Unimpeded march: Southlake Carroll 52, Lewisville 0

Dragon defenders scramble to cover a loose ball during their shutout performance.
How good are they?

COPPELL – The Southlake Carroll Dragons continued their unassailable march through the UIL 6A Division I playoffs yesterday, shattering with impunity the potent offense of the Lewisville Fighting Farmers and strangling mercilessly the Farmers’ sturdy defense.

Having swept aside with distain their opponents in the first three rounds of the playoffs, the Dragons now face the first true test to determine just how good they really are. Most of us who have watched them battle to a 13-0 record would judge them pretty damned good.

That belief will be tested when Carroll faces the Allen Eagles at 2 p.m. next Saturday in UNT’s Apogee Stadium.

And while the 11-2 Eagles are having what is considered for them to be a down year, they showed their potential for murder and mayhem yesterday by destroying a solid Euless Trinity squad 59-21.

Allen, having digested the Trojans like a roasted Thanksgiving turkey, will not have as easy a time with the Dragons, not if Carroll puts on the defensive and offensive show that it displayed yesterday at Coppell’s Buddy Echols Field.

The Farmers had hoped in vain to avenge the 84-6 obliteration they suffered at the hands of the Dragons in the opening round of the 2019 playoffs. And while they fielded a better team than the one dismantled by Carroll two years ago, they still were slaughtered like kittens. (Apologies to cat lovers for that grisly image.)

The Dragon D shut out a powerful Farmer offense that had been averaging almost 40 points a game. Dragon defensive backs Avyonne Jones and Logan Anderson performed superbly, pacing a defense that limited the Farmers to 89 rushing yards (on 31 carries) and 64 passing yards.

Coming into the game, Lewisville’s talented running back, Oregon State-bound Damien Martinez, had rolled up 1,660 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns. He had 200-yard games four times this season. Against the Dragons, Martinez could manage only a paltry 52 yards on 16 carries.

Lewisville’s 4-star wide receiver, Armani Winfield, until recently committed to UT, entered the game with 60 catches, 961 yards and 8 TDs. But Jones and company held him to only six receptions and 45 yards.

Disruptive juggernaut

Carroll’s special teams were magnificent, forcing the Farmers into a series of costly mistakes that derailed promising drives and handed the opportunistic Dragons great field position all afternoon. One punt was blocked, another attempt ended in a fumble recovered by Carroll.

Head coach Riley Dodge heaped praise on the disruptive juggernaut that is the Dragon defense.

“We’ve been outstanding all year, just very consistent,” he told The Dallas Morning News’ Greg Riddle. “It’s a group that trusts each other, who understand what the pieces to the puzzle are. It’s a veteran group that has played a lot of football together. They continue to get better.”

 Better? Holy moly, what a prospect!

While the defense was humbling the proud Farmers, who were playing in their first 3^rd-round playoff game since winning state in 1996, the Dragon offense hungrily was prowling Nichols Field with impunity.

Forced to punt on its first possession, the Dragons scored on the next six (five TDs and a 45-yard Tyler White field goal). Junior quarterback Kaden Anderson had perhaps the best game of his young career, throwing four TD passes for the first time in one game, while amassing 130 yards in the air on 13 of 20 attempts.

He targeted R.J. Maryland (5 for 102) for two scores and Landon Samson (3-34) for another pair. Maryland began Carroll’s scoring spree with the most spectacular catch of the afternoon. Racing for the end zone, Maryland stretched high for a soaring Anderson pass, tipping the ball with his fingers into a one-handed grasp as he crossed the goal line.

The debacle continues

The next Dragon scoring drive was set up when Logan Anderson blocked a Farmer punt at the Lewisville 32. Six plays later, Samson, tucked into the extreme left corner of the end zone, nabbed an Anderson throw.

Kaden Anderson threw for 4 touchdowns against Lewisville, a career record.
Lewisville faced a 3-and-out on the next drive, and punted the ball to Jacob Jordan, who sped 51 yards to the Farmer 27. That’s when White, 9 for 10 in field goals this year, booted a 42-yarder to hand Carroll a 17-0 lead. Unfortunately for the miserable Farmers, the debacle showed no signs of easing.

