Dodge Bust: Southlake Carroll 34, Austin Westlake 52

 

Father and son meet at midfield.

A season’s dismal end

And so this most unusual of high school football seasons comes to a close for the Southlake Carroll Dragons, not with the bang of a ninth state championship but with the whimper of a spanking administered to the audacious son by his patient but stern father.

Riley Dodge – third generation coach, a member of high school football royalty, and an extraordinary leader of young men – will not become one of the youngest coaches to win a state championship. He will win titles, no doubt. But not this year – and not at the expense of his legendary father.

Instead, Todd Dodge – already one of the greatest high school coaches in the state’s heralded football history – becomes the first coach to win back-to-back state championships at two different schools. He, too, will win more state titles. He’s too good not to. But in all likelihood, he will not face again the discomfort of humiliating his son on a grand stage.

The Westlake Chaparrals made it look easy. In the hands of their nationally ranked quarterback, Cade Klubnik (18 of 20, 230 yards, 1 TD), the Chaps’ unstoppable offense ran roughshod over the Dragon defense. With the exception of a possession that ended the half, Westlake waged a relentless scoring onslaught against the overmatched Dragons, running up seven touchdowns and a field goal on its first eight series.

Many of the 18,000 fans who had managed to get tickets to AT&T Stadium to see the hyped, hoop-de-do’ed and super-dupered Dodge Bowl figured it would be a close-fought affair. Westlake was favored, but there was widespread respect for the Dragons’ No. 1 ranked quarterback, Quinn Ewers, and their phenomenal sophomore running back, Owen Allen.

At least slow down

The Dragons’ young and undersized defense had played brilliantly last week against Duncanville. Surely, it would be able to corral – or at least slow down – the Chaparrals’ offensive juggernaut, which was averaging more than 50 points a game.

Coach Todd Dodge takes his team on the field.

But it wasn’t close, at all. And the Dragon D was completely overwhelmed. By the middle of the 3^rd quarter, the match had turned into a rout. And many of us who had complained that we weren’t able to watch the game because of contract disputes with Fox Sports Southwest and just about everybody, now found ourselves relieved that more people couldn’t watch the beat down being delivered by the Chaps. Even the on-hand AT&T crowd had been limited by social-distancing rules.

One moment in the action illustrates the impotency of the Dragon defense – and the dominance of the Chaparral offense, which compiled a total 528 yards, compared to the Dragons’ 399.

Grey Nakfoor, the Westlake RB who would rush for 71 yards and three touchdowns before the merciful end of the slaughter, was headed downfield while Dragon defenders toppled like tenpins around him. Facing a Dragon he couldn’t – or just decided not to – evade, he completely hurdled the falling defender, clearing him by at least a couple of feet, and continued on his way.

Is there anything more demoralizing for a defense than to watch an opponent sail over your head as if he were running the hurdles at a track meet?

Helpless as kittens

Such was the Carroll D’s fate. When the Chaps wanted to run, they ran through, around and over the Dragons, who were helpless as kittens to stop them.

Carroll trailed by only 7 at the half. But Westlake quickly extended the lead to two touchdowns minutes after the break, helped in part by a 44-yard scamper to the Dragon red zone by Klubnik, who ended the night with 97 yards rushing on 17 carries.

Carroll scrambled to catch up. Ewers and his offense already had managed to do something no other team in the regular season had accomplished. They scored on the Chaps twice in the first quarter, the first time the Chaps had allowed a score in the first period. And no one before the playoffs had scored in double digits against the undefeated Chaps.

Owen Allen reaches for the touchdown.

It was with that thought in mind that the Dragons began their first series of the second half. Westlake squelched it quickly. On the second play of the drive, a hurried and harassed Ewers lofted a long ball to Brady Boyd only to see defender Michael Taaffe make his second of two Ewers interceptions for the night. In this case, it was a leaping, one-handed grab that punctuated in vivid fashion Westlake’s ownership of the field. Four plays later, Klubnik rumbled 5 yards for the game-exploding touchdown that handed Westlake a 3-TD lead.

The Dragons turned the ball over on downs on their subsequent series, and the Chaps added a field goal and eventually a final touchdown.

