A hard bunch to impress
Wolfforth
Frenship quarterback Hudson Hutcheson strode into Wildcat Stadium in Abilene
last night with a well-earned reputation as a cold-eyed gunslinger who could
darken the skies with his pinpoint passes while effortlessly avoiding the grasp
of opposing defenders.
Only last
week, he had propelled the 9-2 Frenship Tigers into the second round of the
playoffs by throwing nine – count ’em, nine – TD passes in an 87-58 victory
over El Paso Eastwood.
Is it any
wonder a performance like that can go to a guy’s head?
But the
Southlake Carroll Dragons are a hard bunch to impress, particularly when they
are playing with the laser focus fostered by the win-or-go-home atmosphere of the
Class 6A, Division II playoffs.
Beaten and battered
As a result, Hutcheson left Abilene beaten and
battered after being harassed, sacked and intercepted by a supercharged
Southlake Carroll defense playing its very best game of the year.
The Dragons,
on the other hand, proceed to the regional round. They’ll face the winners of
the Highland Park-McKinney contest held tonight at SMU’s Ford Field. Carroll’s
third-round game probably will be held Friday afternoon at Choctaw Stadium,
better known as the old Texas Rangers stadium in Arlington.
If Carroll
survives that matchup, it is very likely to have a fourth-round rematch with
the Byron Nelson Bobcats, who spoiled the Dragons’ perfect season last month
and denied them the District 4-6A championship.
Byron Nelson
has a long trek west today to face Midland, a game the Bobcats are likely to
win easily. (I’m superstitious and believe that by predicting such an outcome,
I might just jinx Nelson. One does what one can.)
Mighty sweet
Defeating
the Bobcats at any time would be nice, but lordy, how sweet would it be to kick
the rascals out of the playoffs. Let me answer that: Mighty sweet.
One game at
time, however.
Let’s first
dispense with last night’s massacre. As good as the Dragon D was – and it was
very, very good, indeed – Carroll’s offense also muscled its way into the
spotlight.
Junior
running back Riley Wormsley ran for four touchdowns, and his rushing mate,
sophomore Davis Penn, scurried for three more to lead the Dragons to a take-no-prisoners
victory over their West Texas opponents.
None of the
Dragons’ seven TDs came through the air, but quarterback Graham Knowles’ almost
perfect execution set the stage for the success of Wormsley and Penn. He completed
an astounding 20 of 21 passes for 218 yards. Calm,
cool and collected in the pocket, he hit who he aimed for.
His favorite
receivers were Clayton Wayland, who caught 8 passes
for 115 yards, and sophomore Brock Boyd (5-50).
But without
a doubt, the Dragon ground game was the straw that stirred the Carroll cocktail
against Frenship. It scored on Carroll’s first six possession of the first half
Wormsley,
who gets better with every game he plays, was spectacular. He scored TDs on his
first three carries of the night, on runs of 12, 50 and 37 yards. He ended the
night with six carries for 153 yards.
Wormsley’s
50-yard scoring run basically sealed the Dragon victory. Already leading 14-0
as the first quarter drew to a close, Carroll had forced a 4th-down turnover
and moved the ball to midfield.
Streaking untouched
From there,
Wormsley took Knowles’ handoff and broke right, breezing past Tiger defenders
on either side. As he entered the red zone, he cut in the afterburners and streaked
untouched into the end zone.
His third
touchdown was equally thrilling. After a Hutcheson sack on 3rd-and-long
forced Frenship to punt, the Dragons moved to the Tiger 37. Cradling the rock, Wormsley
veered right again, then cut left to avoid a Tiger defender, juked again to
evade another and cruised into the end zone. This kid makes it all look easy.
Penn (7-51),
while less flashy, was no less effective. He scored on a 23-yard run and twice
muscled the ball over from the 1.
This
avalanche of scoring came behind the rampant Dragon O-line, which was simply magnificent. Carroll’s Big Guys blew the Tiger D off the line on every play and then tore huge chunks in the Frenship line for Carroll RBs to saunter through.
For instance,
consider Carroll’s last score of the game. On its first possession of the
second half, leading 42-7, Carroll had marched 63 yards to the Tiger 7. Most of
that yardage came when Wormsley cruised 45 yards around the left side,
literally tiptoeing along the sideline for the last 25 yards as Frenship
defenders stood agape.
