A defeat, not a beating: Southlake Carroll 38, DeSoto 45

 

Eagle Deondrae "Tiger" Riden ran like a man possessed and couldn't be stopped.

Everything a playoff semifinal should be

Even the most devoted of Dragonheads had to admit that the best team won yesterday’s semi-final playoff matchup between the DeSoto Eagles, defending Class 6A, Division II state champions, and the Southlake Carroll Dragons.

And it’s only right that the Eagles will meet Humble Summer Creek this Saturday in AT&T Stadium to attempt to be the first DFW 6A team to win back-to-back state titles since Allen did it in 2013-14.

Here’s the long and short of it: The Dragons played well, forcing the Eagles into a series of uncharacteristic mistakes and scoring regularly against its storied defense.

But the Eagles played better, overcoming those miscues with grit, determination and patience and stopping the Dragons when it really, really mattered.

For fans, it was everything a contest between two of the best high school teams should be – a hard-hitting, back-and-forth contest in which the lead changed five times and both teams combined for 1,158 yards of total offense.

Winning on the ground

But the battle was won yesterday on the ground, and that’s where DeSoto ruled the roost, outrushing Carroll 442 yards to 218.

DeSoto’s incredible junior running back, Deondrae “Tiger” Riden Jr., strode rampant across Allen stadium, rushing for an eye-popping 254 yards on 34 carries and 2 touchdowns. He averaged 7½ per carry, slicing through Dragon defenders with ease or brushing them effortlessly aside.

Riden, who missed games in regular season because of injury, has been making up for lost time in the playoffs. He ran yesterday like a man possessed. And perhaps he was: Possessed by such a fierce desire to win that nothing – and nobody – could stop him.

If he hadn’t been destroying Carroll’s hopes with every stride, it would have been a pleasure and privilege to watch Riden work. After the game, DeSoto head coach Claude Mathis spoke reverentially about his star.

“We unleashed him today,” Mathis told Dallas Morning News sportswriter Lia Assimakopoulos. “He asked me to. I had to. I had to take the strings off of him. He just took over.”

DJ Bailey led the DeSoto offense, keeping his cool and directing his comrades with confidence and precision. He completed 9 of 12 passes for 189 yards and 2 TDs, a 40-yard missile to his brother, Tristan, and a 50-yard toss to Antonio Pride Jr. That score gave the Eagles a 42-31 cushion they needed to smother a Dragon rally in the last period.

Rushing power

Bailey also was the Eagles’ second leading rusher, rolling to 81 yards on 8 carries. That was only a few yards ahead of Jaden Trawick, who rushed 8 times for 75 yards, including a 54-yard sprint that gave the Eagles their first lead near the end of the 1^st quarter.

While the Dragon D never was able to lasso the redoubtable Riden, it did force the Eagles into committing four turnovers – three fumbles and a Bailey pass intercepted by Eric Garza.

Tiger Riden, who ran for 254 yards and 2 TDs, asked his coach to let him run free. And he did.

Seniors Garza and Zack Engelhardt led Carroll’s defensive effort yesterday, spreading their disruptive influence all over the field. Trouble was, it just wasn’t enough to ground the soaring Eagles.

Carroll, trailing by only 4 points when Garza made his grab, was unable to capitalize on the gift and handed the ball back to the Eagles after a 3-and-out.

Four plays later, Bailey zipped his 50-yarder to Pride.

What hope the Dragons still harbored of overcoming an 11-point DeSoto lead vanished when Knowles threw an interception fielded by DeSoto at the Dragon 14. Two plays later, Riden rumbled across the goal line, but the score was erased by a holding call. Instead, the Eagles extended their lead to 14 by kicking a 25-yard field goal.

With 4 minutes left in the game, Carroll staged a 72-yard drive down the field to score its final TD, a 12-yard strike to Clayton Wayland (6-114), his second TD catch of the night. That narrowed DeSoto’s margin to 7 with 1:17 left on the clock.

