A real drubbing
The Southlake
Carroll Dragons strolled out of the first round of the 6A Division I playoffs last
night with a crushing victory over the Haltom Buffaloes, who were making only
their second playoff appearance since 2001.
The Buffs had no
answer for Carroll’s high-powered offense, led for the fifth straight game by
senior Hunter Holden, standing in for Quinn Ewers, the Dragons’ injured
superstar quarterback.
Next up for the Dragons
will be the 8-2 Odessa Permian Panthers, who slipped past El Paso Franklin
37-26 to reach the area round. Carroll, 9-1, will meet the Mojo at Abilene
Christian University’s Wildcat Stadium at 4 p.m. Friday.
The Dragons
scored on five of their first six possessions last night, their TD streak
ruined when Holden threw the first of two interceptions. The Buffalos took
advantage of the miscue, marching quickly downfield before Keenan Bailey
muscled 17 yards into the endzone.
Asserting control
Carroll asserted control at that point, however, hanging 42 unanswered points on hapless Haltom. It rolled up 536 yards in total offense against the Buffs, who could manage only 246.
Without Holden’s
errant passes, and a rare fumble by RJ Maryland at the Haltom 5, the Dragons
might have hung 70 points on their overwhelmed visitors.
Holden
compensated for his misthrows with an outstanding performance. He completed 12
of 16 passes for 223 yards and three TDs, while running for a 4th.
After Haltom tied
the game late in the first quarter, Holden lofted a 69-yard pass to Maryland,
which handed the Dragons the lead and initiated the scoring spree that
dismantled the Buffalos.
And Holden spread
the wealth, connecting with Maryland (2-123), Landon Samson (6-55) and Brady
Boyd (3-43) for scores.
Sophomore Owen
Allen also had a standout night, taking advantage of the holes torn in the
Haltom line by Carroll’s surging offensive front line. He rushed for 190 yards
on 10 carries and accounted for 3 TDs. His second score came on a
heart-pounding 84-yard dash that began when he blasted through the Buff D-line
untouched and then outraced the field to the endzone.
Stepping up
The Carroll
defense stepped up in a big way last night, smothering Buffalo quarterback Jace
Washington and limiting Allen Reyonolds, Haltom’s leading rusher, to 63 yards.
The final Buff score came after the Dragons began extensive substitutions.
On a sad note,
backup quarterback Kaden Anderson, a sophomore who took over for Holden in the
3rd quarter, went out with a knee injury, probably for the year.
The Dragons,
leading 49-14, were threatening to score after senior defensive lineman Jim
Cates recovered a fumble at the Haltom 36. Behind the hard charging of senior RB
Wesley Craddock, Carroll surged to the 3. A couple of plays later, a delay of
game penalty sent them back to the 12.
From there,
Anderson swung around the right end and fought his way back to the 3, where he
was slammed down hard by a Buff defender. Dragon fans waited in silence as he
was helped off the field in obvious pain.
It’s too bad when
such injuries occur late in a game in which the outcome has long since been
decided. But you can’t fault backups for playing full-tilt when they get the
opportunity. Anderson has shown great
promise in his limited exposure to Friday night lights. Here’s hoping he mends
quickly and completely.
And now the
Mighty Mojo stands between Carroll and a deep run into the playoffs. Permian
has had a good year. It’s back in the West Texas district to which my hometown
of Big Spring belonged when it played in the largest UIL classification, which
in those years was 4A.
The better team
But the Panthers
are not the unstoppable force they were when Buzz Bissinger wrote “Friday Night
Lights,” the book that made Mojo nationally famous and gave high school football
its now ubiquitous nickname.
Carroll is the
better team, with or without its five-star quarterback, the worthy Ewers. But
anything can happen in the playoffs, particularly in the weirdness created by
this plague-impacted season. So a trip west to my old stomping grounds may be
in order, despite the dismal timing and other complicating factors.
On a final note,
I’m not sure how I feel about bringing so many kids on the field at halftime last
night to create the Texas outline and perform the “Lids” routine, both playoff
traditions. In these perilous times, it seemed a bit reckless with the kids’
safety.
That said, I’ll
freely admit it sure looked good and felt good to do something normal, to
participate in such a comforting ritual in the time of COVID.
Fingers crossed,
I hope we don’t have reason to regret the decision. Meanwhile, stay safe and
wear your mask.
Go Dragons!
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