a very respectable 433 yards for themselves.

 It’s worth noting, however, that all 27 Lee points came after the final result no longer was in doubt, with Carroll holding a formidable lead and total command of the field.

No miraculous comeback

Midland fans, perhaps already thinking about that depressing drive home, might have hoped for their heroes to stage a miraculous comeback after halftime adjustments.

But the Dragons stifled Lee’s first 2^nd-half drive, then rolled 80 yards behind Ewers’ pinpoint passes and freshman Owen Allen’s hard-charging rushes to widen the lead to 42-13. Allen would end the night with 23 carries for 116 yards and a TD.

On the next Lee possession, Carroll twisted the knife when Faloona – back at his regular linebacker post – intercepted a Serrano pass and returned it 44 yards to the 7. Three plays later, Smith caught his third TD of the night, and McFadden’s PAT ended scoring for the Dragons.

Lee would make two meaningless TDs in the fourth, the later long after Carroll started widespread substitutions.

Once upon a time, West Texas teams dominated high school football and regularly made trips to the state championship. But those days are long gone, probably never to return. Suburban programs like Allen, Katy, Duncanville and, yes, Southlake now rule the day.

However, I don’t feel nostalgic about the days when the giants of high school football strode the sandy plains of West Texas. And here’s one of the reasons why.

When I was in high school, Big Spring shared the same district with behemoths like Midland Lee, Abilene, Odessa Permian and San Angelo Central. Our district was called “The Little Southwest Conference” because of the strength of the programs there. As the smallest school in the district, Big Spring was perennial cellar dweller.

Rare position

In my senior year, however, Big Spring was in the rare position of contesting for a district championship. It came down to the last game of the season against, you guessed it, Midland Lee. The mighty Rebels, arrogant and sure, came to town convinced they would bury the lowly Steers.

As it turns out, the game hinged on an extremely controversial officiating call, the details of which long have escaped my aging brain. Suffice to say, the call went against Big Spring, and Lee won the game and the district title.

The Big Spring play-by-play radio announcer was so angry about the call, and so forthright in his condemnations of the officials, that his FCC license was suspended for a time.

More serious than that, an unruly gaggle of kids gathered under the stands and threw rocks and chunks of concrete at the Midland Lee buses, breaking most of the windows. No one was hurt, but the UIL considered banning Big Spring from UIL competitions.

It didn’t, but the whole affair initiated much soul-searching by the Big Spring community. The following year, the high school initiated a goodwill campaign that resulted in the school and its student body receiving a special good sportsmanship award from the UIL. All’s well that ends well, I suppose.

Big Spring never contended for a district title again until shrinking enrollments pushed it into a smaller classification. I hate what happened to the Lee buses back then, but I still don’t harbor any warm and fuzzies for the Rebels.

Some old wounds never heal, ya know?

Go, Dragons!