Game Day: Southlake Carroll 42, Abilene 17

The brutal truth is the proud Abilene Eagles never had a chance of whipping the Southlake Carroll Dragons last night as the Dragons ended their challenging pre-district march before a hostile West Texas crowd at Abilene’s venerable Shotwell Stadium.

A potent combination of Dragon offensive firepower and a fumbled Eagle kickoff reception gave Southlake a 14-0 lead before the Eagles could run a single offensive play. Abilene, which is expected to challenge strongly for the District 3-6A title, could never overcome that poor beginning.

True, its feisty offense kept it within striking distance in an entertaining first half that ended with the Dragons leading 28-17. But the Southlake defense shut it out in the second half, while the Mason Holmes-led offense tacked on a couple of cushion TDs to seal the deal.

That’s the pattern set by the Dragons this season, with their young, under-sized defense getting shoved around in the beginning, but making the necessary halftime adjustments to dramatically reduce their opponents’ trips to the end zone, thus clearing the way for its offense to control events.

Southlake scored briskly on the opening drive of the game, with Holmes connecting with Zach Farrar for a 25-yard TD. The senior wide receiver played an economical game last night, making four catches for 92 yards. But three of those catches resulted in touchdowns.

Holmes, playing in his third varsity game, was his usual superb self, shredding the Abilene secondary and ending the night with 256 passing yards, four TDs and one interception.

Double-threat running back/wide receiver Lil’ Jordan Humphrey owned the Shotwell field. For the second straight game, he rolled up more than 100 yards rushing AND 100 yards receiving, a feat never before accomplished in Dragon football history.

The 6-foot-5 Humphrey ran for 113 yards and had 10 receptions for 166 yards and two TDs. On the Dragons’ last scoring drive – a 20-play marathon in which Southlake had to overcome three 15-yard penalties, including one that denied Farrar his fourth TD – Humphrey accounted for 95 yards. Mere mortals would be applauded for such a performance over an entire game.

So ends the Dragons’ tough pre-district schedule. But for a deflected pass in the end zone in last seconds of the season opener against Austin Westlake, Southlake could be entering District 7-6A play undefeated.

But at 3-1, it’s tested and ready for the 7-6A run, having survived a road scare against Tulsa Union, one of Oklahoma’s best squads, and running away with an overmatched Midland Lee team at home. Added to the momentum gained last night, the Dragon pre-district accomplishments position them nicely for the road ahead.

But the rest of the way won’t be easy. Next up are the hated Coppell Cowboys, who will be playing at home at Buddy Echols Field, where their fans can be expected to heap venom and vitriol on their Southlake neighbors.

As I’ve noted before, these communities don’t like each other, animosity that dates back decades to when the two high schools were 3A rivals and the Dragons dominated the series. In recent years, Coppell has proven it can bloody Southlake’s nose, and its fans delight at the prospect of knocking the Dragons out of the 7-6A race.

So the Cowboys will be tough as old saddle leather, make no mistake. And so will Euless Trinity, which the Dragons face at Pennington Field on Oct. 16. Most prognosticators are picking the Trojans to win the 7-6A title, and the Carroll-Trinity contest could be the decisive one.

 Some very good football lies ahead as the fall weather cools the sweat of Friday night lights. It’s time for our players to put on their big-boy pants and take care of business. Go Dragons!

Game Day: Southlake Carroll 52, Midland Lee 14

There are some who would say that when you have a 45-7 lead midway in the fourth quarter – with your opponent on the ropes and gasping for breath – it’s bad form to go for a touchdown on fourth down inside the five-yard line.

But the Southlake Carroll Dragons did just that last night in their pre-district contest against the woeful Midland Lee Rebels. And I think it was the right thing to do.

Last night’s game, an example of total domination by the Dragons, ended any lingering doubt about who Carroll’s starting quarterback is and provided the latest showcase for the heavily recruited talents of one Lil’ Jordan Humphrey.

