No mercy: Southlake Carroll 57, Justin Northwest 7

 

Riley Dodge, celebrating with his players earlier in the season, has lots to be happy about, including last night's drubbing of Justin Northwest.

Performing as expected

SOUTHLAKE – There wasn’t much entertainment value in Southlake Carroll’s merciless drubbing last night of the Justin Northwest Texans.

Unless, that is, you’re a diehard Dragonhead who viewed the massacre with equanimity and a certain satisfaction – although perhaps with a dash of guilt. After all, we’re not monsters.

As for the Dragons, well, that’s another matter altogether, isn’t it? They’ve succeeded in scaring the daylights out of every opponent they’ve faced this season, rampaging through District 4-6A like Godzilla striding vengefully through a prostrate downtown Tokyo.

Carroll, runaway pregame favorite over the lowly Texans, performed as everyone expected it would.

It leaped to a 22-7 lead in the first quarter, carried a 42-7 margin into halftime and toyed with the bedraggled Texans throughout the entire second half.

Dragon quarterback Angelo Renda and running back supremo Davis Penn shined brightest last night, combing for six touchdowns that swamped Northwest and drained it of hope.

Renda completed 79 percent of his passes (15 of 17) for 321 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for one more. Penn, for his part, rushed for 97 yards on nine carries and visited the endzone three times.

Staunch the bleeding

The reeling Texans never were able to staunch the bleeding, not even with the help of their acclaimed running back, Caris Sela.

It’s true that Sela was the night’s leading rusher, gaining 107 yards on 16 carries. But most of those yards came in the first quarter on a thrilling 89-yard bolt through the Dragon defense on the first play of an early Texan drive.

For most of the night, the Dragon D, playing another brilliant game, kept the talented Sela – and the rest of the Texan offense – corralled, hobbled and horse-tied. Northwest managed only 179 yards of total offense against Carroll’s 543.

And while the Texan defense managed to pick off Renda passes on two successive drives at the end of first half, they were unable to capitalize on either one against an avenging Dragon defense.

Renda probably earned himself a butt-chewing during halftime for his errant throws. But I dunno. Maybe not. After all, when you’re leading your opponent 43-7, perhaps you can be forgiven a momentary loss of focus.

Lord knows Renda came roaring out of halftime with his hair ablaze. In Carroll’s first drive of the third period, Renda zipped a 13-yard pass to Brock Boyd (4-104, 1 TD) and a 25-yard missile to Brody Knowles (4-87) to bring the Dragons to the Texan 28. From there, Penn scored his third TD of the night.

Bringing scoring to an end

The next Northwest series ended after only one play when Texan quarterback Mark Hartman fumbled the ball and Carroll recovered. Five plays later Renda connected with Blake Gunter (4-91), who plunged 11 yards into the endzone to bring Dragon scoring to an end for the night.

Northwest’s game plan emerged early. It was to be Sela, Sela and more Sela: Sela running up the gut, Sela darting around the end, Sela snatching short passes. But the Dragon defense dismantled that strategy and successfully keyed on Sela all night – with the notable exception of his TD heroics.

The Texans’ first possession ended with a punt after a Hartman sack on their own 33. Three plays later, Penn streaked over the goal line from the 11. To add insult to injury, the Dragons went for 2 – and succeeded.

Carroll forced a fumble on the next Texan drive. Then Renda marched the Dragons downfield with a 27-yard pass to Knowles and a 29-yarder to Boyd. From the 8, he cruised into the end zone to extend the Dragon lead to 15-0.

That set up Sela’s TD rumble, which stunned the Southlake crowd into thoughtful silence.

But not to worry. The Dragons came roaring back. Luc Jacquemard returned the Texan kickoff to the Texan 47. Two plays later, Renda lofted an arc to Boyd, who scooted 43 yards to give Carroll a 22-7 first-quarter lead.

The decisive second quarter saw the Dragons in full control. While the defense held the Texans to a series of 3-and-outs, the offense ruled the roost.

Brooks Biggers capped a 71-yard drive with a 2-yard dart across the line. On the first play of the next Northwest series, Dragon defender Marcus Brouse intercepted a Hartman pass and ran 18 yards for a dandy pick-6. Penn then ended a 75-yard drive with a 1-yard bolt to paydirt.

The half ended with the pair of Renda interceptions. But let’s talk no more of those, shall we?

Demoralized and depleted

When the shattered Texans returned from halftime, trailing by five touchdowns, it was a demoralized, mentally depleted team that faced the steely-eyed Dragons.

That’s what it looked like from my green seat, at least. Coach Riley Dodge’s  mission to “kill the will,” an approach learned at his daddy’s knee, had worked like a charm – or in the Texans’ case, like a curse.

Exciting, the game was not. I strongly suspect it didn’t do much to prepare the Dragons for the approaching playoffs either. Stiffer district competition would help sharpen skills and develop the kind of physical and mental discipline that a lengthy playoff run demands.

Angelo Renda led the Dragon attack, throwing two TD passes and running for a third score. Those two interceptions? Fuhgeddaboudit!

 
Particularly if, like the Dragons, you have your eyes firmly focused on the main prize – a ninth state championship.

They probably won’t get much help in playoff preparation from their final regular season opponents. Carroll travels to venerable Pennington Field next week to meet L.D. Bell, which isn’t expected to put up much of a struggle.

And the Dragons will end the season at home on Halloween against Keller Central, which also doesn’t promise to be too frightening a challenge for the Dragons.

Like last year, the Dragons’ bye week comes at the very end of the regular season, giving them extra time to rest, recoup and reconnoiter the playoff picture. I’m no playoff guru, but I’ll take a look at the post-season landscape in an upcoming post. I can promise only one thing – it’ll probably be wrong.

 As every Dragonhead knows, last week’s victory over Eaton handed Dodge his 100^th win as a head coach. He and his family were honored before last night’s game – and rightly so. He deserves all credit, both for that notable achievement and for his success in rejuvenating the Carroll football program, which had languished under his predecessor, and in re-igniting community enthusiasm for the Dragons.

National kudos

Meanwhile, Dodge has received a strong endorsement and some national exposure from an unexpected source.

Former NFL coach John Gruden, who is associated with the Barstool Sports blog and website, recently congratulated Dodge’s for his 100^th victory and heaped praise on the coach and on the entire Carroll football program.

He called Dodge a legend, and mentioned by name a number of Carroll players – including Angelo Renda, Davis Penn, Brock Boyd, Carey Clayton, Crawford Taylor, Austin Bussman and William Chen.

“This Renda kid,” Gruden said, “he can spin it, man. I saw the highlights.”

Gruden overlooked some key Dragon players, of course. But let’s not quibble. This kind of recognition is a good thing. And his affection for the Dragons appears to be sincere.

Gruden urged the Dragons to “get back to the championship and win it this year. You guys keep it going.”

From his lips to God’s ear.

Go, Dragons!

Davis Penn, 3, gets some love earlier this year from teammates glad he's back to his old self.  He scored three TDs last night and looked good doing it.