One play
later, he crashed through a large gap made by D-lineman John McLaughlin to
score. McLaughlin and his beefy colleagues had been doing similar damage all
night.
Knowles was
quick to give credit where credit was due.
“The
defining takeaway from this game is, man, we’ve got to love up our O-linemen
because they went to work,” Knowles told Fort Worth Star-Telegram
sportswriter Darren Lauber after the game. “I’ll go left to right, Ben
Karlsson, Trent Wilson, Steve Cunningham, Johnathan McLaughlin and Harrison
Moore. Those guys are some bad dudes, and they showed everyone what they were
about today and made it really easy for our running backs.”
Wormsley chimed
in.
“It was
great,” he told Lauber. “We came out strong, and we came out fast. I really
felt like the O-line was on point from the beginning. They gave me the
opportunity to get the four touchdowns, and it felt great.”
Working in harmony
Defensively,
the Dragons worked in harmony. The D-line, led by Dustan Mark, harassed
Hutcheson mercilessly, sacking him a half-dozen times and knocking him about
like tenpins in a bowling alley. Meanwhile, the secondary blanketed his receivers,
increasing Hutcheson’s time in the pocket and giving Carroll linemen and
linebackers time to reach him.
From the 2nd
quarter on, Hutcheson was limping badly and in obvious pain.
To my eyes,
he probably should have been ordered to the bench earlier. But I get it. He’s a
senior and it’s the playoffs. Of course, he wanted to stick it out, and he did
– until almost the bitter end, when he had to be helped off the field after yet
another sack.
Despite his
aches and pains, Hutcheson completed 26 of 47 passes for 280 yards, a remarkable feat considering the immense
pressure he was under. He even managed to put the Tigers on the scoreboard in
the 2nd quarter, tossing a 17-yard pass to Leyton Stone (4-49).
Chase
Campbell was his favorite target, catching 16 Hutcheson passes for 184 yards, an
incredible performance by both young men under such dire circumstances.
The only
other Frenship score came midway through the 4th, when Jaden Tackett
dashed 5 yards to the end zone long after Dragon starters had retired to their
rest.
Penalties
and miscues – proof of the Carroll defense’s disruptive influence –contributed
to the Tigers’ agony.
At one
point, Carroll pressure forced turnovers on successive Frenship drives. In the
first, linebacker Bridger Pense intercepted a Hutcheson pass, his second in as
many games. He almost snatched another on the next Tiger drive, which ended
when Dragon linebacker Eric Garza pounced on a Frenship fumble.
Being competitive
The runaway
Dragon victory is yet another example of the difficulty that West Texas teams
have in being competitive when they meet Dallas-Fort Worth area squads.
Once upon a
time, and in my lifetime, too, West Texas programs dominated the state. I’ve
written often about the years when Odessa Permian, Abilene, San Angelo and
Midland towered over the high school football landscape.
No longer.
An article posted on The Dallas Morning News website on the day of the
Southlake-Wolfforth game pointed out that no West Texas team has won a state
championship since Abilene beat Katy in 2009.
The
newspaper reported that from 2021-2022, DFW teams went 17-3 against West Texas
programs in the Class 5A and 6A playoffs, with the victors winning by an
average of more than 21 points.
That’s a
persuasive piece of data.
The DMN
credited the change in fortunes in part to population shifts in the state.
While population drops in the arid west, folks are flocking to urban areas like
DFW. More people, more kids, more athletic talent to draw from.
That
reasoning makes some sense, I guess. But I suspect that money and resources
also play a role. Don’t you?
Carroll players will tell you that success comes from preparation, dedication and discipline. All of that will be on display next week while many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving. Coach Riley Dodge and his staff will have the Dragons on the practice field on Thursday.
It's a playoff tradition.
Last night, Riley Wormsley, still humming from a 4-TD adrenalin rush, was thinking ahead.
“We have a
lot of great players, a lot of athletes, and a lot of guys that can make
plays,” he told the Star-T's Lauber. “I’m really excited to see how far we can take it this
season.”
Ditto.
Go, Dragons!
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