Carroll’s only chance, a pitifully slim one at best, was to recover an onside kick and score quickly against DeSoto’s stubborn defense, its confidence bolstered by a dwindling clock and the whiff of Dragon desperation.

The gray fox saga

But Dragonheads couldn’t help but remember a memorable semifinal playoff game in 2011 against Dallas Skyline in which Carroll, trailing 24-21, recovered an onside kick with time running out and drove the field to win the game.

That drive featured a midfield encounter between Southlake quarterback Kenny Hill and a gray fox that had slipped into SMU’s Ford Stadium and trotted past Hill as he leaped over tacklers on his way to the goal line.

One week later, Carroll won its 8^th state championship, and the tale of the gray fox entered Dragon yore.

Of course, such magical comebacks occur only once in the life of a program, and Carroll’s doomed effort evaporated when the Eagles fell on the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Earlier in the game, another sequence of plays also sparked memories of past playoff matchups, this time a 2012 playoff encounter between the Eagles and the Dragons.

In that contest, also played at SMU, the Eagles ousted the Dragons – at that point defending state champions – from the playoffs by keeping Kenny Hill out of the end zone on three successful plays from the 1 as time expired.

Here’s how it played out yesterday.

In the 3^rd quarter, DeSoto had just recaptured the lead, 35-31, after the pass connection between the Bailey brothers. On the ensuing Carroll drive, Knowles marched his team inside the Eagle 5. From the 1, Knowles tried to sneak across the line on 4^th down but was blockaded – it was close, folks, so very, very close – and DeSoto took over the ball.

Ultimate outcome

If the Dragons had managed to score on that drive and retake the lead, who knows what the ultimate outcome might have been? Momentum shifts are funny things and can have a powerful impact on outcomes. Failing to punch the ball over from the 1 can be ego-deflating and spirit-sagging.

Riley Wormley gets smothered by the Eagle defense, but he still ran for 134 yards and a TD.

My hunch is that a Dragon touchdown then and there would have changed the entire script of yesterday’s game.

Unlike 2012, however, the game didn’t end with the Dragons’ goal-line failure, and they had another shot at salvaging their playoff journey.

Three plays after the Eagles took over at the 1, Bailey fumbled the ball and Garza recovered it at the 13. A holding call sent the Dragons back to the 23, from where Knowles hit Wayland at the 10, and Davis Penn took it to the 4.

The Dragons would get no further, however, and Eagle defender Aundre Wisner blocked kicker Kyle Lemmermann’s field goal. (Lemmermann completed three others – for 50 yards, a season record, 39 yards and 34 yards.)

Did the goal-line debacle and the blocked field goal – considered together – take the air out of Dragon sails at a time the team needed it the most? Seems plausible, doesn’t it?

After all, the Dragons traded punches blow by blow with the Eagles for three quarters. They trailed by only 21-20 at halftime.

Carroll runners, although they didn’t enjoy the carefree capering on display from Riden, had solid games. Junior Riley Wormley ran for 134 yards on 12 carries, including a thrilling 49-yard dash up the middle to give the Dragons a 7-0 lead.

Sophomore David Penn ran 91 yards on 9 carries. Early in the 3^rd quarter, he gave the Dragons their last lead of the game, 31-28, with a 75-yard rumble that perked up sagging Dragon fans.

Knowles played like a champion, completing 19 of 32 for 309 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT. Those are statistics any quarterback would love to own – unless, of course, your team has just been booted from the playoffs.

‘We have a chance’

Mathis, the DeSoto coach, explained to the DMN’s Assimakopoulos how important winning back-to-back championships is to his team.

“We’ve been talking about this all year,” Mathis said. “We have a chance. Until somebody knocks us off, we’re the defending champions. Now we’ve got a chance to win it back-to-back. They’ve been working so hard all year to get back to this point, and we’re back.”

I wish them good luck and God’s speed. Sincerely. DeSoto is a class act, and I’d like to see them win it all – again. Humble Summer Creek? Puh-leeze. Sounds like a summer youth camp.

Dragonheads – denied the distractions of the playoffs – can now concentrate on the joys of the season: Christmas shopping, holiday sweets and relaxing by the fire (glass of whiskey optional).

