So close…so very close
Lord-a-mercy, that was a close one. A glorious,
righteous, busted-knuckle-and-bared-teeth close one.
Which made the victory, on the very last play of the
game, all the sweeter.
We all knew – every last Dragonhead one of us – that
yesterday’s playoff contest between the Southlake Carroll Dragons and the
Longview Lobos was going to be a rather desperate knock-down, drag-out affair.
The Longview Lobos, two-time state champions and
behemoths of East Texas high school football, had demolished the reigning state
Division II state champions, the DeSoto Eagles 50-14, to get to the state
semi-finals.
And the Dragons, unbeaten but bloodied, were facing a
tried and tested Lobo defense without the services of their two star running
backs, both sidelined with season-ending injuries.
So it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise when
the see-saw matchup came down – the score knotted 17-17 and 3 seconds left on
the clock – with the Dragons lining up for a last-gasp field goal on the
Longview 24.
Cold-blooded character
Kicker Gavin Strange, a cold-blooded character who
already had played an outstanding game as defensive end, lined up for a 41-yard
field goal that would send his Dragons to their 11th appearance in a
state championship game.
But the timing of the snap was off, and Strange was
hurried by oncoming Lobos. His kick veered wide right.
Expelling held breath with a disgruntled huff, Dragon
fans prepared themselves for the agony of overtime.
But flags flew when Strange was spun around by a Lobo
defender. The penalty handed the junior kicker another chance five yards
closer.
Carroll head coach Riley Dodge told veteran Dallas
Morning News reporter Randy Jennings that he expected a 15-yard
roughing-the-kicker penalty, but Strange said the second chance was all he
needed.
“I wasn’t like, ‘I missed the last one, I got to make
this one,’” Strange told Fort Worth Star-Telegram writer Cody Torn. “It
was more like, ‘I get to make it.’
“I have visualized this moment hundreds and hundreds
of times,” added Strange, who kicked a 40-yard field goal earlier in the
contest. “Every time I go to bed, I visualize kicking the game-winning field
goal. Now, it’s not a visualization anymore. It’s the best feeling in the
world.”
For the second week in a row, it was the Dragon
defense that preserved and protected Carroll’s playoff hopes.
Senior defensive lineman Austin Davidge was an
absolute beast, keeping Lobo quarterback Johnny Hamilton scrambling and
generally disrupting offensive operations. Zac Hays, who also handled punts for
the Dragons, also made a nuisance of himself
all night, bless ’im.
Lobo running back Kevin Washington was a pre-game
concern, but the Dragon D kept him generally corraled for most of the 1st
half, and limited his effectiveness when he finally sprung free in the 2nd.
He ran for 146 yards on 29 carries but managed only a single score for Longview.
Carroll head coach Riley Dodge acknowledged the
yeomen’s work his defensive squad accomplished yesterday.
“Our defense kept us in the game,’’ Dodge told
Jennings. “This team is young and banged up, but resilient. We really didn’t
know what kind of a team we were going to have this season.’’
Both teams played determined and effective defense. Carroll
barely edged Longview in total yards, 320 to 310. But both totals were well
below the per-game averages of the Lobos and the Dragons.
Dragon quarterback Angelo Renda completed 13 of 21
passes for 174 yards, but was intercepted twice by Longview’s talented
secondary. He threw one TD pass to super-sophomore Blake Gunter (4 catches for
98 yards).
Hamilton managed 6 completions for 146 yards but no
scores. He was intercepted once by, who else, defensive end (and team ball
hawk) Ethan Fisher. Hamilton accounted for Longview’s other touchdown – a 1-yard
sneaker that tied the game 10-10 at the end of the 1st half.
While Strange’s second-chance boomer will be the
offensive memory embedded in everyone’s mind, another offensive performance
deserves a nod, and it does my heart good to acknowledge it.
Running back Christian Glenn, a wide receiver for most
of the regular season, was moved to running back after stars Riley Wormley and Davis
Penn went down.
He probably was destined to ride the Dragons’ deep
receiving bench for most of his senior year, behind WR stalwarts Brock Boyd,
Luc Jacquemard and Brody Knowles. But fate – as it often does – had other plans.
Glenn is the son of a famous Cowboys receiver, Terry
Glenn, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 2017. Football is
in his blood, and he stepped in and stepped up big when opportunity tapped his
shoulder.
He rushed 17 times for 127 yards yesterday. With Carroll trailing 0-3 near the end of the
1st quarter, Glenn energized a lengthy Dragon march downfield when
he snared an 8-yard Renda pass near midfield. Later in the drive, when Carroll
moved to the Lobo 35, Glenn took Renda’s handoff and sprinted into the endzone.