Lewisville turned the ball over on downs during the next drive. From their 35, the Dragons marched downfield behind powerful running star Owen Allen. He moved the ball to the Lewisville 17, where Anderson again found Samson in the end zone.

The Dragons ended the half with a 24-0 lead. Allen finished the night with 29 carries for 128 yards, just 30 yards short of the seasonal 2,000 rushing mark.

Despite time to regroup, Lewisville’s troubles continued in the 2^nd half, when a Farmer drive stalled at its 48. Lining up for a punt, the kicker instead threw a pass that ended a yard short. Working from his 41, Anderson eventually hit Maryland at the 10, and the Boston College commit, with two Farmer defenders clinging to him, fought his way into the end zone.

The very next drive lasted only two plays before Martinez coughed up the ball, and Carroll recovered at the Farmer 33. An incomplete pass to James Lehman, who returned to the Dragon lineup after an extended injury convalescence, and four rushes by Allen later, the junior phenom gained his only TD of the evening, extending the Dragon lead. And to add insult to injury, the Farmers fumbled on the next punt attempt, vividly illustrating the disarray into which the Farmers had plunged.

There would be 2 final Dragon scores, one of them a 60-yard drive powered entirely by Lehman, whose welcome return gives the Dragons a speedy and adroit counterpoint to the hard-driving Allen. And finally, a 55-yard TD sprint by backup Maddux Reid ended the slaughter.

This is the fifth straight year that Carroll has reached the regional playoff round, the ninth time in a dozen years. But it yearns for a ninth state title to end the 10-year drought since its last championship.

To the promised land?

It came close last year in the much-hyped Dodge Bowl. The Dragons, coached by Riley Dodge, fell to the Austin Westlake Chapparals, coached by Riley’s father, Todd Dodge – who, by the way, led Southlake to four state titles in five years during his legendary tenure as Dragon coach.

Will this be the team to lead the Dragon faithful to the promised land once again? Maybe. But the next big hurdle standing in the way will be the Allen Eagles.

When Allen and Trinity faced off yesterday, many of us expected a rerun of last year’s shootout between the two powerhouses, a 49-45 second-round squeaker won by Trinity, largely thanks to a standout performance by rushing star Ollie Gordon, who ran for more than 400 yards.

But this year, the Eagles were ready. They held Gordon to only 138 yards and no TDs, twice stopping 4-and-short plunges by Gordon that were key to the Eagles jumping to a 38-7 halftime lead.

R.J. Maryland makes a one-handed catch as he sails into the end zone.
The Eagles also have a dual-threat sophomore quarterback who rushed for 2 TDs and threw for another. There has been a lot of loose talk about how erratic Allen has played this year. What happens on Saturday, say some sages, will depend on which Allen team suits up.

There’s also history to consider.

The Eagles and Dragons have met six times in the playoffs. Southlake has won every contest, including a heart-stopping 35-34 win in 2009 when the Dragons stopped a 2-point conversion in double overtime. I wasn’t the only person in Cowboys Stadium that day who had tears in their eyes after that one.

On the other hand, in the teams’ last two contests, Allen has won handily. So who the hell knows what to expect.

Keep the family together

All I can say is that I like this Carroll team very much. In post-game interviews, Dragon players exhibited character, poise, grace – and a spirit of teamwork and family that is impressive and inspirational.

In talking with Dragon Radio, Kaden Anderson directed attention away from his 4-TD performance, pointing out he had things he needed to improve. Then he spoke about the defense, stating how inspired he was by their work on the field.

“I love to watch them play,” he said about his defensive teammates. “They’re so good, it’s fun to watch them. They’re incredible.”

In another radio interview, Avyonne Jones credited the defense’s success to the fact that it gets to practice against one of the state’s best offenses. “They test us every day,” he said. “If we can be successful against them, we can beat anybody.”

It’s like Dodge said in his DMN interview: These Dragons understand how the pieces fit together to make a stronger whole. They truly do consider themselves a family.

And why not? In some cases, these kids have been playing together since Dragon Youth Football. They know that once the playoffs end – whether in total victory or despair – their days as a family are over.

“We love going out there and doing what we can to try continue and keep the family together as Coach Dodge always says,” Jones said to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Darren Lauber. “Keep them together for one more week.”

