Second-round beatdown: Southlake Carroll 72, San Angelo Central 7

 

Star receiver Brock Boyd, who scored twice in last night's destruction of San Angelo Central, hauls in an Angelo Renda pass.

Spectacular performance

The Southlake Carroll Dragons demonstrated with brutal efficiency last night the reason they’re ranked the No. 1 Class 6A Division II program in Texas – and one of the nation’s best.

Propelled by quarterback Angelo Renda’s spectacular performance, the Dragons systematically dismantled the over-praised San Angelo Central Bobcats in the area round of the 6A Division II playoffs.

Carroll now advances to a third-round faceoff with the Prosper Eagles (11-1), who defeated Richardson Berkner last night 50-24.

It probably won’t be a blowout like last night’s clash turned out to be. Prosper is a quality program whose only loss was a 31-30 squeaker against Allen.

Outclassed and outgassed

The outclassed 8-4 Bobcats, on the other hand, entered the playoffs after an up-and-down season in which they lost to district foes Abilene, Midland Lee and Odessa Permian. One of their eight wins came when Amarillo was forced to forfeit.

The San Angelo-based announcers fielded by the NFHS Network to call the game worked hard to portray Central as a top-shelf program determined to regain its status as one of the state’s premier football teams.

But it didn’t wash. The outcome of last night’s playoff mismatch was never in doubt. And their amateurish homerism – streamed to an Internet crowd that included as many Dragonheads as it did Bobcat fanatics – made them, and NFHS, look ridiculous and unprofessional.

When the bedraggled Bobcats – facing Dragon substitutes – finally managed to get on the scoreboard in the final quarter, the announcers’ giddy response made me cringe. The score following that much-celebrated touchdown? 59-7. Puh-leese!

That meaningless score was the first touchdown Carroll’s stubborn defense had allowed an opponent since the 57-7 Dragon slaughter of Justin Northwest on Oct. 17.

First-team Carroll defenders kept the Bobcats well in check. They limited Central to 291 total yards, while Renda and company were rolling to 729. Bobcat runners could manage only a paltry 150 hard-won yards.

Bedeviling Smith

The Dragon D bedeviled Central quarterback Micah Smith, smothering his receivers and intercepting him three times – four if you count a pick-6 by Luke Bussmann negated by a penalty. Other Dragons picking off the harassed and harried Smith were Parker Harris, Robbie Ladd and Brody Bourgeois.

For instance, as the second quarter opened, with Carroll holding a 14-0 lead, Central’s O-line collapsed and Dragons swarmed Smith, sacking him behind the line and forcing a fumble.

On the very next play, Renda sailed a 49-yard pass to Brock Boyd (8-139, 2 TDs), who calmly cruised into the end zone. It was the star receiver's second TD of the night, after he opened Dragon scoring with a 31-yard reception.

Receiver Brody Knowles evades a Central Bobcat defender on his way to a touchdown.

Kicker Gavin Stranger soon added a 27-yard field goal to the Carroll lead. Renda then closed out Dragon scoring in the first half with TD passes to Brody Knowles (3-71), for 36 yards, and Blake Gunter (7-68), for 16.

For Renda, it was a glorious night to be a Dragon. Everything he touched turned to gold. He completed 23 of 28 passes (a stunning 82%) for 366 yards and five touchdowns.

True, he also tossed an INT (in the end zone, no less), but Bussmann got it back for him three plays later.

Renda also was the Dragons’ leading rusher, carrying the rock eight times for 91 yards. Most of his runs were planned keepers. But on a couple of occasions, his quick feet and elusive moves kept him out of the clutches of desperate Bobcat defenders.

Furious onslaught

The second half offered no letup in the furious Dragon onslaught. On its first possession, Carroll moved to the Bobcat 42. Then Luc Jacquemard, normally a sure-handed receiver, lined up in the backfield, seized the ball from Renda and raced down the right sideline to the goal line, widening the Carroll lead to 45-0.