But before we get into the particulars, let’s revisit the decision facing the Dragons in the fourth quarter, fourth down on the 2-yard line, 6 minutes on the clock. By that time, Carroll’s offensive starters were long gone, and backups were in the game, including seniors Montana Murphy at quarterback and Alex Simpson at running back.

Montana had marched the Dragons smartly down field, showing with his feet and his arm why he competed so strongly with junior QB Mason Holmes for the starting job. Most of us, I think, expected head coach Hal Wasson, a conservative guy with conventional instincts, to call in his kicker, junior Kole Rampage (ably standing in for senior Jake Oldroyd), for the chip-shot field goal.

Instead, Murphy stayed behind center and handed off to Simpson, who bullied the ball over the goal line, extending Carroll’s lead over the hapless Rebels to 52-7 after Rampage’s PAT.

An example of bad sportsmanship – running up the score on a prostrate foe long after the final result had been determined?

Nope, says I, for three reasons, one serious and two more subjective and personal.

First and foremost, Southlake had pulled most of its starters by the fourth quarter, giving its backups the opportunity they yearn for most – to play the game they love before their parents and friends.

Hamstringing these youngsters – who largely work in the shadows of their more accomplished teammates, but whose contributions to the program’s success are essential – with conservative play-calling and deliberate attempts to keep the score down seem churlish and unfair.

On a more practical note, it also hampers their development, should the time come when they are called upon to step into the glare of Friday night lights when a starter goes down.

So when Murphy and his teammates entered the game, they had every right, despite the lopsided score, to expect they would be allowed to play to the full extent of their talent and abilities. Thankfully, they were.

The fact that Midland Lee’s winded starters couldn’t stop them from extending the Dragon lead is something for the Rebels to worry about, not the Southlake sideline.

Secondly, and this is where we leave the realm of Xs and Os, any school named after the commanding general of Confederate forces during the Civil War, whose team is named the Rebels and whose fight song is, so help me God, “Dixie,” well, it gets what it deserves.

It’s 2015, folks, even in the dusty wilds of West Texas, time to enter the 21^st century and way past time to abandon such reminders of the painful legacy of slavery and its enduring scar on our nation’s psyche.

And lastly, as I have relayed here before, I have history with Midland Lee and none of it is good. Back in the day, Lee was a stalwart member of the West Texas district known then as the Little Southwest Conference. It competed yearly for district with such schools as Abilene High, Abilene Cooper, San Angelo Central and Odessa Permian, which was at least a decade away from its heyday at the apex of Texas high school football.

My school, lowly Big Spring High, was the weak sister of the district, and the Steers were regularly kicked around by the Big Boys on the Block. And none of them did so with more distain, arrogance and gusto than the despised Rebels.

So when Southlake Carroll gives Lee a serious ass-whupping, which it does with some regularity these days, it does my aging heart good. I consider it long-overdue payback.

All of which made last night’s game all the more enjoyable. I stayed in my seat until the closing second, me and the players’ moms and dads relishing every moment of the crushing win.

Holmes, in only his second varsity game, performed masterfully, throwing for five touchdowns and completing 20 of 30 passes for 285 yards.

He set the tone for the game during the Dragons’ first two possessions, going 6-for-6 and engineering clockwork drives that both ended in touchdowns, one a 10-yard toss to Humphrey and the second a 16-yard throw to senior Zach Farrah.

In light of his performance in the last two games – including his role in the Dragons’ dramatic come-from-behind victory against Tulsa Union last week – Wasson told the Star Telegram after the game, “Mason is our guy.”

The other undisputed star of the game was Humphrey, who caught eight passes for 133 yards and three touchdowns and led in rushing with 156 yards and another TD. The out-matched Rebels had no answer for Humphrey, whether he was slipping through defenders for major yardage or bedeviling their secondary with key receptions.

Carroll’s undersized D-line, call them the Not-So-Big-Guys, had trouble stopping the Rebels running game. Lee RB Ashton Akbar rolled to 137 yards and one TD, and quarterback Sema’J Davis tacked on another 67.

