Capitalizing on mistakes
SOUTHLAKE – Wise men have declared that capitalizing
on the mistakes of your opponent often is the key to victory – no matter the
endeavor.
And so it was last night, when the Southlake Carroll
Dragons bested a talented and fired-up Byron Nelson team in a spirited clash
that probably decided the District 4-6A championship.
If not for a Bobcat fumble on the first play of the 2nd
quarter, followed by a blocked Byron Nelson punt in its own endzone 2 minutes
later, it might have been a very different game – filling Dragonheads with nervous
twitches instead of a spreading glow of satisfaction.
As it came to pass, junior Dragon linebacker Marcus
Brouse recovered the fumble, and junior quarterback Angelo Renda engineered a
74-yard drive that rushing phenom Riley Wormley capped with a 35-yard TD run.
The blocked punt, which sophomore Blake Gunter knocked
down in the Bobcat endzone, garnered Carroll a 2-point safety and forced the
Bobcats to free kick from their own 20. Three plays later, Renda lofted a
50-yard pass to receiver Luc Jaquemard (4 receptions for 82 yards), who slipped
quickly across the goal line.
With the Dragons now leading 23-7, the night
essentially was over for the unfortunate Bobcats. To their credit, they never
panicked, and they never gave up.
Lost momentum
But they were never able to regain the momentum
shattered by the fumble and the failed punt, even after Bobcat RB Sean Robinson,
narrowed Carroll’s lead to 23-14 as the 1st half wound down.
Of course, even without the miscues, it would have
been a rough night for Byron Nelson.
Unlike the Dragons, who roared into the 2024 season by
demolishing Midland and Hebron by wide margins, the Bobcats have been living on
the edge. They had to stage come-from-behind, last-gasp efforts to slip by Wolfforth
Frenship and Lewisville.
Relying on that kind of risky gamesmanship doesn’t
work against the Dragons. Not this year, blessed as they are with an
aggressive, highly productive offensive machine, headed by Carroll’s dynamic
rushing duo of Wormley and junior Davis Penn, and helmed by talented junior Angelo
Renda.
Wormley and Penn combined for 224 yards and 3 TDs, two
for Wormsley on the ground and one in the air for Penn.
From the outset, both had their way with the Bobcat
defense. On his first run of the night, Wormley – who gained 140 yards against
Bryon Nelson – sped 16 yards, followed by Penn, whose first run garnered 11
yards. And so it went throughout the night.
Renda, whose confidence grows with every game, was
equally brilliant. He completed 72 percent of his passes for 167 yards and two
TDs.
His first TD throw was an 8-yard zipline to Penn,
which tied the score at 7-7. It capped an 8-play, 75-yard series in response to
Bryon Nelson’s opening-drive score, a nifty march downfield that signaled the
Bobcats meant business.
Renda’s second score came when he tossed a 50-yard beauty to Jaquemard that essentially sealed Byron Nelson’s fate.
Blunting the offense
Meanwhile, the Dragon D blunted the Bobcats’ heralded
offensive array, which before last night was averaging 40 points and 453 total
yards per game (stats compiled by The Dallas Morning News). Against the
Dragons, Bryon Nelson could manage only 315 total yards and 21 points.
Even that stat is a bit misleading. The Bobcats’ final
score – a dazzling 57-yard pass from QB Grant Bizjack to WR Ezra Malamura, who
seized it despite being surrounded by Dragons in the endzone – came with only 49
seconds on the clock. That was long after the Dragons had surged to an
insurmountable 33-14 lead, and the Dragon Marching Band had launched into “Hey,
Baby,” the traditional signal that a Carroll victory is assured.
Dragon defenders sacked Bizjack six times and limited
leading rusher Tucker James to only 84 yards and a single score, a 6-yard bolt
that opened Bobcat scoring. Despite the harassment, the worthy Bizjack completed
an amazing 89 percent of his passes for 199 yards, but – tellingly – only 1 TD.
Defensive standouts included junior backs Luke Bussman
and William Chen, who sacked Bizjack twice during the Bobcats’ final offensive
series.