Go Dragons!

Owen Allen ran for 138 yards, just 30 shy of the 2,000-yard seasonal mark.

Cruising on: Southlake Carroll 42, Midland Legacy 7

 

Owen Allen stiff arms a Midland Legacy defender.

A long drive to defeat

The Midland Legacy Rebels and their sturdy fans drove a long way yesterday for the butt-kicking they received at the hands of the Southlake Carroll Dragons in Arlington’s Globe Life Field.

Some suggested that the 300-mile bus ride may have impacted the Rebels’ lethargic performance in the area round of the UIL 6A Division I playoffs. Legacy, formerly known as Midland Lee, went 3-and-out on its first five possessions and saw the Dragons promptly and efficiently cruise to an insurmountable 28-0 lead.

And while even short jaunts on a school bus can be bone-jarring, brain-rattling affairs, I don’t think the trek from the wind-swept West Texas plains had much to do with the debacle the Rebels suffered yesterday.

Instead, you need look no further than Carroll’s experienced, self-assured defense to find the culprit behind Legacy’s woes.

The Dragon-D never looked better, handily dispatching Legacy’s high-powered offense led by quarterback Marcos Davila, a sophomore wunderkind with a rocket arm and pinpoint accuracy, and 2,000-yard running back Makhilyn Young, who had averaged 191 yards per game all season.

But Young never penetrated the Dragon front line, which had focused all week on devising ways to shut him down. And it did. The proud Young only managed 26 yards – on 20 carries.

The entire Legacy offense, which had been averaging 48 points a game, could manage only 2 total rushing yards, once quarterback sacks were taken into account. In the air, Davila threw for only 127 yards and the Rebels’ single TD. He was intercepted once.

Defensive lineman Travis Keener said his compatriots had an early clue to the evening’s outcome as they made their traditional entry onto the field through the Dragons’ huge inflatable helmet.

“When we came out onto the field, they wouldn’t look over at us,” Keener recalled to Dragon Radio after the game. “We knew then. We said as we came out through the helmet, ‘We’ve got them!’”

Lost luster

Legacy held hopes that it could recapture some of the lost luster of West Texas high school football. When I was a youth, West Texas teams ruled the football roost, regularly making trips to the state championship game and dominating the conversation each year.

In fact, as I’ve related before, my high school district was known as the Little Southwest Conference, testimony to the football murderer’s row it contained – schools such as Midland Lee, Abilene, Abilene Cooper, San Angelo Central and, of course, Odessa Permian.

Avyonne Jones breaks up a pass.
Permian’s storied program was the subject of perhaps the best book ever written about high school football. “Friday Night Lights” certainly is the most painfully accurate one, depicting both the very good and the very bad aspects of a game played by kids and followed by obsessive grownups. Its veracity can be measured in part by the fact that Odessa in general – and Permian fans in particular – despise the book.

But in the years since Permian’s mighty Mojo cast its giant shadow over Texas high school football, West Texas’ gridiron star has dimmed to a mere glimmer. In its place, suburban programs like Carroll, Katy and Austin Westlake have gained prominence.

Legacy’s head coach, Clint Hartman, is building a program in Midland that seeks to be competitive in the playoffs and challenge the preeminence of programs in the state’s urban centers.

Yesterday’s takedown by the surging Dragons illustrates he has a long way to go.

The loss was still stinging when Hartman talked to the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

 “I just wish that we gave them our best shot, and we didn’t,” he told reporter Chris Hadorn. “If anybody needs to blame somebody, blame me.”

Bah, I say. It’s always the same with coaches. In Hartman’s eyes, his Rebels lost, not because they faced a dramatically better team, but because they didn’t play their best game. He didn’t lose because he was outcoached, but because his kids didn’t play up to their potential. Believe what you will, coach. This game was a mismatch from the opening whistle.

Before kickoff, some folks were predicting a running-back duel between Young, only one of three backs in Legacy history to post 2,000-yard seasons, and the Dragons’ leading all-time rusher, Owen Allen, who as a junior already has topped the 5,000-yard career rushing mark.