Still and all, a ninth state championship would have been nice, doncha think? Oh well, it wouldn’t have fit under the tree, anyway. Happy holidays and safe travels, everyone!

Go, Dragons!

The season is over for Brock Brady and Riley Wormley, but they're both back next year.

Sweet revenge: Southlake Carroll 56, Trophy Club Byron Nelson 7

Davis Penn roars through the Byron Nelson line on his way to 4 TDs.

A very different outcome

Whoever said revenge is a dish best served cold got it wrong. And that’s a fact, Jack.

Revenge is a dish to be enjoyed hot or cold: Cold – as the satisfying result of patience, meticulous planning, pinpoint timing and steady nerves. Or hot – as in the heat of battle, with everything riding on the outcome and no path open except straight ahead until morning.

Or a combination of the two, which was the direction taken by the Southlake Carroll Dragons last night in their fourth-round playoff destruction of the Bryon Nelson Bobcats.

On Oct. 27, the Bobcats, waving their undefeated record like a battle flag, breezed past Carroll 34-17, ending the Dragons’ 38-game district winning streak and their 35-game regular-season streak, and denying them a third straight District 4-6A title. It marked the first time Byron Nelson had ever defeated Southlake.

Like an undercooked Thanksgiving turkey, that butt-kicking didn’t go down well with the Dragons, who have been looking forward to – and preparing feverishly for – a shot at redemption ever since.

And last night, with the haughty Bobcats standing in Carroll’s way of making the state semi-finals for the third time in four years, the Dragons evened the score. And then some.

Not about revenge

Carroll head coach Riley Dodge said after the game it wasn’t about revenge – it was about staying in the hunt for a ninth state championship.

“It was about some way, somehow – whatever it looks like – getting back on the bus and getting back home with a victory,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Charles Baggarly and Darren Lauber.

But he acknowledged that avenging the Oct. 27 loss made last night’s win all the sweeter.

As did the way the Dragons avenged it.

A Carroll defense that has been gaining confidence and credibility all season long, reigned supreme in Arlington’s Choctaw Stadium.

It harassed hotshot Bobcat quarterback Tom Von Grote unmercifully, intercepting him three times and his backup once and limiting Bobcat runners to only 45 rushing yards all night.

And if that wasn’t humiliating enough, it held Byron Nelson scoreless until the last third of the 3^rd quarter, when Von Grote managed to slip into the end zone, thanks in large part to a 57-yard reception by leading receiver Landon Farco.

Among an outstanding defensive cast, defensive back Trey Ferri stood out. He intercepted two Von Grote passes and, along with his secondary brethren, completely disrupted, dismantled and discombobulated Byron Nelson’s passing attack.

Rushing machine

Meanwhile, Carroll’s O-line elbowed aside Bobcat defenders, clearing running lanes for the Dragons’ double-headed rushing machine.

Sophomore running back Davis Penn (20 carries for 113 yards) scored four TDs, and his junior running partner, Riley Wormsley (6 for 61) added another two.

Meanwhile, Dragon quarterback Graham Knowles kept the offense humming. He completed 13 of 16 passes for 224 yards, tossing a 28-yard TD missile to tight end Jack Van Dorselaer and a perfect 24-yard arch to leading receiver Clayton Wayland (7-123) in the corner of the end zone.

Tight end Jack Van Dorselaer heads for the end zone.

Carroll scored on six of its first seven possessions.  When Wayland’s TD catch put the Dragons ahead 21-0 early in the 2^nd quarter, the matter essentially had been decided.

The Bobcats entered the contest confident they would take up where the October game left off – by dispersing the Carroll D and smothering the offense. The opening kickoff only seemed to confirm it.

Fielding the ball at his own 5, Bobcat receiver Jonathan Kabeya sprinted 58 yards to the Dragon 37. Instead of reeling in shock, Carroll abruptly stuffed the drive, then sacked Von Grote (9-19, 130 yards)on 4^th down to take possession.