But it stopped the Rebels when it counted, sacking Davis in key situations and keeping Akbar out of the end zone, mostly. The exception came in the first quarter, when Akbar skittered through the front line, zipped past befuddled Dragon linebackers and sprinted 78 yards for the Rebels’ only touchdown against Carroll starters. Their second TD came during trash time late in the fourth quarter.

The Dragons are idle next week. Then it’s a road trip west to face the Abilene Eagles in fabled Shotwell Stadium. The Eagles are another blast from my past, a storied West Texas program that is disciplined and well coached. They knocked the Dragons out of the playoffs in 2007, ending Carroll’s famed Run of three straight state championships.

They always play rough and tough, particularly at home, but the tested Dragons are well positioned to give them a run for their money. Needless to say, a win in Abilene would provide welcome momentum as Carroll prepares for District 7-6A play, facing Coppell on Oct. 2 and Euless Trinity on Oct. 16. Go Dragons!

Game Day: Southlake Carroll 34, Tulsa Union 30

Southlake Carroll players – in explaining their second-half turnaround that fueled a thrilling come-from-behind victory last night over the Tulsa Union Redskins – said it was a simple matter of mental toughness.

As a group, they said they simply decided to assert themselves, ignore the hostile environment of Union’s Tuttle Stadium and take control of a game at which they had been little more than spectators for the first half.

Perhaps it was just that simple. One of the things that makes high school football so fascinating is the role that emotion, dedication and mental focus play in the final outcome of games. Yes, athleticism, preparation and coaching prowess all must be considered. But raw, jagged emotion has been the determining factor of many a contest under Friday night lights.

Regardless of the reasons, the Dragons put together a magical second-half performance that had Carroll fans gasping in astonishment and delight.

Trailing 23-7 at the half, Southlake outscored Union 27-7 in the second half. Junior quarterback Mason Holmes, playing in his first varsity game, engineered four consecutive scoring drives that ultimately overwhelmed Union’s sturdy defense. Meanwhile, the Dragons’ under-sized defense smothered the heroics of Redskin quarterback Brandon Burch (11-28, 139 yards and 1 TD) and RB Tyler Adkins (25 rushes for 181 yards, 2 TDs; 3 receptions for 46 yards, 1 TD).

Carroll head coach Hal Wasson followed through on threats to divide quarterbacking chores between senior Montana Murphy, who started last week, and Holmes, who was a standout last night against the Redskins.

Although a little uncertain in the first half, the junior (24-39, 313 yards and 2 TDs) came into his own beginning in the third period, when he led an 11-play, 67-yard drive that ended in a 20-yard pass to senior Shemar Coleman in the end zone and brought Southlake within 10 of the Redskins.

Coleman, who failed to make the varsity last year, played with a chip on his shoulder all night, making three of the second-half TDs that broke Union’s back and almost eclipsing the accomplishments of the Dragons’ leading offensive weapon, RB Lil’ Jordan Humphrey.

Humphrey, who at 6-4 is finding increasing employment as a receiver, rushed for 89 yards and caught five passes for another 89, making the Dragons final score that iced the game.

Senior Zach Farrar, who had a relatively quiet night last week in the Dragons’ losing effort to Austin Westlake, led the receiving corps against Union, pulling in five Holmes passes for 107 yards and fulfilling the promise of his junior year.

It was a most disappointing night for Tulsa Union, an eight-time Oklahoma state champion and one of that state’s premier programs. During the past four years, it has lost four pre-district games to Texas teams, including an overtime heart-breaker to the Dragons last year in Cowboys Stadium. Interestingly, last night was the first time Carroll has traveled out of state to play an opponent, even though it has faced a number of non-Texas teams on its own turf.

Last night’s game followed a familiar pattern. As they did against Westlake in week one, the Dragons performed sluggishly against Union in the first half, but dominated the second, shutting down the Redskin offense and marching decisively up and down the field on offense.