After Carroll and Longview traded 3-and-outs with each
other, the Dragons were poised at the Lobo 43 when Glenn sprang around the left
end and raced 34 yards to the Longview 23. That set up Strange’s first field
goal and extended Carroll’s lead to 10-3.
While Carroll’s battered offense held its ground, it was
the defensive struggle that seized the spotlight in yesterday’s confrontation.
That conflict developed early. On the Lobos’ first
drive, the Dragons forced two fumbles, although Longview recovered both. After Carroll
fielded a punt at its 27, Renda was intercepted by Lobo linebacker Kason
Brooks.
Booting a field goal
Eight plays later, Longview kicker Alexandre Mitchell
booted a 29-yard field goal to give the Lobos a 3-0 lead.
Renda then led the Dragons on a 75-yard drive that
culminated in Glenn’s 35-yard TD run that send Carroll into the lead as the 1st
quarter ended.
Midway through the second, a Dragon drive stalled at
the Longview 23, and Strange booted his first field goal. Hamilton and the
Lobos responded with a drive that ate up the rest of the 3rd-quarter
clock with a drive that ended up at the Dragon 1.
Facing 4th-and-1, the Dragon D stopped the
Lobos cold, but a last-minute time-out call by Dodge negated the play, and
Hamilton bullied across on his second chance, tying the score 10-10.
Given the razor-thin nature of the contest, that
ill-timed decision might have loomed large later. Luckily for Dodge, who could
be seen chastising himself on the sidelines, it didn’t.
The 2nd
half started disappointingly for the Dragons.
Renda was intercepted on the second play of the half,
but outstanding defensive plays by Davidge, defensive back Parker Harris and
linebacker Robbie Ladd handed the Lobos a 4th-and 4 at the Carroll
25.
Hamilton lofted a pass into the endzone, but Fisher
was there to knock it away.
Carroll took over and Renda sent a pinpoint pass to
sophomore Blake Gunter who juked around a Lobo defender and raced 63 yards to
give the Dragons a 17-10 lead.
Endzone jaunt
Longview responded with a 70-yard drive behind the
hard running of Washington, who capped the series with an 8-yard jaunt to the
endzone, evening things up.
Both teams’ offensives then faded into the background as
their defensive comrades wrestled with each other, vying for an advantage.
The explosive Fisher blew up a Lobo drive by
intercepting a Hamilton pass at the Dragon 5, but Carroll failed to convert on
a 4-and-2 and turned the ball over to Longview.
Likewise, the resulting Lobo drive dried up at the
Dragon 31, and Longview surrendered the ball on downs midway through the 4th
quarter.
At that point, Renda and company staged a
clock-draining, 12-play drive that methodically worked its way downfield to
end, finally, at the Longview 24. And that’s where the game’s final dramatic showdown
occurred.
And now it comes down to one game, this week’s
encounter with Austin Vandegrift, which beat Houston-area Humble Summer Creek, 34-31,
last night. The Vipers and Dragons will face off on Saturday at Jerry’s World.
This will be Riley Dodge’s second trip to the state
championship game as Carroll head coach.
Hired by Southlake in 2018 at the tender age of 29,
Dodge led the Dragons to the highly hyped “Dodge Bowl” in the 2020 6A Division
I championship (played in 2021 because of the COVID pandemic). There, he faced
his father, legendary coach Todd Dodge, then coach of the Austin Westlake
Chaparrals.
The elder Dodge, who captured four state championships
in five years while leading the Southlake program, won the 2020 contest, one of
three state trophies he brought to Westlake. After a brief try at retirement, he’s
now head football coach for Lovejoy High School. And enjoying great success
there. Natch.
Eclipsing the father
As for the younger Dodge, he may be headed for a
career that eclipses his illustrious father. In seven seasons with the Dragons,
he’s already compiled a 93-8 record, led his team to at least the
quarter-finals every single year and, now, to the finals for the second time.
Not bad for an old man of 36.
“To get to the state championship game is
unbelievable,’’ Dodge told the DMN’s Jennings. “I have a lot of people
to hug.’’
Some of the people he’ll hug, without a doubt, will be
his players. His affection for, and dedication to, the young men who play for
him is apparent to anyone paying attention.
“This group’s resilient,” Dodge told the Star-T’s
Torn. “They’re young, and they’re banged up. They just keep finding a way.
We’ve done it a lot of different ways this playoff run, and I’m just proud of
the kids.”
As are we all.
Go, Dragons!
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