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 3rd 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 27th
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.
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!
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