Head coach Riley Dodge, going for the Bobcat jugular, ordered an onside kick, but Central managed to cover the ball, for all the good it did. Stopped cold, the ’Cats punted, pinning the Dragons at their 14. Renda methodically moved his team to the Central 6, where Davis Penn (8-68) darted untouched into the end zone. Score 52-0.

Three plays into the next Bobcat drive, Smith threw the interception snagged by Bourgeois. On the first play from scrimmage, Renda handed off to Gunter, who like Jacquemard was taking a turn at running back.

The junior, noted for his determined, hard-driving runs after catch, bolted 43 yards to the end zone. Score 59-0.

The final period saw widespread substitutions by Carroll. That decision contributed no doubt to Central’s only successful drive of the night. After the ’Cats fought their way to the Dragon 26, Smith lofted a TD pass to Jimmy Edwards.

Carroll responded immediately. On the second play of the next possession, backup quarterback Preston Perazzo handed the ball to backup runner Gavin Gooden, who rumbled 59 yards to the end zone.

End of scoring

Perazzo later ended Carroll scoring with a 6-yard toss to backup receiver Cade Holmstrom. The final: a humiliating (for Central, at least) 72-0.

“It was really complete – in a lot of ways,” Dodge told Fort Worth Star-Telegram sportswriter Charles Baggarly. “We took what they gave us, defensively. Once again, I thought we played lights out. Our One Defense hasn’t given up many points this year.”

Junior Blake Gunter tumbles into the end zone after grabbing an Angelo Renda pass. He ran for another Dragon score.

Dodge said the Dragons succeeded in getting the ball to their playmakers.

“We kept it simple,” he told Baggarly. “Being okay with 4 yards and understanding that those 10-, 20-yard explosions were going to come.”

And come they did – leaving the West Texans beaten, bruised and bleeding.

In making it to the third round of the playoffs, the Dragons have achieved the second of their three yearly goals. The first was to win district. The second was still to be in the playoff hunt on Thanksgiving (the holiday practice is a cherished Dragon tradition). Done and done.

That leaves only Goal No. 3, the most important one of all: To win a state championship.

The road from here only gets rockier. If the Dragons get past Prosper, they could face either Denton Guyer or Byron Nelson in the regional finals (Round 4). And if they leap that hurdle, DeSoto could be waiting for them in the state semi-finals (Round 5).

For the Bobcats, the hunt is over, a bitter pill that doesn’t go down well with a program that back in the day struck fear and envy into the hearts of every team it faced.

Return to glory?

NFHS' San Angelo homers spent a lot of hot air last night, when they should have been calling the game, yacking about the prospects of Central – and other members of the so-called “Little Southwest Conference” like Abilene, Midland Lee and Odessa Permian – returning the region to its rightful place in the forefront of high school football.

Such a development ain't likely – frankly, it’s a ludicrous idea – for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here. As a result, the bad blood brewing on the dusty plains of West Texas likely will continue to bubble, with no satisfaction in sight.

One of the NFHS announcers observed with a chuckle that West Texas teams don’t particularly like Metroplex teams. In fact, he said, “They hate them.”

It’s easy to understand why. Suburban Dallas-Fort Worth teams like Southlake regularly kick the snot out of West Texas squads that once ruled the roost. Long may the trend continue. If that sounds harsh, I’m sorry. (Not sorry!)

You see, I still remember the arrogance and distain showered by the bullies of the Little Southwest Conference on my hometown of Big Spring, the district’s perennial cellar-dweller.

Old wounds heal slowly. And some don’t heal at all!

Go, Dragons!

Caden Mackey races for the end zone in the Dragons' blistering second-round victory over the San Angelo Central Bobcats.

The first domino falls: Southlake Carroll 35, Crowley 0

 

Quarterback Angelo Renda threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in last night's first-round victory against Crowley.

Never coming close

(This post has been updated with current information about area-round time and location.)

SOUTHLAKE – You could make the argument that the Crowley Eagles, who carried a dismal 3-7 record into last night’s first-round playoff matchup with the Southlake Carroll Dragons, didn’t belong in the post-season tournament in the first place.