A victory against a tough opponent on the road was important for the Dragons. Otherwise, they would have opened the season 0-2 for the first time in recent memory. They face Midland Lee at home next week, which should offer them something of a breather before they travel to Abilene’s Shotwell Stadium the week after that to face the always-tough Eagles.

And then it’s a deep dive into District 7-6A play, where they will face the surging Euless Trinity Trojans and the relentless Coppell Cowboys on the road. Let’s hope the Dragons’ never-say-die stand against the Redskins last night will prove to be a bracing experience for the long, rugged road ahead. Go Dragons!

Game Day: Austin Westlake 20, Southlake Carroll 14

For a moment last night, as the final seconds ticked inexorably toward zero, it appeared that the football gods would look down favorably on the Southlake Carroll Dragons as they struggled and strived to wrest victory from the jaws of defeat.

But alas, that didn’t happen, and when Dragon quarterback Montana Murphy, desperately eluding tacklers in his backfield, finally found RB Lil’ Jordan Humphrey in the end zone, his hurried pass was batted dismissively away, and it was over.

Austin Westlake 20, Southlake Carroll 14.

The Dragons had their chances, plenty of them. They held the Chaparrals scoreless in the second half, their young defensive line finally settling down and stopping Westlake’s talented signal caller, Sam Ehlinger (18-29, 236 yards; 72 rushing), who had ripped them handily on the ground and in the air in the first half.

But mental mistakes in the form of two costly turnovers, a flurry of needless penalties and, most particularly, an embarrassing series of downs in the shadow of the Chaps’ end zone with less than 5 minutes to play doomed the Dragons.

Rule of thumb: If you can’t convert on a 1^st and goal at your opponents’ 1-yard line, you probably don’t deserve to win.

That was the situation facing Carroll as game momentum shifted its way in the closing minutes of the game. Trailing by six points, it had slashed its way to the Westlake 1 and had a fresh set of downs to ice the game.

But then a combination of on-field jitters and unforgivable sideline confusion created a Keystone Cops scene that left Dragon fans weak with despair.

Humphrey, who ended a frustrating night with less than 100 yards rushing, was called upon to seal the deal, but he was stopped for a 2-yard loss. Carroll then was called for a false start and subsequently had to burn a timeout to prevent another penalty.

From there, things only got worse, and when the kids on the field needed them most, the coaches failed them. First, Carroll was penalized for illegal substitution and, in the ensuing confusion, was called for delay of game. Now facing second down on the 13-yard-line, it was unable to convert, setting up a normally routine 27-yard field goal.

But nothing was normal about this series, and kicking ace Jake Oldroyd, normally an iron-clad cinch at this distance, implausibly sliced it wide left.

The agony wasn’t over yet. Westlake milked the clock on the next series, but the Dragons finally forced the Chaps to punt with less than 3 minutes left.

They clawed their way into Westlake territory, and Murphy (13-28-1 for 201 yards) hefted a last-hope long pass to Humphrey that landed the Dragons on the 9-yard line with 5 seconds on the clock and no timeouts.

But there would be no Hollywood ending for the Dragons on this night. Humphrey was unable to pull in Murphy’s throw, and Chaps head coach Todd Dodge ended up with the victory over his old team that he so coveted.

Many observers will be tempted to credit the Chaps’ victory to Dodge’s sideline leadership, contrasting it with reigning chaos on the Dragon sideline as its offense sputtered and stalled inches from victory.

There’s some truth in that assessment, I think. But the Chaps are not a perfect team. They played a very sloppy game. Their O-line is highly questionable, and their running game, as demonstrated last night, amounts to the sturdy Ehlinger and little more.

As for their defense, its success in shutting down the Dragons had more to do with Southlake missteps than skill and expertise on Westlake’s part.