Give the Dragons this: Even trailing 52-21 in the final quarter, they fought gamely. Dreams die hard in a proud program like Carroll. Ewers (23 of 39, 350 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INT) drove the Dragons to the Chaparral 10, then zipped a pass to RJ Maryland (3-67) in the end zone.

Onside kick

Carroll’s 2-point conversion failed, but it recovered Joe McFadden’s onside kick on the next play. Starting on the Chap 35, Ewers brought his team to the 2, thanks to a pass interference call against Westlake, where Allen tacked on the final Dragon score, his second TD of the night and 27^th of the year.

Despite the two scores, young Allen had a quiet night, thanks to the smothering Chaparral defense. He carried 15 times for only 40 yards. Westlake thus achieved its goal of blunting the explosive power of Southlake’s offense by throwing a lasso around Allen and keeping Ewers scrambling in the pocket.

Everyone was watching when Todd and Riley Dodge met on the field after the Chaps’ win. They hugged each other tightly, a father and son who had successfully juggled family considerations with the welfare of their young charges. Just what you’d expect from a class act like the Dodge family.

As I said before, yesterday will not be either man’s last trip to a state football final.

Both could be back as early as next year. Ewers and his leading receiver, Landon Samuels (6-91), are juniors. Allen is only a sophomore. Carroll’s entire defensive line and half of its offensive line are returning. The Dragons will be fierce and motivated to march defiantly back to the title game.

Return to the Big Show?

Westlake will be hit harder by graduation, but the brilliant Klubnik will return for his senior year, so count the Chaparrals in on preseason speculation about a return to the Big Show.

        Chances are, however, that the two teams will not meet up in the playoffs again, at least not next year. Getting to the finals is difficult enough, even for a team blessed with talent, discipline and grit. Nothing is a given.

Besides, Westlake likely will compete in Division II next year, while the Dragons probably will end up in Division I. Anything is possible, of course, under the UIL’s peculiar playoff rules, but don’t count on another Dodge Bowl to cap the 2021 season.

But the two teams will meet early in a pre-district game. That, after all, was the plan for this year until COVID threw a wrench into everything. Now that we’ve gotten the first father-son encounter out of the way, the spotlight on that contest might not be so bright – or so distracting.

Grey Nakfoor hurdles a Dragon defender.

By the way, the UIL executive director, in a radio interview yesterday, seemed to indicate that pushing the beginning of the 2021 season to after Labor Day might be a consideration. As it turns out, having the playoffs extend into January didn’t cause the world to explode. Who knew?

A final word about the Dodge Bowl. Both men, father and son, handled themselves extremely well under the intense public scrutiny attracted by the game between their two programs.

When the UIL first suggested a Dodge Bowl to open the 2020 season, both coaches were cool to the idea.

Keep the focus

They knew that the focus of such a contest would be on the rivalry between father and son, instead of where they felt it belonged – on their players. They ultimately agreed, however. The UIL made them an offer they simply couldn’t refuse.

When the pandemic scrambled the beginning of the season and forced a cancellation of the Carroll-Westlake clash, everyone shrugged and thought, “Too bad. That would have been great.”

Fate, however, had other plans. By a series of unlikely events, Southlake and Westlake came together in the biggest game of all. Elizabeth Dodge, wife to Todd and mother to Riley, says it’s almost as if something bigger was at work to make the Dodge Bowl a reality.

Perhaps. To the end, however, the coaches remained committed to keeping the spotlight where it belonged.

In an post-game interview with The Dallas Morning News, Todd Dodge offered this assessment:

“Riley and I were both honored to be part of something that was the first time it had ever happened in the state of Texas in a state championship game. But this was not about us. This was about the Westlake Chaparrals and the Southlake Carroll Dragons, and a bunch of kids whose hearts are bigger than this stadium.”

Until next season, friends, stay safe and … Go Dragons!

A game to remember or a game to forget?

Running it down their throat: Southlake Carroll 34, Duncanville 27

 

Quarterback Quinn Ewers stretches for a touchdown.

Someone forgot to tell the Dragons

Conventional wisdom – all-powerful and all-knowing – dictated that the Duncanville Panthers would push easily past the Southlake Carroll Dragons yesterday to fulfill their destiny of meeting the Galena Park North Shore Mustangs in the state championship game for the third straight year.