Without going into unnecessary details – which to be honest I’m not even sure I understand, anyway – the Eagles sneaked into the UIL playoffs by winning a point advantage in a District 3-6A tie-breaker.

It’s enough to persuade me that the playoff rules for who gets in and who stays out need to be overhauled. But I’ll save that little Gordian knot for another time and place.

However illegitimate the Eagles’ claim to a playoff spot might be, there they were last night – striding into Dragon Stadium trying to look menacing in their black uniforms for the few dozen Eagle fans who trekked from the western side of the Metroplex to watch the bloodshed.

In truth, they never came close to threatening the Dragon mission to bring home another state championship. It took Carroll less than 1½ minutes to march 51 yards in three plays before Dragon quarterback Angelo Renda (16-27, 212 yards, 2 TDs) flipped a 5-yard TD pass to junior Blake Gunter (3-55) to seize a lead it never relinquished.

Adding two more

The Dragons would add two more touchdowns in the decisive second quarter. Junior RB Brooks Biggers dived 1 yard across the goal line to cap a 71-yard drive set up by a forced turnover on downs.

And as the first half drew to a close, Carroll capitalized on another Crowley turnover on downs after Renda peppered receivers Gunter and Brock Boyd (9-101, 1 TD) with passes to move the Dragons to the Eagle 13. From there, he tossed the rock to Boyd in the end zone, giving the Dragons a 21-0 halftime lead.

Brock Boyd, who caught 9 passes for 101 yards and 1 TD, snags a missile from Angelo Renda.

A friend of mine, whose grandson plays for the Dragons, has dubbed Renda the “Dragon Master,” a moniker I rather like. And he has labeled Renda’s three top receivers, Boyd, Gunter and junior Brody Knowles (2-12), as the “Three-Headed Dragon.” I’d say that’s pretty apt, too.

Chuckle if you will – it’s all in good fun, after all – but these four young men, along with comrade-in-arms Davis Penn, are the formidable core of a Dragon offense single-minded and deadly earnest in its pursuit of another state title for Southlake.  (And in case I forgot to mention it, they’re great kids, too.)

But back to the game. The Dragon defense once again performed superbly, holding the Eagles scoreless while staging a dramatic goal line stand in the closing seconds of the game, repeatedly forcing Crowley to turn over the ball after failed 4^th-down attempts, recovering a fumble and forcing two others, and sacking the Crowley QB to end a scoring threat.

Whew! They were a busy bunch last night.

Senseless penalties

Of course, the hapless Eagles helped, committing senseless penalties that crushed promising drives and negated two Eagle scores – one a 23-yard TD run by quarterback Antwain Griffin (14-21, 166) erased by a holding call and later Griffith’s 2-yard end-zone dash wiped out by a procedural penalty.

Without the penalties and the defense’s stalwart performance, it could have been a very different game.

The Dragons seemed slightly off-kilter – their usual crisp and efficient execution overshadowed at times by a curious lack of focus. Timing often seemed out of sync, an overthrown pass in the end zone, promising drives sputtering and skidding to a halt, turning the ball over after two failed 4^th-down attempts.

This malaise was reflected in the particularly frustrating night endured by star running back Davis Penn. The Crowley defense swarmed him repeatedly, never giving him much room to roam. His rushing total for the night was a meager 43 yards on 15 carries.

The malady – if it deserves such a moniker in a game the Dragons still dominated – also affected Gavin Strange, Carroll’s normally flawless kicker/defensive back. Strange whiffed two field goals in the third quarter – one for 31 yards and another for 33 – after the Dragon offense stalled on subsequent drives.

Both attempts were well within the talented Strange’s range. Missing both once would have seemed as unlikely as seeing a saber-tooth tiger in Town Square.

Much-needed boost

But it was that kind of night – and that kind of game.  