Murphy didn’t have a terrible game, but he threw a momentum-draining interception in the first half and had trouble making connections with his receiving corps in the crucial 4^th period. The radio commentators thought he needed to complete his progressions and not focus so intently on his favorite target, senior Zach Farrar, who only caught two passes for 27 yards.

That’s something that will come with experience for Murphy, who was playing his first game as starter, despite getting significant experience last season behind Ryan Agnew.

Head coach Hal Wasson’s threat to split QB duties between Murphy and junior Mason Holmes was a bluff, and the senior played the entire game. The question is whether Murphy showed Wasson enough promise to keep him behind center next week when the Dragons face another fearsome opponent, the Tulsa Union Redskins, on their Oklahoma turf.

This isn’t how the Dragons wanted to begin their 2015 season, but it’s not exactly a shocker, either. Westlake is a quality program, and Dodge is a great coach. There’s no shame in falling before that combination.

It was the manner in which they lost that leaves an unpleasant taste. Truth be told, Carroll should have pulled out a win last night and very well might have with a little more coherent leadership from the sidelines. The good news is that the kids never gave up and got better as the night wore on. That’s the right direction to be traveling.

Another tough road trip faces the Dragons next week. Tulsa Union wants a little payback after its 42-41 overtime loss in the Death Star last year.

Stopping the Redskins won’t be easy, but the prospect of two straight losses is too terrible to contemplate. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Go Dragons!

The Southlake Carroll Dragons' uphill battle begins tonight

Challenges galore confront the Southlake Carroll Dragons this year as they seek to repeat as District 7-6A champions and stage yet another deep run into the playoffs.

The season begins tonight in Austin as the Dragons confront a familiar foe, the Austin Westlake Chaparrals, and their legendary coach, Todd Dodge, who made his considerable reputation some years ago in leading Carroll to four state titles in five years.

First and foremost, the Dragons must overcome the ravages of graduation, which has left them with a single returning starter on defense and a bunch of undersized O-line newbies. Questions on defense are nothing new for Carroll – which saw its playoff hopes die in the fourth round of the playoffs last year when its overmatched defense allowed Cedar Hill to rush for 570 yards in a 62-42 slugfest.  

Meanwhile, questions have swirled all summer about who will replace standout quarterback Ryan Agnew, who graduated to San Diego State and a career in D1 college ball.

Backup quarterback Montana Murphy, a senior, got considerable playing time last year in the later stages of many games during Carroll’s dominant march through 7-6A. But he missed the Spring Game and summer 7-on-7 experience because of a back injury.

Now healed, he faces stiff competition from junior Mason Holmes and so far hasn’t demonstrated to head coach Hal Wasson that he deserves the starting job. Wasson, to the consternation of many of us, has raised the spectre of instituting a quarterback platoon system if Murphy or Holmes doesn’t separate himself in sufficiently dramatic fashion from his rival.

That sounds like a recipe for chaos, and many of us hope that it’s just a ploy by Wasson to throw off game planning by the crafty Dodge, who would dearly love to hand his successor a drubbing in the season opener, a feat he very nearly succeeded in achieving last season.

Southlake, playing at home, squeaked by last year, and it may well do the same this year. Montana or Holmes (or both) will have some potent weapons to deploy against the Chaps, who they defeated back in 2006 for the state championship.

Lil’ Jordan Humphrey, now a towering 6-4, 195-pound senior, ran for 1,830 yards and 29 touchdowns last season, and he’s primed for another romp through opposing 0-lines. But Humphrey likely will be increasingly deployed as a receiver as coaches look to use his height and fluid moves to full advantage. He’ll be joined in that position by senior WR Zach Farrar, who’s poised to have a standout year after showing much promise last year.

The Dragons will face a rocky, uphill battle to repeat their success of last year – a 13-1 season that included a district championship over the Euless Trinity Trojans and ended before the might of the Cedar Hill Longhorns, who went on to win their second consecutive state title.

To begin with, Carroll’s schedule last year gave it home field advantage against Westlake, Tulsa Union and the Trojans, all of whom fell before the Dragons in close, hard-fought campaigns. This year, they’ll face those formidable opponents on the road, and home field advantage could provide the key to otherwise see-saw match-ups.