The Dragons were merely set pieces whose only role was to fall helplessly before the Panthers on their march to avenge defeats by the Mustangs in 2018 and 2019. And finally, at long last, to hand their coach, the venerable Reginald Samples, his first state championship trophy.

Somebody must have forgot to tell the Carroll players, who carried their own dreams of destiny into Globe Life Park in Arlington yesterday and then made them a reality.

It didn’t come easy, but the Dragons enjoyed a decent helping of revenge themselves, stifling Duncanville’s heralded offense and ripping through its supposedly impenetrable front defensive wall. In so doing, they swept past the team that has booted them out of the playoffs the past two years.

Victory didn’t come through the air, as we all expected, but on the ground, thanks to the exertions of sophomore Owen Allen, who carried 33 times through, around and over the Panther defense on his way to almost 200 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns. He also was the Dragons’ second leading receiver, catching 4 passes for 53 yards.

In carrying the load for the Carroll offense, which scored 34 points against a defense that averaged only 13.4 points a game, Allen exceeded 2,000 rushing yards for the season.

Meanwhile, the Carroll defense held the potent Duncanville offense, which had averaged 47 points a game, scoreless in the second half, forcing two turnovers and disrupting what has been an unstoppable machine all season.

After the game, Duncanville coaches blamed the loss on mental mistakes, singling out the turnovers and 62 yards in penalties. “We just came up short because of too many mistakes,” defensive coordinator Judd Thrash told The Dallas Morning News.

While true, Duncanville’s coaches left out the most salient reasons for the final score: Lights-out play by Carroll on both sides of the ball.

Sophomore Owen Allen carried the offense.

And the Dragons did it without their coach, Riley Dodge, on the sidelines. Dodge tested positive for the COVID-19 virus late last week and was still in quarantine during the semi-final game.

As Carroll players soaked in the pleasure of their upset victory, Dodge called quarterback Quinn Ewers on Face Time to congratulate his players and join in the celebration.

“He’s fired up. He just wants to be back here,” Ewers told The News’ Greg Riddle. “It hurt him so bad no not be able to be out here against a great team like Duncanville. Him being able to see this and us pulling it off, he’s just so excited."

First-time head coach

Defensive coordinator Lee Munn – who has masterfully crafted his young, under-sized defense into a solid complement to Carroll’s fearsome offense – took over as interim head coach for the game. It was his first time to serve as a head coach, and what a debut it was.

“Coach Dodge has done a really good job of being present as best as he could through Zoom calls,” Munn told Riddle. “The biggest difference is before a meeting or after practice, all the kids are looking to you, and you have to be that voice.”

Dodge will be back in time for the state championship game next Saturday at AT&T Stadium, where he will face his father, legendary coach Todd Dodge, and the Westlake Chaparrals for the state title.

The hype for this game will be fierce and perhaps that's understandable. The senior Dodge won four state championships in five years (2002-2006) while Carroll head coach. Riley played on two of those championship teams, leading the team as quarterback in 2006.

Since taking over the Carroll head coaching job in 2018, Riley Dodge has compiled a 38-3 record, taking his team deep into the playoffs in 2018 and 2019 and now to the Big Show.

The UIL recognized the potential of a father-son coaching face-off and originally scheduled the so-called Dodge Bowl for the opening week of the 2020 season. But COVID protocols delayed and eventually cancelled that matchup.

Unexpected victories

But now it’s back on, set up by the unexpected victories of Southlake against Duncanville and Westlake against reigning District I champions the Galena Park North Shore Mustangs, who were favored to defend the title they’ve held since 2018.

Most high school football prognosticators predicted the Panthers and Mustangs would survive the grueling playoff season for a replay of their titanic battles for high school football supremacy. Particularly unforgettable is the 2018 contest in which North Shore won the game with a Hail Mary pass into the end zone as time expired.

Despite the disruption in the coaching staff, the Dragons devised a game plan that caught the Panthers by surprise. When Duncanville targeted Ewers (11 of 25 for 168 yards, 1 TD), the No. 1 junior quarterback in the nation, blanketing his receivers and pressuring him in the pocket, he turned to Allen, a quick, hard-charging RB with perfect balance and bruising strength, despite his tender age. He turned 16 this season.

