So close, so very close: Southlake Carroll 42, Rockwall 44

 

Owen Allen eludes a Rockwall defender.

The elements were in place

For one brief, glorious, incandescent moment, it appeared the Southlake Carroll Dragons might actually pull it off – stage a last-minute come-from-behind, snatch-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat win against the rampaging Rockwall Yellow Jackets, thus preserving their perfect regular-season record under head coach Riley Dodge.

 All the elements were in place. Rockwall, which had dominated the game since late in the second quarter, finally had erased an early three-touchdown lead forged by the Dragons in the early going. Kicking a 25-yard field goal early in the 4^th, it had surged ahead 37-35.

The subsequent Dragon drive, led by 5-star quarterback Quinn Ewers and powered by sophomore Owen Allen, ended when Ewers was intercepted at the threshold to the Rockwall red zone.

Jacket quarterback Braedyn Locke, a 3-star player in his own right, then crafted a 10-play, 75-yard march to the Dragon end zone, widening the lead to 44-35 after the PAT with 3 minutes left.

Command of the field

At that point in the second half, Rockwall had run 43 plays to the Dragons’ 17, a dismal tale of the tape that documented the Jacket command of the field under the worthy Locke, who probably would take issue with the widespread notion before the game that Ewers is  the best high school quarterback in the nation.

Locke had been magnificent all evening, completing 70 percent of  his 30 passes for 352 yards and 3 TDs, and running for a fourth.

It looked hopeless for the Dragons. But hope dies hard under Friday Night Lights, even when they’re shining on a Thursday.

On the first play of the next series, Ewers stepped back, scanned the field and fired the ball to tight end RJ Maryland, who raced 75 yards to the endzone, cutting the Rockwall lead to 44-42.

RJ Maryland makes a catch.

The Dragons attempted an onside kick, but Rockwall recovered it at the Jacket 46. Two plays later, Dragon defender Matt Reyes sacked Locke at the 38 on a third-down play with 2:20 left in the game.

A glad trade

The Jackets gladly traded a delay-of-game 5 yards to let the clock run down. Neither team had any timeouts left. Rockwall then booted a punt that got past the Dragons and rolled to their 12. Coming to the line, Ewers and his teammates surveyed the 88 yards in front of them, and concluded, “Why not?”

Ewers fired passes to Josh Spaeth (4-27) at the 25 and then to Landon Samson (6-130, 1 TD) at the 37. With a stiff breeze in their face, the young Dragons needed perhaps another 35 yards to put kicker Joe McFadden in range for the game-winning field goal.

Not only was that doable, but with the brilliant Ewers at the helm, a fresh set of downs and more than enough time, it seemed almost inevitable.

As Dragon Nation held its breath, Ewers dropped back and considered his options. He pumped once, then lofted the ball downfield into the arms of … Rockwall defender Dariel Brown. Game over.

Rare misstep

The fatal turnover was a rare misstep for the brilliant Ewers. He had 3 interceptions for the entire 2019 season. Last night, he had 2. It probably made the difference, but I find it hard to attach much blame on Ewers, who played a solid game despite the missteps.

Rockwall's Braedyn Locke riddled the Carroll defense.

Ewers completed 19 of 30 throws for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns. The fact those numbers represent a down night for the junior is an indication of how good he really is.

Riley Dodge had soothing words for his crestfallen team leader.

“There were two good quarterbacks on the field,” he told Randy Jennings of The Dallas Morning News after the game. “I’ll take mine, but Braedyn is very good.”

The Rockwall game was added to the schedule when the much-anticipated contest between Todd Dodge’s Austin Westlake and Riley Dodge’s Southlake Carroll fell through because of COVID-19 safety concerns.

And it proved to be what everyone expected it to be – a shootout between two of the nation’s top-ranked junior quarterbacks. 247 Sports rates Ewers as No. 1 and Locke as No. 5.

No one expected much from the defensive units of either team. And neither distinguished itself to any great degree. To be fair, however, both made stops when they had to – Rockwall in helping keep the Dragons in check during its scoring rampage and Carroll when it helped its offense keep within striking distance up to the very end.

Carroll obviously hoped for a better outcome, but premier programs understand that it is games like this that prepare teams for the rigors they’ll face in the playoffs, which Southlake always has considered to be the real start of its season.

Working on solutions

It was painful to watch the shellacking the young Dragon defense received at the hands of the Yellow Jackets. But now is the time, during largely meaningless pre-district games, to discover shortfalls and work out solutions. Let’s hope that happens.

The night started promisingly enough. Ewers and company jumped to a 21-point lead, scoring on its first four possessions. Rockwall got on the board when sophomore backup quarterback Lake Bennett bulled 4 yards into the end zone.

The Dragons tacked on another TD after a 9-play, 48-yard drive behind the strong running of Allen (22 carries for 142 yards, 2 TDs), who cruised into the end zone untouched from the 13.

But just as Dragon fans began to settle complacently into their seats, the momentum of the game changed dramatically. In the last 5 minutes of the half, Rockwall scored twice more, first on a 44-yard pass and run from Locke to Jax Johnson (5-84) and then on a 23-yard Locke pass to Brenden Bayes (9-94). Both PATs failed, but the score stood 28-19 at the buzzer.

The scramble is on for a rare Ewers fumble. He fell on top of it.

The Jackets onslaught continued in the second half. They scored on their first possession with a 14-yard Lake Bennett pass to Brennan Ray (7-76), followed by a successful 2-point conversion that narrowed the Dragon lead to 28-27.

The teams then traded TDs, Rockwall on a 37-yard Locke TD pass to Goodnews Iwuamadi (great name!) and Southlake with a 9-yard TD run by Ewers that left Carroll with a slender 1-point lead.

A 25-yard Rockwall field goal pushed it into the lead, 37-35. It never trailed again.

The Dragon defense, which had a dismal outing last week against Rockwall Heath, had no answer for Locke and the Jackets’ up-tempo offensive scheme, which rolled up 560 yards in total offense, compared to the Dragons’ 507.

By the 4^th quarter, Carroll defenders were gassed, helpless to prevent Rockwall runners Zach Hernandez (21-108) and Jackson Bennett (8-44) from ripping through the middle of the Dragon line or to deal with Locke’s relentless and deadly accurate aerial attack.

Rockwall coach Trey Brooks, in his first year at Rockwall, expressed satisfaction in a good night’s work.

“It took us a while to get into our rhythm, but once we did, we were solid,” Brooks told the DMN’s Jennings.

Up next is the Denton Guyer Wildcats, who are wicked good and will test the Dragons even more. It’s true that Guyer lost to Denton Ryan last week, but it smashed Mansfield Lake Ridge 56-20 last night.

Carroll will have its hands full with the Wildcats, who would dearly love to the only team ever to have beaten the Dragons twice on their home field. And with Eli Stowers, who also is a nationally ranked quarterback, calling signals for Guyer, you can expect another wild scoring ride.

ESPN knows a good thing when it sees it. It’ll televise the game nationally on ESPN 2.

Stay safe everyone and wear those masks! Go Dragons!

A Rockwall defender breaks up a pass to Landon Samson.