Watching over the Dragons
Southlake Carroll
head coach Riley Dodge called it Dragon Magic. And perhaps a little hocus-pocus
was responsible for the transformation of the Dragons yesterday from the gang
that couldn’t shoot straight to the comeback kids.
Thank goodness
someone – or something – was watching over the Dragons in their third-round 6A
Division II contest against the McKinney Lions.
Carroll needed
all the help it could get to overcome an embarrassing series of first-half gaffes
that had Dragon fans scratching their heads in wonder and reaching for the
aspirin bottle.
McKinney came to Arlington’s
Choctaw Stadium ready to play and hungry for an upset. And the Dragons very
nearly played into its hands before they righted the ship at halftime and turned
in a superb second-half performance that kept their playoff hopes alive.
For the sixth
straight year, the Dragons have made it to the fourth round of the playoffs.
Dodge has taken them to the area finals and beyond in each of his five years as
head coach.
Playoffs midpoint
They now are at
the midpoint in the playoffs. Next up, Carroll will face the winner of today’s
contest between Denton Guyer, the clear favorite, and Byron Nelson, Carroll’s
nemesis in District 4-6A.
Who would the
Dragons rather face? Byron Nelson, of course. Carroll beat the Bobcats 38-23
earlier in the season to capture the 4-6A title. Guyer, on the other hand, is a
monster this year and will pose the bigger challenge, by far.
But frankly, at
this stage of the playoffs, there are no easy opponents. Take the 8-5 Lions,
for instance. Most folks had Carroll as the favorite in yesterday’s match up.
But Dodge, who had personally scouted McKinney in the first round, knew his
team was in for a dogfight.
“Going into it,
McKinney scared the crap out of me, to be honest with you,” Dodge told Arianna
Vedia of The Dallas Morning News. “I got to see them first-hand in the
first round … That’s a very talented football team that started playing their
best football toward the end of the year, and we knew what we were getting
coming into it.”
He also acknowledged the Dragons were their own worst
enemies for a good chunk of the afternoon.
“Offensively, we
couldn’t play any worse than the first half. Just penalties after penalties,” he
told Vedia. “We were doing good stuff, it was just — positive yards, then a
setback — like a yo-yo effect.”
Things got off to
a dismal start. On Carroll’s first drive, the offensive line was flagged five
times for false starts, including on the first three consecutive plays. But quarterback
Graham Knowles kept the Dragons on track, despite the hiccups. He pitched a 37-yard
pass to junior receiver Jacob Jordan, then followed it with a 12-yarder to
Caden Jackson to bring Carroll to the Lion 23.
Stupefying sight
But it could get
no farther so kicker Tyler White, as dependable as the dawn, was called in to
boot a 40-yard field goal. His kick struck the upright, a sight so stupefying,
I was tempted to rub my eyes in disbelief. It was White’s first missed field
goal this season.
Quarterback Graham Knowles stayed cool and composed while miscues mounted.
McKinney couldn’t do much better. On the Lions’ first possession, quarterback Keldric Luster was sacked on the second play and intercepted by Dragon defender J. David Sparks on the third.
From the 30, the
Dragons, behind Allen’s brilliant running, moved to the 11. Facing a 4th
and 2, Allen was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, a failure so rare that I
began to fear the Dragons were ensnarled in some kind of bad-luck vortex.
Taking possession
of the ball, McKinney promptly marched into Dragon territory, where Luster hefted a
42-yard TD pass to Tyler Stanley, the first of the receiver’s two scores for
the night. It would take Carroll until half-way through the final period to finally
take the lead and preserve its perfect (so far) season.
Carroll would
even the score 7-7 with 29 seconds left in the first half. After a series of
pass plays to Caden Jackson (11 catches for 87 yards), Allen moved the ball to
the Lion 44. Knowles then connected with Jordan at the 5, and Allen finished
the drive.
McKinney
responded in a flash, moving to near midfield in two plays. Then, with only 8
ticks before the buzzer, Luster found Khali Best drifting near the goal line,
and Best breezed in to score.
The Lions began
the second half in much the same fashion. On their first possession after the break,
Luster, a powerful and slippery runner, carried the ball to the 45, passed to
the 17 and then handed off to Bryan Jackson, who galloped into the end zone. Less
than 2 minutes into the half, McKinney led 21-7.