“Sometimes you forget he’s a sophomore, but the credit really goes to Owen. He’s a tough, physical runner, but the offensive line and the game plan the coaches came up with ... the credit goes across the board,” Munn told the DMN.

Allen scored the Dragons’ first touchdown on a 1-yard plunge, a score set up by Josh Spaeth who forced a fumble on the Panthers’ first possession, then fell on the ball at the Duncanville 32.

Landon Samson reels in a pass.

On their next series, the Panthers moved the ball efficiently into the Dragon red zone, but an impressive defensive stand by Carroll stopped them cold at the 14. That led to an unsuccessful 31-yard field-goal attempt, which combined with the uncharacteristic turnover on the previous series, indicated a door of opportunity had been cracked open.

Slamming the door

Only to the slammed shut on the very next play. Allen was hit hard and coughed up the ball, which Panther Jadarius Thursby jumped on at the Carroll 12. One play later, Duncanville quarterback Grayson James surged over the goal line for a touchdown. The extra-point, however, was no good, revealing a chink in the Panther offensive armor that would prove significant in the game’s closing minutes.

But at that moment, the Panthers were on a roll. They held Carroll to a 3-and-out and then proceeded to march downfield behind the excellent protection of their O-line, which opened lanes for RB Malachi Medlock (19 for 139, 2 TDs) to push the ball forward as the first quarter neared an end. He ended the drive with a 2-yard dart into the end zone.

The lead changed hands several times in the 2^nd, but Duncanville was unable to dominate the field as it had in the two teams’ prior playoff encounters.

As halftime neared, the Dragons surged ahead 21-19 after Ewers connected with Landon Samson (4 for 88), who then raced down the right sideline 36 yards to score.

But Duncanville quickly answered, returning the kickoff to midfield. Medlock scored again 6 plays later. A 2-point conversion gave the Panthers a 27-21 lead going into the locker room.

But it would be the last score of the game for the proud Panthers. The Dragon defense, behind the brilliant play of defensive back Cinque Williams, would yield no more.

On Duncanville’s first possession of the 2^nd half, it could get no closer than the Dragon 44 before punting it back to Carroll.

Allen fought for every yard and Ewers threw a couple of key passes to Samson and Brady Boyd (3 for 27), but the Dragons had to settle for a 31-yard Joe McFadden field goal to narrow the Panther lead to 27-24.

Carroll finally edged ahead for good when Williams jumped in front of a James pass at the Dragon 38. Two plays later, Ewers handed the ball to Allen, who barrelled through the center of the Duncanville line, shrugged off at least four Panther tacklers and charged into the end zone.

Plenty of time

The Dragons would end scoring with a 26-yard field goal by McFadden with more than 8 minutes on the clock. That left the Panthers plenty of time to close the 34-27 gap.

On the ensuing series, James engineered a clock-eating drive that brought his team to the Dragon 25, where it found itself facing a 4-12 decision. Samuels, no doubt mindful that his weak kicking game already had seen one field-goal attempt and an extra-point try blocked by the Dragons, chose to go for broke. But the conversion failed when James’ desperation pass sailed over his receiver's head, and the Dragons took over with 3½ minutes to play.

With timeouts in its pocket, Duncanville might yet steal the victory if it could force Carroll into a 3-and-out and uncage its explosive offense for one more shot at glory.

But Allen pounded away at the Panther line, securing two key first downs that drained the clock, the last one by a massive second effort that left only inches to spare.

Here’s an interesting sidelight to yesterday’s game: The last time Duncanville coach Reginald Samples faced the Dragons was in 2011, the year Carroll won its last state championship. Back then, Samples was coach of the highly rated Dallas Skyline Raiders, who met the Dragons in the semi-final game at SMU’s Ford Stadium.

Owen Allen fights his way to a touchdown.

The Dragons trailed the Raiders by two touchdowns with 2 minutes left in the game when the Carroll team, led by quarterback Kenny Hill, staged a thrilling comeback. It culminated with Hill running down the right sideline to the winning touchdown – while a gray fox that lived on the SMU campus and had slipped into the stadium trotted down the field in the opposite direction.

