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!