Not this time

It was Carroll’s way of signaling to the Bobcats, “Not this time, fellas. Not. This. Time.”

From the 33, Wormsley promptly reeled off a 42-yard run to the BN 24, and Wayland caught two short passes to push the Dragons to the 1. From there, Wormsley darted across the line and opened the scoring floodgates.

After another 3-and-out, Knowles engineered a 69-yard scoring drive that ended with Van Dorselaer’s TD reception.

At that point, at the beginning of its third possession, the mighty BN offense that had played bully boy to opponents all season, had compiled exactly 4 yards.

Things were not to get much better. On the third play of the drive, Trey Ferri picked up his first of two interceptions, setting up the Dragons on the BN 39. While the Dragons were unable to capitalize on the misstep, the Bobcats never regained their footing.

That’s because Von Grote’s receivers were draped in Dragon defensive backs, and the D-line held leading Bobcat rusher Tucker James to only 35 yards on 13 carries.

Meanwhile, the Dragon offense scored four times in the decisive second period.

Knowles completed a 24-yard pass to Wayland, and Penn zipped 1-yard untouched into the end zone. Then Wormsley smashed through end zone defenders from the 6, getting shaken up sufficiently to sit out the rest of the game, and Penn finished his first-half hat trip with a 5-yard run to pay dirt.

The Dragon strolled into halftime with a 42-0 lead.

Demonstrated dominance

 As the half drew to a close, a sequence of plays demonstrated both Dragon dominance and Bobcat disintegration.

With Carroll leading 28-0, BN managed to put together a drive that took it near the Dragon red zone. Trey Ferri then snatched his second interception of the night and ran the ball back into Bobcat territory. Three plays later, Wormsley ran it in from the 6.

On the second play after the ensuing kickoff, Von Grote tried to complete a pass downfield, but defensive back Carter High grabbed it instead. It took the Dragons only five plays before Penn found the end zone from the 5.

Riley Wormsley fights for yardage.

Perhaps the wildest play of the night came in the 3^rd period. After BN had scored its only TD of the night, the Bobcats tried an unsuccessful onside kick, which the Dragons recovered near midfield. Three plays later, Knowles connected with sophomore Brock Boyd as he sped toward the end zone. But the usually surehanded Boyd lost control of the ball at the 30. And Penn, running just behind him, scooped up the ball in midstride and crossed the goal line, leaving the impression that was the plan all along.

Byron Nelson head coach Travis Pride was refreshingly candid about his team’s performance.

“I think we made some early mistakes,” Pride told the Star-T. “I don’t think we played very physical. I think that sometimes the big game can get you. The kids have come a long way, and our program has come a long way, but it was a big game for them tonight, and I think we played like it was too big.”

Dragonheads were as surprised as anyone at the total deconstruction of the Bobcats at the hands of the Southlake stalwarts.

Most of us expected a knock-down-drag-out street brawl, with the outcome teetering back and forth all night. And some of us – including me, guilty as charged – feared that perhaps, just perhaps, this was Bryon Nelson’s year. That the football gods had already decreed the outcome, leaving us in the grip of a force over which we had no control.

 Karma alert

And it turns out, such fears can probably be blamed on indigestion brought on by holiday over-indulgence. But one thing’s for sure. Karma rules the universe, and it’s bad karma to crow too loudly about Byron Nelson’s disgrace.

After all, the next Carroll opponents are the redoubtable DeSoto Eagles, reigning Class 6A, Division II state champions. They are always formidable – well-coached, well-prepared and athletically talented.

 The current incarnation of the Eagles are dead-eyed, cold-blooded assassins, and the Dragons will need every bit of discipline, dedication and grit to get past them.

But they’re not invincible. The Dragons have whipped the Eagles in the past, and they can do so again. Particularly if they play the kind of game they did against Bryon Nelson.

For the time being, though, let’s just enjoy a heaping dish of revenge, courtesy of the Bobcats. Served hot or cold. Diner’s choice.

Go, Dragons!

Quarterback Graham Knowles prepares to hand the ball to Davis Penn.