It’s part of Dragon lore and an example of the strange mystique that sometimes attaches itself to the program. It also shows that anything can happen in high school football – and often does.

Now comes the contest against Westlake with all the attention and hoo-ha that will surround it.

Amazing the experts

While not quite the shocker that the Carroll-Duncanville result was, the 24-21 victory of Westlake over undefeated North Shore, ranked the No. 2 team in the nation, still amazed the experts. Westlake is no slouch, of course. The Chaparrals won the District II championship last year but are competing in District I this year.

But some things are just meant to happen. The football gods who denied us the pleasure of the Dodge Bowl at the beginning of the season now reward us with it at the end. After all we’ve suffered through in 2020 (and the first two weeks of 2021), it only seems fair.

I suspect that Westlake will be the prohibitive favorite for the title game. But if yesterday's games prove anything, it’s that predictions don’t mean spit (thank God there’s no spellcheck on Word!)

The coaches’ goal will be to shield their squads from the intensity of the public spotlight that will shine on the contest. It’s not the Super Bowl, but for high school kids, it’s a pretty big deal.

“The Dodge Bowl, we were excited for that to be the first game of the year and were sad to see it get canceled,” Allen, the Dragon running back, told the DMN. “Knowing that it is rescheduled as the state championship game is exciting, and we’re ready for it.”

Stay safe and go Dragons!

Defensive coordinator Lee Munn stepped in for Riley Dodge.

Standing in for you and me

 

Placing you at the scene of the action

Yesterday was a perfectly wretched day. I watched scenes I thought I'd never see and hope never to see again. I could tell that many of the reporters covering the assault on the Capitol could hardly believe what they were seeing, too. It showed in the tone of their voices and the look in their eyes. Or perhaps I was just imagining it.

Whenever I watch the coverage of a breaking news event -- like the Capitol siege, the Oklahoma City bombing or 9-11 -- I think of the reporters who are trying to cover the damned things without getting killed themselves.

And I always flashback to the summer before I went to college. I had a job at the Big Spring Herald as a go-fer/reporter, a welcome change from my previous job of sacking groceries.

I was 19, green as grass and innocent as a daisy. Earlier that spring, the Big Spring police chief had been fired. No reasons were given, but there were widespread rumors about the fast and loose way he ran his department.

I knew for a fact he was a tough-nosed hard-ass with a bad disposition because a few months earlier he had chased me away from a local refinery fire I was covering for my community college newspaper.

As was his right, the ex-chief demanded a public hearing before the city council to challenge his dismissal, and I was assigned -- along with every other Herald reporter -- to cover the meeting. It was expected to draw a large crowd and be noisy, controversial and maybe, just maybe, air some of the town's dirty laundry. I couldn't wait.

On the afternoon of the meeting, the Herald staff held a strategy session. We went over assignments, engaged in typical newsroom grabass and headed out.

On my way to the door, my editor stopped me and said, "Two things to remember tonight. Get a seat near an exit. If there's riot, you'll be able to get out fast and won't get trapped inside."

She paused, then added, "And if there's any shooting, duck under your seat. Don't be hero."

I stared at her goggle-eyed. Until that moment, I had never considered the possibility of violence. Or getting hurt. I left with a little less spring to my step.

As it turns out the meeting was about as raucous as a bridge game. But years later, when as an editor I sometimes had to send reporters into tight situations, I always made sure we had a chat about safety. Most of those conversations ended with my reminder, "Don't be a hero."

Reporters got boxed around yesterday by the Trumpist goons. As far as I know, none were seriously hurt, thank God. But they were there, standing in for you and me, risking life and limb to place us at the scene of the action.

They may not be heroes -- although then again, maybe they are -- but they're damned sure not "enemies of the people" or purveyors of "fake news." And I'm freaking fed-up with those who say they are.

Onward to the semi-finals: Southlake Carroll 59, Euless Trinity 35

 

Quinn Ewers commanded the field yesterday.

‘A defining moment’

The Southlake Carroll Dragons entered Globe Life Park in Arlington yesterday as a well-oiled, finely tuned machine, a machine that bowled over, chewed up and spit out a very good football team.

The Euless Trinity Trojans fought gamely to the end, but they had no answer for the Dragons’ offensive firepower and no success in overwhelming Carroll’s swarming defense.