The Dragons, though, received a much-needed boost after Strange’s failure to add points. After Crowley was forced to punt, Carroll moved quickly to the Eagle 32, where Renda dropped back to pass, saw a wide swatch of turf open up the middle and headed for the end zone. Inside the 5, he juked to the left, sidestepped a defender and squeezed across the left corner of the end zone.

Junior Brooks Biggers burrows his way into the end zone as the Dragons advance to the second round.

 
The final Dragon score came after a Crowley drive – which started at its own 11 after a Carroll punt – ground to a halt after only 4 yards. Boyd fielded the punt at the 45 and raced untouched for goal line.

As the last minutes dwindled, the Eagles took advantage of Carroll substitutions to drive the ball inside the Dragon 4. But the first-team D-line was called back into service to deny Griffin and the Eagles a face-saving TD.  Game over.

In his story for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, sportswriter Charles Baggerly said head coach Riley Dodge told his players after the game to remember that the most important thing is “keeping the family together” for another week.

In the win-or-go-home environment of the playoffs, that’s the goal of all squads left still standing. For many players, it’s their chief motivation.

Dodge told Baggerly that he “had a ton of respect for what Crowley did.”

 “We knew it was going to be a dogfight early with what they do defensively,” he said. “But gosh, we found a way at certain points. Tonight wasn’t the prettiest, but defensively, I thought we played lights out. We got off the field when we needed to.”

Making plays

Renda, the game’s leading rusher (6 carries, 64 yards), told Baggerly that “Crowley is a great team despite their record.”

 “I mean, they have some dudes on the outside, and they’re making plays,” he said. “But I feel like we came out here, we knew we’re going to get a man free, and we took some shots early. We connected on a couple, but we still have some things to work on. And we’ll be back in the film room tomorrow.”

Next up for the Dragons will San Angelo Central, once a powerhouse in Texas high school football. These days, however, not so much. The 8-3 Bobcats qualified for the second round by defeating El Paso Pebble Beach 24-14. I suspect the Dragons won’t have much trouble with them. But you know my feelings about that. These are the playoffs, folks, and, let’s say it together now, anything can happen.

The Carroll-Central game will be at 7 p.m. Friday at Art Briles Stadium in Stephenville. I'm not familiar with the venue, and naming it after a guy like Briles makes me shudder. But it is what it is, I suppose.

Since my night vision isn't what it used to be -- and an overnight in Stephenville leaves me cold -- I suspect the Dragons will have to take care of the ’Cats without me.

They certainly can. And I have no doubt they will.

Go, Dragons!

Austin Bussmann, 23, and Parker Harris, 6, wrap up Crowley running back Kenyen Cotton in last night's matchup.

A district sweep completed: Southlake Carroll 49, Keller Central 3

The playoffs are here, and the Dragons, ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 10 in the nation by MaxPreps, will host their first-round opponent in Dragon Stadium.

A blend of tricks and treats

SOUTHLAKE – As befits a game played on Halloween, last night’s clash between the No.1-ranked Southlake Carroll Dragons and the Keller Central Chargers featured a frustrating blend of tricks and treats.

First came the tricks: For the second week in a row, the Dragons turned in another sluggish first-half performance against a lackluster District 4-6A opponent. After two quarters of missed tackles, a struggling secondary and off-target passes, Carroll entered the break leading the Chargers only 14-3.

Then came the treats: A focused, re-energized Dragon squad emerged from half-time thirsty for redemption and renewal. In short order, it overwhelmed the outgunned Chargers and set many troubled Dragonhead hearts at ease.

Carroll running back Davis Penn turned in his best performance of the season, making two touchdowns on his way to a 170-yard game. He rushed 16 times, which for those of you keeping count comes to more than 10 yards a carry.

Penn, who suffered a torn ACL in last year’s playoffs, already had been judged at full strength by his coaches. Head coach Riley Dodge said last week that the “training wheels” had been taken off Penn, an endearing way of announcing his star running back’s return to dominance.