No duel here

Turns out, it wasn’t much of a duel. While Young crashed ineffectively against the Dragons’ front wall, Allen ruled the field. He rolled up 247 yards on 29 carries, averaging more than 8 yards a try, and made 4 touchdowns. That’s the first time that’s ever been done by a Dragon in a playoff game.

"Owen is freaking amazing. You cannot stop the kid,” said his quarterback, Kaden Anderson, who also played inspired football.

Anderson completed 18 of 27 passes for 216 yards and 1 TD. His receiving corps is back up to strength. Leading receiver Landon Samson returned to the lineup last night, catching 3 passes for 30 yards. Jacob Jordan led in passing against the Rebels, snaring 8 catches for 133 yards and 1 TD. R.J. Maryland caught 5 for 44.

With this dynamic trio – Samson and Maryland on the outside and Jordan lining up in the slot – Carroll’s passing attack has lethal striking power.

Allen, however, is likely to remain the straw that stirs the Dragon cocktail. He is closing in on a 2,000-yard season and has 79 career touchdowns.

He scored Carroll’s first TD, sprinting 23 yards to the end zone on its first possession. That unlatched the scoring floodgates.

On Carroll’s second drive, Anderson, facing a 3^rd and 4 near midfield, lofted a pass to Jacob Jordan, who raced 51 yards to paydirt. Anderson followed up next with a 3-yard stroll into the end zone to cap a drive shouldered downfield by Allen’s methodical dismemberment of the Legacy defense.

With a smothered Rebel offense helpless before them, the Dragons continued to push, staging a 6-play, 60-yard drive that displayed the efficiency of both their ground and aerial weapons. Allen ended the demonstration with a 2-yard plunge to bring the score to 28-0.

At that point, with 4 minutes left in the half, the Rebels eked out their first 1^st down of the night, but then were forced to punt for the 6^th time, ultimately pinning the Dragons at their own 1.

Novel experience

Anderson and company fought their way to the Rebel 46, but failed to convert on 4^th down when Allen was stopped cold – a novel experience for the youngster against Legacy.

Kaden Anderson lofts a pass.
Davila, harassed in the pocket all night, succeeded nonetheless in bringing his team to the Dragon 12. There, he sent a pass to receiver Addison Akbar, 5 for 47, who grabbed it inside the 5 and fought his way across the line with 2 ticks left in the 1^st half.

The first few minutes of the 2^nd half quickly ended Rebel hopes of a momentum change.

The Dragons’ opening drive stalled at their 30, forcing a punt. Operating from his 33, Young coughed up the ball on the first play of the drive after a hit from defender Calder Bray. Defensive back Luke Ledbetter fell on it at the 42.

Three plays later, Anderson handed the ball to Allen, who coasted untouched 36 yards for the Dragons' 5^th TD. On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, the pocket collapsed on Davila, who almost lost a loose ball. Instead, on the very next play, he threw a pass that safety Josh Spaeth promptly intercepted.

Allen would add a final TD early in the 4^th before backups took things in tow. And for the hapless Rebels, a joyless trip home, full of regret and recrimination, beckoned.

 I hope they stayed the night instead of facing a nighttime return on the treacherous roads of West Texas, which vividly demonstrated yesterday their cruel and dangerous nature.

A band bus from Andrews High School, on its way to a playoff game in Sweetwater, was struck by a pickup headed the wrong way on Interstate 20 in Big Spring. The driver of the pickup, the bus driver and the band director were killed. Kids were injured, but not fatally. The game was postponed.

Big Spring is my hometown, and I’ve traveled that stretch of highway in all types of weather. It looks deceptively innocent – lightly traveled, wide open spaces and clear sight lines. But lined with the small crosses that mark where travelers have died, it lays in wait for the unwary.

Next up

On to happier subjects. Thus far, the playoffs have posed no challenges for the high-flying Dragons. They dispatched with ease North Crowley last week, and obliterated the Rebels yesterday.

At 2 p.m. next Saturday, they face the Lewisville Fighting Farmers in Coppell. The Farmers pulled an upset yesterday, defeating the Arlington Martin Warriors 35-18. The Dragons last met Lewisville in the 2019 playoffs, humiliating them 84-6. You can be certain the Farmers would dearly love some payback.