Lethargy disappears
The lethargy that
had haunted the Dragons through much of the first half dissipated at that
point, and the game settled into a back-and-forth shootout. For its part,
Carroll would score on all five of its second-half possessions.
Leading the
Dragon charge were Knowles, who completed 80 percent of his passes for 347
yards and 2 touchdowns, and – naturally – Allen, who rushed 34 times for 221
yards and four touchdowns. It was the 10th time in his career Allen
has rushed for more than 200 yards.
Carroll wasted no
time in narrowing the Lion lead. On the third play of the ensuing drive,
Knowles lofted a 73-yard bomb to Jordan (7-214), who took it to the house.
The teams traded
scores, with the Dragons first cutting the Lion lead to 28-21 with a 2-yard
dash by Allen.
That’s when
things began to unravel for the Lions. Dragon defensive back Logan Lowandowski
sacked Luster, forcing a fumble that the quarterback managed to fall on but that
forced a punt.
On the next
drive, the Dragons drove deep into Lion territory, where Knowles tried unsuccessfully
to connect with Jackson in the end zone. But a pass interference call put the
ball on the 2, from where Allen darted untouched to tie things up 28-28.
On McKinney's first
play from scrimmage, Lester fumbled the ball yet again, but this time Dustan
Marks recovered it at the Lion 20. Allen took it first to the 13, then to the
9, where Knowles connected with Clayton Wayland (6-51) for the go-ahead score.
The Lions weren’t
finished yet, however. They came roaring back to tie the game again on a
11-yard Luster pass to Stanley (3-84, 2 TDs) in the end zone.
With 4 minutes
left to play, Caden Jackson fielded the Lion kickoff at the Dragon 24. A
penalty pushed Carroll back to its 9, where Knowles went to work. Peppering
passes to Jackson and Wayland, he led the Dragons into Lion territory.
Two carries by
Allen brought the ball to the 26. A quick pass to Jordan landed it at the 13, from
where Allen added his fourth TD of the night with less than a minute to play.
Jacob Jordan, the Dragons' leading receiver, caught 11 passes for 222 yards and two TDs.
The night ended on an ignominious note for the Lions. They faced a 4th and 2 with half a minute left in the game, time enough for McKinney’s explosive offense to hijack the game. Fading right and looking downfield, Luster slipped and fell at his own 29. The Dragons ran out the clock and another playoff classic was in the books.
McKinney’s
offensive tandem of Luster, Stanley and Jackson (16 carries, 96 yards) deserve
a lot of credit. Luster, a SMU commit, was the Lions’ rushing leader with 139
yards on 19 carries. He also completed 7 of 12 passes for 131 yards and 2 TDs. The
Ponies should be licking their chops.
Luster and
company couldn’t be completely stifled. But the Dragon D proved disruptive
enough to keeps things from careening out of control, making key stops that finally disrupted the
tit-for-tat scoring exchange. It sacked Luster several times and forced a
fumble and an interception.
In the decisive
fourth quarter, when the Dragon surge sealed the Carroll victory, Dragon defenders limited McKinney to a single score.
It’s magic
In his DMN
interview, Dodge credited “Dragon Magic” for the Carroll turnaround in the
second half. I suspect he had his tongue tucked firmly in cheek. The real
ingredients for the shift in focus and execution had more to do with some tough
love in the locker room at halftime (call it good coaching if you like), the
inherent motivation and discipline that are hallmarks of the Dragon program
– and intangibles like pride and brotherhood.
These guys regard
each other as family. Many have played football together since grade school and
Dragon Youth Football, a subject that frequently comes up in postgame player
interviews.
In the playoffs, the
imperative is win or go home. These Dragons don’t want to break up the family,
and who can blame them? They are willing to fight hard and sacrifice much to keep
that family intact. If you choose to call that magic, I have no objection.
“Dragon Magic is
hard to explain,” Allen told the DMN’s Vedia, who obviously was
entertained by the idea. “You don’t really know when it’s coming, but once it’s
there, you know it. We were feeling it tonight, and I think everybody was,
too.”
Go Dragons!
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