Slugging it out
Remove the first 6
minutes of last night’s contest between the Southlake Carroll Dragons and
Haslet Eaton Eagles, and you’ve got a very different ballgame.
Lucky for the Dragons that
such a violation of time and space is impossible, because without those 360
seconds of game time, they might not be de facto champions of District 4-6A.
Everyone anticipated
that this would be a high-scoring, hard-fought affair. The Eagles were enjoying
their best season ever and were 4-0 in district play. The Dragons, meanwhile,
were 3-0 in pursuit of their third straight district title despite the loss to
injury of their superstar quarterback, the amazing Quinn Ewers.
The game was all it was
cracked up to be, a thriller that saw two high-powered offenses slug it out. Carroll
put up 436 yards in total offense, Eaton 376. But it didn’t start out that way.
It started as a near rout.
It took Carroll only 3
minutes to score on the first possession of the game, a 3-yard keeper by backup
quarterback Hunter Holden, who is standing in while Ewers recuperates.
First of 3
A little over 2 minutes
later, after holding the Eagles to a 3-and-out, sophomore running back Owen
Allen burst over the goal line from the 1, the first of his 3 touchdowns for
the night.
On the first play of
the Eagles’ next possession, Dragon linebacker Barrett Baker nailed Eagle
quarterback Braden St. Ama as he scrambled in his own end zone, forcing a
fumble that Carroll lineman Cade Parks immediately fell on.
Boom. The Dragons led
21-0 while the miserable Eagles had run only 4 plays.
But give the boys from
Haslet credit. They didn’t panic and they didn’t give up. St. Ama put the fumble
behind him and engineered an 8-play, 75-yard march that ended with a 21-yard TD
pass to Royal Evans (3-36).
Hoping to capitalize on
that score, the Eagles tried an onside kick, but Carroll covered it at its own
49, then staged a 7-play march fueled by an Owens burst through the middle for 20
yards and a reverse by Brady Boyd to the 1.
Allen (27 for 158) finished
scoring for the quarter with a leap into the end zone for his second TD, the 7th
game in a row that he has scored at least twice. The Dragons ended the quarter
with a record-setting 28 points.
Scoring heroics
The Dragons added
another score before the half, notable because it involved some heroics by Boyd,
Carroll’s leading receiver who returned to the lineup after being sidelined with
a broken wrist in the season opener against Rockwall Heath.
Holden (11 of 17 for
180 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) led the Dragons to their 27. He flipped a pass to Boyd
to the 19, then lofted a ball to him as he stood on the goal line. Boyd grabbed
it, when struggled with two defenders trying desperately from preventing him
from failing into the end zone. They failed.
Despite a disastrous first
half, Eaton wasn’t finished yet and signaled its intention to fight on by surging to the Dragon 33 as the clock drained before
settling for a 50-yard field goal by Colby Sessums. That left the score at the
break 35-7.
The Eagles came
charging out of the locker room with fire in their eyes and revenge in their hearts.
St. Ama lived up to his reputation as a lethal double-threat QB, forging two
scoring drives that narrowed the Dragon lead to 11, 35-24.
The first was an 11-play,
clock-eating drive that ended in an 8-yard pass to Jahbez Hawkins (12 catches for
52 yards). The second came after the Eagle defense forced the Dragons into a
3-and-out. It featured an electrifying 42-yard dash by Isaac Jones (5 rushes for
58) to the 6, where Dragon linebacker Cinque Williams ran him down to prevent
the TD. Three plays later, St. Ama connected with Charles Whitebear (5 for 31) in
the end zone.
The 4th
quarter was a desultory affair, with both teams trading scores. Eaton’s final
TD came after it had failed to convert on a 4th down at the Dragon 3.
Allen lost yardage on consecutive plays, then bobbled and lost the ball during a
bad exchange with Holden. Eaton recovered in the end zone to bring the score to
42-30 with 4:21 left.
Hard charging, high flying
Kicker supreme Joe
McFadden ended scoring for the Dragons with a 30-yard field goal, only his
second of the year on this high-flying, hard-charging Carroll offense.
St. Ama was the
standout offensive performer for Eagles, completing 15 of 22 passes for 126
yards, 2 TDs and an interception. He also rushed 22 times for 125 yards.
But despite his
effectiveness, the Dragon defense kept the Eagles largely at bay. The
much-admired “comeback” involved 17 unanswered points, 3 in the closing minutes
of the half, with the Dragons leading 35-7, and 14 more in the 3rd. While some
of us were shifting uneasily in our seats when Eaton closed the gap to 35-24, the
Dragon lead never was seriously threatened.
You can thank the
Dragon D for that. Williams, who was moved from cornerback to outside
linebacker, has made a real difference. He was everywhere last night,
disrupting timing, interrupting pass routes and chasing down runners.
Holden continues to
perform admirably for the absent Ewers. While he doesn’t put up the numbers of
his more heralded teammate, he gets the job done. He connected in double digits
to three receivers, the nimble RJ Maryland (4-74), Landon Samson (2-41) and
Boyd (3-37).
The nature of Ewers
injury hasn’t been revealed, but the hope of course is for his return by the
playoffs. We’ll see soon enough
Head coach Riley Dodge said
after the game that both teams understood the significance of the matchup. The
winner almost certainly will emerge as District 4-6A champs.
“There was a lot at stake,”
he told Dragon Radio. “Both teams understood that. Frankly, I thought we
handled it better than they did. We rose to the occasion tonight.”
Three goals
Carroll’s football
program begins each season with three goals: win district, practice on
Thanksgiving Day (this translates in normal years to a deep run the playoffs)
and, finally, a state championship.
Dodge acknowledged the
unique circumstances surrounding this COVID-marked season.
“District champs three
years in a row. That’s our first goal,” he said.
But while the Dragons
will practice on Thanksgiving Day because of the rescheduled Keller Timber
Creek game on Friday, the playoffs don’t begin for two weeks.
“Goal No. 2 has changed
this year,” he admitted. “It’s now to make it to the third round.”
The main obstacle to that
goal could be the Euless Trinity Trojans, the Dragons’ likely Round Two
opponents. The Trojans aren’t the behemoths of old, but they still are plenty
potent, particularly in the highly charged atmosphere of the playoffs. A key to
Carroll victory could be the progress of its defense, which took a big step
forward last night.
But first, the Dragons
have to finish out the season by sweeping District 4-6A. That begins next
Friday against Timber Creek and the season finale against Keller Fossil Ridge in
Dragon Stadium on Dec. 4.
Have a great
Thanksgiving everyone and stay safe. Go Dragons!
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