There is the very real possibility that Southlake could open home field play against the Midland Lee Rebels on Sept. 11 with a 0-2 record, having fallen to the Chaps tonight and Tulsa on Sept. 4. That would be shock to the system of the proud Dragons and a bitter pill to swallow for Carroll fans, myself included, who consider winning our birthright.

This season could test our arrogance. Most observers expect Trinity to win the district championship, despite the retirement of its phenomenal coach, Steve Lineweaver, who led the Trojans to three state championships in 16 seasons at the helm. He was quickly replaced by one of his trusted assistants.

If, indeed, this season gets off to a shaky start, it will test the resilience of our kids and the fortitude of the Southlake fanbase. That might not be an altogether bad thing. Painful, yes, but ultimately a test of fire that could build a stronger team and a stronger community.

That said, whipping the Chaps and humbling Union at home would be pretty damned satisfying, too, doncha think? Go Dragons!

The first day of forever

When I saw them, boy and girl, neither older than 8 or 9, standing nervously on the corner, I felt a little catch in my heart and I almost started bawling.

Both were attired in an explosion of freshly laundered red, blue, yellow and green. They wore new sneakers, probably purchased weeks ago and carefully preserved for just this morning. Across their backs were slug spotless bookbags, filled no doubt with spiral notebooks, No. 2 pencils and packs of Sharpies and colored markers.

Today was the first day of school, you see, an event once so monumental in my household that it was prepared for weeks – yes, even months – in advance. An event chronicled with photos of scrubbed faces – occasionally marred with a smear of jam – bright with the prospects of new beginnings: meeting new friends and learning new things and taking another step on life’s broad highway.

It’s still an occasion of some note. My daughter, who’s still living at home, is a teacher, and she spent last week in teacher-training sessions and in setting up her classroom for today. Classes also officially begin today for my son, a sophomore at the University of North Texas in Denton, although he, already savvy in manipulating the system, managed to schedule all his classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

But the magic of what this day once represented to the Gunnels clan has faded. The treasured blend of pride and anguish my wife and I felt as our children toddled off to the bus stop (only one house away, so we could monitor them safely and secretly from behind a closed window blind) is gone forever.

It was sweet – oh, so sweet – while it lasted, but time, dammit, marches on. We must now be satisfied with tender memories of when we served on the front lines of parenthood, not in the rear echelon area to which we have been consigned by the growth of our kids into young woman and young man.

So I gave a little wave to the boy and girl (Brother and sister? Best friends? Next-door neighbors?) as I passed them. They ignored me, and with good reason, too. Their gazes were fiercely focused on the adventures ahead. The road to the future lay before them, a dizzying rollercoaster ride of heartache and exhilaration, battles fought and lost, battles fought and won.

Godspeed, children, I murmured. And safe travels.

Playoff Quarterfinals: Cedar Hill 62, Southlake Carroll 42

Bitter as it is to say, the best team won yesterday in the playoff quarterfinal contest between Southlake Carroll and Cedar Hill.

The Longhorns, with their roster of D1-bound athletes, dominated the game from kickoff to final whistle, employing their multi-dimensional ground game to score at will and forcing the Dragons to take to the air to keep up.

It’s a testimony to the grit, discipline and heart of the Carroll players that they kept things close enough for their fans to hold out hope for another last-gasp, last-minute victory.

But Cedar Hill was too good for that. Even as senior quarterback Ryan Agnew staged a series of quick-attack aerial heroics in the second half, bringing the Dragons within 5 at one point in the 3^th quarter, the Longhorns came roaring back every time.

After each Dragon score, Cedar Hill, in business-like fashion, sent their double-threat quarterback and fleet-footed running backs scything through the Dragon line, marching authoritatively down the field to maintain the two-score lead it held through most of the game.