Senior defensive back Jack Van Dorselaer, the Dragons’
highly regarded tight end, demonstrated the wisdom of his switch from offense
to defensive back, a move intended to bolster weaknesses in the Dragon
secondary. He’ll play on offense at the next level, but for the time being, he’s
quickly becoming a linchpin to the Dragon D.
Van Dorselaer told the DMN’s Greg Riddle that he and
his colleagues learned a few things against Bizjack and the Bobcats.
‘Who we are’
“I think we found out who we are, and we’re a tough
team,” Van Dorselaer said. “Defense, we chose violence, that was the biggest
thing this week. Playing offense for three years, it’s a little bit different
than defense. Defense is a lot more violent.”
The pace of the game slowed considerably in the 2nd
half. Both defenses tightened, and the sole score in the 3rd period
was a 30-yard field goal by Carroll’s Clark Lemmermann, a junior. He later missed
a 48-yarder by a whisker.
Early in the 4th, the Dragons – justifiably
wary of the explosive potential of Bizjack and the Bobcats – hung grimly to a
not-entirely-comfortable 26-14 lead. At that point, Wormley and Penn took
matters in hand, headlining a grinding, 67-yard scoring drive.
Wormley, a USC commit, got the series started with a 27-yard
bolt, and Penn, who’s headed to Baylor, carried the Dragons to the Bobcat 2,
where Wormley plowed into the endzone. It was his second TD and ended Carroll
scoring.
Jack Van Dorselaer, 88, congratulates Riley Wormley, 1, after a touchdown run.
As noted previously, in defeating Byron Nelson in
their first district game of the 2024 season, the Dragons become odds-on
favorites to seize the District 4-6A crown.
Of course, they still must play the rest of the 4-6A field.
But realistically, Byron Nelson posed the most serious – OK, let’s face it, the
only serious – challenge to Carroll 4-6A dominance this year.
The chief thing they must guard against is
complacency. Although District 4-6A is not a powerhouse district, it contains
programs that on any given night – and if they can catch Carroll napping – could
upend the Dragon bulldozer rumbling toward them.
Friday was a red-letter day for Southlake athletics
for another reason, too. Head coach Riley Dodge was elevated to executive
director of athletics for Carroll ISD, which puts him in charge of the district’s
entire athletic program. It’s a big job, but Dodge has demonstrated he can
handle the pressure and the expectations that come with it.
Football royalty
Dodge, son of the legendary Todd Dodge, who took
Carroll to four state championships in a five-year span, is football royalty in
Southlake – and in the entire state, for that matter.
He has refocused, reinvigorated and renewed enthusiasm
for Carroll’s storied football program since being named head coach in 2018.
Since then, he has compiled an extraordinary 81-8 record and led the Dragons
deep into the playoffs every year, including a trip to the championship game in
2021.
His elevation runs counter to the current trend in high
school athletics. Once it was common for the head of football operations to
guide the entire athletic program. But in recent years, administrators have
separated the two jobs, guided by the reasonable conviction that both positions
are full-time posts that no one person can handle effectively.
The move may have been to provide incentive for Dodge
to remain in Southlake. Lord knows his success here makes him highly recruitable.
His elevation to the college coaching ranks probably is inevitable.
If any person can keep all the balls in the air, Dodge
may be that person. A telling indication of his success, charisma and
inspirational presence was on display last night during pre-game activities at
Dragon Stadium.
It was Dragon Youth Football night, and all the kids
in Southlake’s version of peewee football ran through the huge inflatable
dragon’s head to the cheers and applause of the crowd.
There were hundreds of youngsters, almost double the number
of kids who participated in the program before Dodge arrived. They bear vivid
evidence of the impact of the philosophy of inclusion and recognition he
pursues as head coach, a point of view pursued by his father and that now once
again imbues Dragon athletics.
The DMN’s Riddle described the scene as Dodge stood before
his team after the game and demonstrated one of his strongest traits – the ability
to focus young minds on what’s ahead, not what’s in front of them. To keep them
directed on future objectives, not current accomplishments.
“This,” he said, “isn’t going to be the highlight of
our season.”
No, indeed. Go, Dragons!
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