Under tight control
The
Southlake Carroll Dragons’ march through District 4-6A continued as expected
last night – no fuss, no muss and with little drama as they handily dispatched
the Keller Indians.
As
the final score indicates, the powerful Carroll offense – led by quarterback
superstar Quinn Ewers, who passed for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns, and sophomore
running back Owen Allen, who rushed for 95 yards and 2 TDs – reigned supreme
all night.
As
for Carroll’s defense, it held the Indians to a lonely field goal until the
final moments of the game, when Keller managed to post a lonely touchdown
against the Dragons’ attack squad. But the hapless Indians had their chances, falling
prey instead to a series of missteps that helped the Carroll D keep things under
tight control.
Trouble
for the Indians started early, when they fought their way into Carroll’s red
zone on the first series of the night, only to cough up the ball at the 17.
That
set the table for Ewers to engineer a lengthy 13-play march downfield before Allen
punched it over from the 22.
On
the next Carroll possession, Ewers connected with RJ Maryland – a dynamo on
both sides of the ball who ended the night with a pair of passing TDs – to ease
the Dragons into a lead they never came close to surrendering.
The
Indians threatened again in the second quarter when they drove to the Carroll 8
before a personal foul stalled the drive and forced Keller kicker Conner Lisenbee
to drill a 41-yard field goal.
The
Dragons then staged two consecutive scoring drives that put the game out of
reach for Keller. The second half was a basically a yawn, brightened
considerably by Allen in its opening minutes when he caught a screen pass from
Ewers and raced 63 yards to the end zone.
Ewers,
who completed 75 percent of his passes, ended Dragon scoring a 17-yard toss to
Maryland, who caught 6 passes for 74 yards. The leading receiver was Landon
Samson, 4 for 102 and 1 TD.
By
the way, Ewers made headlines this week by decommitting from UT. I wonder if
the rumors circulating in Austin that Longhorn head coach Tom Herman may not
last the season had anything to do with young Ewers’ decision. No need to worry
about the lad. He’s got offers from most of the blue-ribbon programs in the
country. That’s what a 5-star rating will do for you.
On
a personal note, I didn’t attend the Keller contest, which was the first Dragon
home game I’ve missed in 14 years. My excuse? My daughter got married
yesterday, and my wife and I hosted a small reception at our house last night.
And
I will hotly deny any suggestion that I might have slipped out a couple of
times to catch snippets of the game. What father would do such a thing? Why, it’s
despicable. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Next up for the Dragons, 2-0 in district play,
will be the Keller Central Chargers. I’m going to try to score tickets to this
one, not because I think it will be a particularly entertaining game or because
I’m fond of the ramshackle stadium in which the Keller schools play.
But
it’s fall in Texas, and I’m in need of a fix of high school football. Even with
the safety restrictions in place and with COVID-19 running rampart nationwide, I
feel the seductive pull of Friday Night Lights.
Stay
safe, everyone, and go Dragons!
No comments:
Post a Comment