Are they likely to get it? It seems unlikely, but nothing is impossible in the playoffs. Stranger things have happened and will happen again.

But this version of the Dragons will be a tough field to plow for the eager Farmers. They’d best come prepared for the fight of their lives.

The Carroll defense, which started the season in fine fettle, is playing its best football of the year. The offense is back to full strength. Allen is running stronger than ever, and Anderson seems to have settled in nicely as field manager. Third round, we're ready!

 Go Dragons!

Owen Allen, No. 2, offers a high five to teammate Landon Samson.

First-round knockout: Southlake Carroll 42, North Crowley 20

 

A playoff tradition: the State of Texas outline.

Home-field advantage

SOUTHLAKE – If the North Crowley Panthers expected a welcoming pat on the back on their first visit to Dragon Stadium, they were given a smack in the face, instead.

The Panthers, led by talented dual-threat quarterback Quinton Jackson, watched helplessly as the 10-0 Dragons leaped to a 21-0 lead, anointed a brand-new all-time rushing leader for the program, and demonstrated once again what the meaning of home-field advantage truly means.

 You see, only a handful of teams have succeeded in coming away with a victory at Dragon Stadium since it opened in 2001. When Dragon fans mutter darkly about “protecting the tradition,” part of what they mean is maintaining the inviolability of their home turf.

And Carroll did just that last night with a stifling defense that limited Jackson’s ability to control the field and with a crushing offense led by rushing star Owen Allen, who scored three times, and quarterback Kaden Anderson, who threw for another three.

Allen was the toast of the evening. His 12-yard plunge across the goal line with 2 minutes in the 1^st quarter gave the Dragons their third unanswered TD and – drumroll, please – handed him the all-time rushing record for the Dragons, an honor previously held by legendary Tre Newton.

Rushing giants

Allen ended the night with 129 yards, which extended his career total to 4,924 yards. In a postgame interview, Allen said he was honored to be included among the rushing giants of the Dragon past – Newton, Lil’ Jordan Humphrey and TJ McDaniel.

“I wouldn’t want to play for any other team,” Allen said to Dragon Radio. “And to break the record here at Dragon Stadium, that makes this all very special.”

In addition to his record-setting TD run, Allen also scored on 2- and 7-yard dashes, both in the 2^nd quarter. Mission accomplished, he left the game late in the 3^rd.

The junior still hasn’t attracted the attention of any collegiate scouts, but he’s a gamer and eventually will – unless they are blind and dumb.

Anderson once again had to do without the services of leading receiver Landon Samson, forcing R.J. Maryland to carry the load. While Maryland and Anderson had trouble connecting for much of the night, both eventually turned in solid performances.

 Anderson completed 13 of 26 for 214 yards and 3 TDs. Maryland finished the night with 5 catches for 89 yards and a 25-yard TD grab that opened Dragon scoring. Anderson’s other pair of TDs came on a 19-yard toss to Jacob Jordan and a 15-yard pass to Corbin Duwe that ended scoring and gave senior backup his first TD of the year.

Bottled up

Defensively, Carroll was able to bottle up the Panther’s Jackson, limiting him to 71 yards passing and 62 yards rushing, much below his game averages. Runners Tristan White and DeJuan Lacy didn’t fair much better.

The exception came after the Dragons jumped to a 3-score lead in the waning minutes of the 1^st quarter. The desperate Panthers then staged a 75-yard TD drive, mostly powered by White’s crushing 52-yard sprint. A few plays later, Lacy finally got the Panthers on the scoreboard with a 3-yard dash.

But that bit of heroics aside, the Panthers couldn’t crack Carroll’s starting D-line. Only in the final period, with the Dragons leading 42-7 and Carroll backups at every position, did North Crowley manage a pair of scores within a minute of each other, the later set up by a Dragon fumble at its own 27.

Meanwhile, D-lineman Calder Bray was a disruptive force all night, as was corner Avyonne Jones, who pounced on a Jackson fumble before Dragon starters left the game.

The North Crowley massacre wasn’t the Dragons best game. But it wasn’t their worst, either. Good teams have a way of playing up to their competition, and the Panther-dragon matchup was bit of mismatch.