The Longhorns rolled up 686 total yards of offense, 572 on the ground. By comparison, the Dragons could manage only 78 yards rushing.

Cedar Hill’s kill-shot occurred with less than 3 minutes left when it intercepted a pass by Agnew as he was trying desperately to close the Longhorns’ 13-point lead. In the ensuing series, the Longhorns rolled inevitably to their final score and ended the Dragons season.

Cedar Hill Coach Joey McGuire told The Dallas Morning News that his game plan was to smother the Dragon ground game and its hard-charging lead rusher, Lil’ Jordan Humphrey, and to gamble it could survive Carroll’s ensuing aerial assault.

It worked beautifully. Humphrey, a junior who rushed for 1,800 yards this season and 29 touchdowns, was held to a paltry 37 yards yesterday. Forced to the air, Agnew and his receiving corps did their best, and it was impressive to see. He completed 15 of 23 passes for 418 yards and four touchdowns, engineering pass plays along the way of 76, 52, 42 and 75 yards.

Senior Tariq Gordon was his favorite target, pulling in 6 catches for 168 yards. Zach Farrar nabbed 3 for 128, and senior Parker Fentriss got 3 for 114.

But it wasn’t enough to blunt Cedar Hill’s abundant offensive arsenal, headed by quarterback Justin McMillan (8-15 for 112 yards, 3 TDs) and running backs Aca’cedric Ware (283 yards on 29 carries) and Denvre Daniels, (155 yards on 19 carries). Its weapons included sophomore Avery Davis, a backup quarterback who went in for one play late in the 4^th and sprinted 62 yards for a touchdown that padded the Longhorn lead, 47-35, after a Carroll rally had narrowed the margin to 6.

The Dragons, bless’em, shrugged off that shocking development. What would have been a dagger to the heart for many good teams, only served to inspire Agnew and his teammates. Starting the next drive at the Carroll 25, Agnew hefted a long ball downfield to WR Parker Fentiss, who took it to the house, narrowing the lead to 47-42.

The Longhorns responded in turn with a 54-yard TD run by Ware, making it now 55-42. At that point, Agnew made his first and only miscue of the afternoon, throwing an INT on a 2^nd and 9 at the Cedar Hill 40.

Thus ends the Dragon season. For many of us, the disappointment is eased somewhat by the knowledge that Carroll fell to a great team, well-coached, highly talented and strongly motivated. The Longhorns, after all, are defending 6A Division II champions, and they played like it yesterday.

They face Spring Westfield next week in Georgetown, and the Houston-area folks had best come prepared for a squad on a mission to repeat state. If Cedar Hill gets past Westfield, and it should, it probably will face Katy in the finals at Cowboys Stadium on the Saturday before Christmas. That will be quite a game, folks.

For the Dragons, the season ends here, and preparations will begin almost immediately for next year. That’s the nature of sports.

It will be sad to see seniors like Ryan Agnew, WRs Parker Fentriss and Ryan McGiboney, safety/WR Tariq Gordon, RB Deondre Wiltshire, DL King Newton and others leave. Also worthy of note are departing safety Andy Chelf, who left yesterday’s game with a knee injury, and linebacker Clark Parr, who has been courageously playing for some time with a battered knee. Both are warriors whose leadership and talent will be missed.

But a cadre of talented juniors will be stepping into top roles next year. Backup quarterback Montana Murphy is Agnew’s likely replacement, at least at this point. He got some valuable reps this year and shows great promise. Junior receiver Zach Farrar will be back. So will Humphrey, who showed this year he can run with the best of them. If he demonstrates half the improvement between his junior and senior years as he did from sophomore to junior, 2015 could be a very special season for him. Grant McFarlin will be joining him in the backfield.

Sophomore linebacker Jacob Copeland, who was sidelined much of this year with injuries, will be back, as will safety Obi Eboh. Others no doubt will muscle their way to the forefront.

This is Southlake Carroll, after all, where the program reloads rather than rebuilds. Go Dragons!