Yesterday’s win propels Carroll into the semi-final round of the playoffs for the first time since 2011, the year it won its eighth state championship.

Riley Dodge, who has compiled a 37-3 record in his three years as Carroll head coach, has seen his team get ousted from the fourth round of the playoffs for the past two years. He said his team understands the significance of breaking through to the fifth, penultimate, round.

“We talked about it all week: This is a defining moment for us as a program, even though we have a historically rich program,” Dodge told The Dallas Morning News’ Joseph Hoyt. “This is a big win for us, and I’m proud of the guys for answering the bell.”

He added, “To be in the final four in the state of Texas in 6A Division I – that means everything to us.”

And the school standing in the way of Carroll advancing to the final Division I (big school) championship game? The same team that booted the Dragons from the playoffs in 2018 and 2019 – the dreaded Duncanville Panthers.

Duncanville hammered DeSoto yesterday 56-28 to reach the semi-finals. It is seeking to make its third straight trip to the championship game, where it has lost the past two years to the Galena Park North Shore Mustangs. Duncanville’s talented three-star receiver Roderick Daniels Jr. admitted after the game that his team already is looking past the Dragons in seeking a rematch with the Mustangs.

Well, we’ll see. But more about that later.

Yesterday’s game was the ninth matchup between Carroll and Trinity, two schools with vastly different fan bases located only 10 miles apart. While Carroll now leads the series 6-3, most of those contests were bruising, hard-fought affairs. Five of the first seven were decided by 4 points or less.

Their first encounter, the 2006 playoff game when both schools were returning state champions in different divisions, is considered by many to be one of the best high school football games ever played. Carroll eked out a victory in the closing seconds with a touchdown run by none other than Riley Dodge. The Dragons went on to win their third consecutive state championship four weeks later.

Close-run matchup

This year’s game was expected to be another close-run matchup between 11-1 Trinity and 10-1 Carroll. And it might have been, too, if not for the superb performance of Dragon quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Ewers, playing in his second game since returning from a sports-hernia injury, demonstrated, in grand fashion and on a prominent stage, why he’s rated the No. 1 junior quarterback in the nation. He completed almost 90 percent of his passes, piling up 450 yards in the air and scoring six touchdowns.

Brady Boyd reels in one of his 4 TD passes.

Ewers was, in fact, almost perfect. During the first half, he completed every pass he threw, save one. And even that sole incompletion fell into the hands of Landon Samson (13 receptions for 137 yards, 2 TDs), who came within inches of keeping his feet in bounds.

That play set up a 4^th down that Carroll successfully converted. Two plays later, Ewers connected with Brady Boyd (17 receptions for 261 yards), who strode into the end zone from the Trinity 35 for his first of four TDs. With 8 minutes left in the half, the Dragons led 21-0.

Trinity teams traditionally have never been particularly good at playing catchup, but you can’t fault the Trojans for not trying. After all, they had recent history on their side.

In the second round of the playoffs, Euless trailed Midland Lee by three touchdowns near the end of the half, only to score four unanswered TDs to get back into a game they eventually won 56-49.

Played lights out

But the Carroll Dragons are not Midland Lee, and the Dragon defense played lights out against Euless’ powerful ground game, led by hard-charging Ollie Gordon, who last week rushed for 455 yards on 49 – you heard me, 49 – carries. He scored six TDs in the Trojans’ 49-45 win over the formidable Allen Eagles.

Gordon scored three TDs yesterday, gaining 204 yards on 23 carries. But most of his success came on just two plays, one a 75-yard TD dash on the first play from scrimmage in the 2^nd quarter and the other a thundering 92-yard kickoff return for a TD in the 3^rd quarter.

The Dragons established their dominance early. Ewers led his team to its first score less than a minute into the game, when sophomore Owen Allen (31-161, 2 TDs) plunged across the goal line from the 3.

The defense stifled Euless with a 3-and-out, setting up a few minutes later the second Carroll score, an 18-yard pass from Ewers to Samson.

On its second possession, Trinity struggled downfield, with Gordon fighting for every yard, to the Dragon 15, where Carroll stopped the drive cold. Faced with a 4-10, the Trojans, wary of Ewers' mastery on Carroll’s first two drives, eschewed a field-goal attempt. But they failed to convert when quarterback Valentino Foni was chased out of the pocket and threw an incompletion.