A dominance that the worthy Penn established early. He got Carroll off to a rousing start on its opening possession, capping a 7-play, 75-yard drive with a dazzling 31-yard TD bolt through the middle of the Central line.

Perfect timing

The timing of his emergence from the protective custody of his coaches couldn’t be more perfect. After a bye next week, Carroll plunges into the playoffs, where the Dragons will need every offensive weapon they have to operate in tip-top condition.

And all appears to be well on that front. Despite a less than stellar first half, quarterback Angelo Renda accounted for four passing touchdowns last night – two to ace receiver Brock Boyd (4-40) and one each to juniors Blake Gunter (2-34) and Caden Mackey (4-27).

He didn’t wrack up terribly impressive numbers, completing 14 of 22 passes for 110 yards. But Renda smoothly and confidently engineered a 28-point unanswered scoring spree in the explosive third quarter.

But before we could enjoy the Dragons’ roaring return to glory, we had to endure that sloppy, slogging and desultory first half. After Penn’s untouched dash to paydirt, the grit and razor-sharp execution that characterized that initial drive dissipated rapidly.

Instead, the game devolved into a uninspiring defensive struggle by both teams. It should be noted, however, that the Dragon D continues to play with heart and desire. It has been turning in strong performances even when its offensive brethren seem to be daydreaming.

In the last 16 quarters of play, Dragon defenders have allowed four district opponents only a combined 17 points. Nuff said.

 

Break in the bleakness

But back to that disappointing first half. Indications of the scoring onslaught lying in wait for the Chargers occurred in the second quarter when Central turned over the ball to the Dragons on downs. They then staged a 9-play, 78-yard scoring drive capped by Boyd’s 19-yard TD catch.

Davis Penn, shown here against L.D. Bell last week, turned in his best performance of the year against the Chargers.

The Chargers were able to get to the Dragon 10 on the next drive, but they could get no further and had to attempt a 27-yard field goal, which failed.

The Dragons took over on their own 20, but Renda immediately threw an interception with less than a minute left before half. Central fought its way to the Dragon 11, but once again had to settle for an attempted field goal.

It succeeded this time, and a heartened Charger squad retreated to the locker room to plot an upset it probably thought it could pull off.

Fat chance, buckaroos. The Dragons, awakened from their doldrums, were eager to rumble. And rumble they did.

The first Central drive of the second half ended when Charger quarterback Isaiah Taylor was sacked at his 27. Parker Harris returned the subsequent punt to the Central 21. Four plays later, Penn bulldozed 8 yards to the end zone.

The next Charger possession ended when Taylor was intercepted by Dragon defender Taevin Kunz, who sped 29 yards for Carroll’s second TD in less than a minute and a half.

For the unraveling Chargers, the news would only get worse. After fighting their way to the 44 on their very next drive, Taylor lofted an ill-considered pass that Dragon linebacker William Leins quickly snagged. Five plays later, Boyd grabbed his second TD of the night in the back right corner of the end zone.

Renda would add another TD near the end of the third with a 9-yard missile to Mackey. The final Dragon score came less than 2 minutes into the final quarter when Renda sent a 27-yard beauty to Gunter.

Satisfying conclusion

That brought things to a satisfying 49-3 conclusion for the Dragons.

In the overall scheme of things, last night’s game was meaningless. Carroll already had clinched the district title before the Central game. As such, it will host its first-round playoff match in Dragon Stadium, regardless of last night’s outcome.

But momentum is important, and a team’s strong showing in its last game of the regular season, no matter the quality of its opponent, can be vital in the win-or-go-home landscape of the playoffs.

The Dragons are lucky. Having a bye during the last week of the regular season can be a godsend. It offers time to rest and recuperate. Time to plot and game plan. Time to gather themselves for the ordeal ahead.

The playoffs are here, folks! It’s a glorious time to be a high school football fan. And if you’re a Dragonhead, it’s a time to sit and wonder: Is this the year?

Go, Dragons!

 

Dragonheads are asking themselves the question: Is this the year the Dragons bring home that ninth state championship trophy?