That said, the Carroll passing game, hampered by the absence of the worthy Samson, needs to get sharper. And Allen’s raw power on the ground would be enhanced by the return of speedster James Lehman, still on the injury list.

Next up

Southlake next meets Midland Legacy, the school formerly known as Midland Lee, in the area round at Globe Life Park in Arlington at 7:30 p.m. next Saturday. It’s part of a day-long series of playoff games at a facility that gets high marks as a baseball venue, but scattered praise as a football facility. We’ll see how that all works out.

Legacy, which no longer may be named after a confederate general but is still known as the Rebels, whipped El Paso’s Pebble Hill last night 43-22, a score remarkably similar to the Carroll-North Crowley affair. I know nothing about the strengths or weaknesses of Pebble Hill, so any comparisons probably are risky.

But Southlake in the past has had little trouble with the best teams West Texas has to offer these days. Legacy stands at 10-1 for the season, it’s only loss at the hands of Arlington Martin, a team Carroll faced – and defeated 31-7 – in the preseason.

It’s win-or-go-home time, folks! Second round – here we come.

Go Dragons!

Next up: second-round opponents Midland Legacy Rebels!

District 4-6A champions: Southlake Carroll 62, Keller Fossil Ridge 14

 

The Dragons are headed for the playoffs!
No surprises here

KELLER – To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Southlake Carroll Dragons officially were crowned the champions of District 4-6A last night after a brutal and methodical destruction of the Keller Fossil Ridge Panthers.

For most of this season, the Dragons were the prohibitive favorites to repeat as champions of 4-6A, particularly after they handily vanquished Keller High and Haslet Eaton, aspiring rivals for the title.

Last night made it official, thus handing Carroll the first of its three objectives for this – and every – season: Win district. Play until after Thanksgiving. Win state.

One down, two to go. And they don’t appear to be that far-fetched a pair of objectives. The Dragon defense already is a championship-caliber unit, and the nicely balanced offense is showing unstoppable power both on the ground and in the air.

Any nervous doubts about the offense – raised after its disturbing first-half play against Keller Timber Creek last week – were put back on the shelf after its impressive 62-point scoring spree against the reeling Panthers, whose feeble hopes of a playoff berth were snuffed out by the onslaught.

That scoring surge was interrupted only once by Ridge, when its beleaguered sophomore quarterback, Logan Cundiff, launched a 66-yard pass to Daniel Cobb that landed his team on the Dragon doorstep. Three plays later, Panther rushing star Landen Chambers pushed the ball over the goal line to tie things up early 7-7.

The gifted Chambers was the only bright spot for the hapless Panthers. He rushed for 179 yards – setting a single-season rushing record for Ridge – but Carroll’s swarming defense kept him out of the end zone for the rest of the night. A second, meaningless Ridge TD came in the closing minutes of the game, long after Carroll had emptied its benches.

For his part, Cundiff would leave the game on a stretcher after leading the Panthers – behind the hard-charging Chambers – to the Dragon 2. There, facing 4^th down, Cundiff attempted to barge over the goal line, but was stopped cold by Dragon linebacker Benny Porras.

Play was halted for almost 30 minutes while Cundiff was attended to. Dragon Radio reported later that he had been taken to a local hospital, but had feeling in “his fingers and toes.” Best wishes to the young man and his family.

Meaningless

Unhappily, Cundiff’s sacrifice was meaningless. The Dragons, already leading 35-7 at that point, took over. One play later, running back Owen Allen – in pursuit of his own rushing record – plunged through the Ridge line and scooted 55 yards into Panther territory with 43 seconds left in the half.

From there, Dragon signal caller Kaden Anderson, 14 of 16 for 196 yards and 3 TDs, connected with receiver R.J. Maryland at the 32. On the next play, Maryland snared an Anderson pitch, shook off a tackler at the goal line to score. At midpoint, Southlake held an unassailable 42-7 lead.

While the Carroll offense scored at will, the defense stymied several Panther threats. After Anderson and company jumped to a 21-7 lead, the Panthers struggled to get back into the game, but found themselves facing a 3^rd-and-long at their 36.

 Cundiff dropped back, only to find himself surrounded by a platoon of Dragon defenders.