The Dragons took over and eventually widened their lead to three scores.

 Few exceptions

Carroll scored on all but one of its possessions – eight TDs and a 32-yard field goal by Joe McFadden. The exception came when Trojan Jacob Schaeffer intercepted a Carroll pass after Ewers was hit as he released the ball, one of the few times Trinity was able to break through the Dragon O-line.

With few exceptions, his Big Guys gave Ewers’ plenty of time in the pocket to survey the field and pepper his receivers with perfectly timed and targeted balls. When he did feel pressure, he calmed stepped forward and finished the play. At one point, as he avoided a tackler, Ewers actually lofted a ball with his left hand. His receiver had to correct his route, but the play gained yardage.

Landon Samson, who caught two TD passes, evades a tackler.

He and his receivers – Boyd and Samson – ruled the field. At this point in the season, they operate as a single synchronized unit. Ewers' long passes to Boyd, in the left or right corner of the end zone, were absolute things of beauty, the ball arriving in Boyd’s hands an instant before he zoomed out of bounds.

Such artistry requires talent, yes, but it also takes discipline, intelligence and practice, practice, practice.

As for the defense, well, I’m reminded that in football, as in most things, timing is everything. And the Carroll defense picked the fourth round of the playoffs, when the level of competition rises dramatically, to put all the pieces together. Its hard work on the practice field and in the film room shined through in dramatic fashion yesterday.

Hold their own

 Most Dragon fans believed that Ewers and company could hold their own in a shootout. But many of us worried about the defense’s ability to control Gordon. He truly is a beast. His performance against the Eagles last week brought him almost a half-dozen scholarship offers.

And while he got his yards against the Dragons, he did not pick up his team and carry it to victory as he did against Allen. The Dragon D-line hung tough and strangled his attempts to take over the game.

Carroll will have its hands full next Saturday against the Panthers, who I suspect will be strong favorites to carry the day. But don’t count the Dragons out just yet. During last year’s game, Quinn Ewers staged an impressive comeback in the fourth quarter that fell short but came close enough to have Dragon fans gulping for air and Panther fans sweating bullets.

It was that effort that helped earn the young Ewers, then a sophomore, the national profile that he enjoys today. And here’s the thing. He is oh-so-much-better today than he was in December 2019. And so are his receivers.

Add to that a defense that has gelled into a solid, tough-as-nails front, and you’ve got the makings of one helluva football game.

Riley Dodge says this game was "a defining moment" for his program.

So when Roderick Daniels Jr., one of Duncanville’s top players, says he “most definitely” wants to play North Shore again for the state title, he’d best not count his chickens before they hatch. (Although I suspect his coach, the venerable Reginald Samples, already has had that conversation with his player.)

Interesting history

A final note on yesterday’s game. The history of the Southlake-Euless rivalry is an interesting one. The schools could not be more different. Trinity High School is middle-class, multi-cultural and multi-racial. Carroll High School is not. Euless is a solid blue-collar town with a slightly rough edge. Southlake is upscale, exclusive and full of attitude.

And yet, the football programs at both schools are quite close. Respect and comradeship reign over the relationship. I hear Dragon fans say all the time, “I always root for the Trojans – except when they’re playing us.”

As do I. At the end of that nail-biting 2006 game, which my team had just won (by the skin of its teeth), I watched teary eyed as the dejected Trojans gathered in front of their fans, who hadn’t moved a muscle since the final whistle, and performed the Haka war dance, a Trinity tradition.

But the Haka wasn’t what sparked my emotions. As the Trojans stamped and flexed their muscles, Dragon players – who usually gather in front of the Dragon Band after a game to sing the school song – stood still as statues, their eyes trained on their erstwhile foes.

 Once the Haka ended, players from both teams embraced, friends once more.

Nothing has changed. In a radio interview after the game, Brady Boyd was asked about the unique connection between the two programs.

“We have nothing but respect for them,” he said of the Trojan players. “There was no trash-talking or anything like that from either side. After the game, I told all those guys that I love them.”

Now ask me why I love high school football. Ask me.

Go Dragons!