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 2nd 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 4th, 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 2nd-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!
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