 In desperation, he unloaded the ball, inadvertently pitching it behind him. That kept the ball in play as a lateral, and Dragon linebacker Aaron Scherp alertly scooped it up and ran to the end zone.

Scherp had an outstanding night. Late in the 3^rd quarter, with Carroll holding a 55-7 lead and backups in charge, he nabbed an errant throw from Cundiff’s replacement, sophomore Cooper Leonard, setting up Carroll’s final score, a 15-yard scamper by backup runner Austin Page.

Dragon backups offered the Dragon faithful who stuck around plenty of action. They scored two TDs and forced a fumble late in the affair. Backup QB Caden Jackson, who rushed for 38 yards, scored one TD, Page the other.

Battle of running backs

In some ways, last night could be viewed as the battle of running backs – the Panthers’ formidable Chambers versus the Dragons’ phenomenal Allen.

Allen, 12 carries for 169 yards and 2 TDs, came within a handful of yards in seizing the Carroll record for all-time rushing yards from former Dragon great Tre Newton. He only played the first half and could easily have shattered the record.

Presumably, the decision was made to allow him to break the record in Dragon Stadium next Friday, during the first round of the playoffs. I’ll be shocked if Newton isn’t there to help him celebrate. It’s a family, y’all.

Owen Allen is yards away from becoming the Dragons' all-time leading rusher.
Allen ripped through Panther defenses all night.

And he was almost unstoppable. During the Dragons’ first drive, he carried an overcoat of Panther defenders from the 17-yard line to the 6, setting up a TD dash by Anderson.

On one 20-yard run following Ridge’s responding TD, Allen broke at least four tackles. Two plays later, he darted 31 yards for Carroll’s second score. And after the Carroll D forced a 3-and-out by Ridge, he darted 14 yards for its third TD.

And if that weren’t enough, Allen scored his first passing TD of the season, a 24-yarder from Anderson that sent the Dragon lead to 35-7. You run out of adjectives fast when you’re talking about this kid.

Standout night

Meanwhile, Maryland (9 catches for 154 yards and 2 TDs), a Boston College commit, also had a standout night. With leading receiver Landon Samson still out with an injury he received in the Eaton game, Maryland has developed a solid on-field rapport with Anderson.

His second TD came on the Dragons’ opening drive of the 2^nd half when Anderson found him drifting toward the end zone and hit him in stride. The only Panther within 20 yards of him fell down, and Maryland virtually sauntered into the end zone.

Anderson is settling comfortably into the role thrust upon him at the beginning of the season when Quinn Ewers, the best high school quarterback in the nation, decided to forego his senior year at Carroll to attend Ohio State and cash in on his celebrity.

That's notwithstanding last week’s offensive performance during the first half of the Keller Timber Creek game. The Dragon offense sputtered and stalled against an inferior team and raised a few worried eyebrows across Dragon Nation.

When asked about the matter before last night’s game, head coach Riley Dodge dismissed the problem as a collection of little things that eventually were corrected. But his uncharacteristically curt and vague response spoke volumes.

In fact, the Dragons came roaring back in the decisive 3^rd quarter of the Timber Creek game, scoring 29 unanswered points. Allen ended up with 247 yards and 3 TDs, Anderson with 163 yards and 2 TDs. The 42-7 final score was about what we all expected.

Momentary letdown

Taken together with last night’s massacre of the innocents, I think we can chalk up last week to a momentary letdown that superior teams experience from time to time against substantially weaker opponents.

With Samson’s expected return, Maryland’s continued brilliant play and a confident and poised Anderson at the helm, the Dragons appear ready for the rigors of the post-season. Oh, and let’s not forget the defense, which to most observers already has established itself as one of the state’s best.

As a reward for its district win and first seed in Division I, Carroll will host the first round of the playoffs in Dragon Stadium next Friday. Its opponent will be another set of Panthers – Fort Worth’s 6-3 North Crowley High.

North Crowley, which is 4-2 in District 3-6A, lost a 43-42 squeaker last week to Weatherford. They face the Haltom Buffaloes tonight. As far as anyone knows, the Dragons have never played North Crowley. It should be a lively contest.

Go Dragons!

The Dragons face the North Crowley Panthers this Friday at Dragon Stadium.