JUSTIN— The Southlake Carroll Dragons and Northwest Texans met on the gridiron on Thursday night in a battle of unbeatens in the middle of the district 4-6A season. The Texans are in the middle of their return season to class 6A after eight years in 5A, and started the season 6-0 before facing off with 6A’s traditional power in the Dragons.
Northwest tried to get clicking early on but Carroll proved to be too much from the get go, cruising to a 48-7 win behind multiple offensive weapons and a punishing defensive performance.
“We’re getting better there’s no doubt,” head coach Riley Dodge said after the game. “We’re making new mistakes which is good. That’s what we talk about in the field house. We’re growing up on the fly and becoming a better practice football team and it has shown up in the last three to four weeks.”
The Dragons opened up the game by scoring on the very first drive when Davis Penn took a handoff straight up the middle and scored untouched from five yards out to make it 7-0 early on.
Penn ended up with a total of 109 yards on 16 carries for a pair of touchdowns, adding a reception for 17 yards.
It appeared Carroll was going to go in for another score, but an interception allowed Northwest to get deep into Dragon territory. However the Carroll defense stood tall and bailed out the offense, forcing a field goal that ended up going wide left.
Three plays later, Angelo Renda threw to TCU-commit Brock Boyd who made the catch in traffic and raced 64 yards to the end zone to make it 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Renda and Boyd combined for a solid night when all was said and done. Renda completed 10 of 15 for 240 yards and three touchdowns with Boyd accounting for four of those completions for 136 yards and two touchdowns. Renda also rushed for 63 yards on four carries and another score.
The Texans caught a break on an odd play when a punt hit the back of a Carroll player as he was setting up to block, and Northwest jumped on it to keep possession. It paid off as the Texans were able to find the end zone when Kobey Wall took a direct snap and scored from the four.
However the Dragons were able to squash any hope Northwest had of keeping the game competitive when Renda stood in the pocket as long as possible and launched a prayer to the end zone that Boyd went up and got from 44 yards out to make the score 21-7.
After the defense forced another three-and-out, Carroll scored one more time before the end of the half. On fourth down, Renda scrambled and found space to run. He ended up going 36 yards to the four yard line to set up Penn’s second touchdown of the game to make it 28-7 at the break.
The domination continued in the second half as the Texans still could not do anything offensively. Renda found paydirt again when he threw to Blake Gunter on the wheel route from 31 yards out. Renda then capped off his night with a 10-yard keeper for a touchdown to bring the score to 42-7 after three quarters of play.
The Dragons pulled their starters for the final frame, but scored one final time on a blocked punt by Mateo Fodor that Christian Glenn took on the hop and strolled in from the two, ultimately bringing the final score to 48-7.
Carroll (8-0, 6-0) will return home next week to face L.D. Bell (1-5, 0-4), while Northwest (6-1, 4-1) will have an away game at their own stadium against Byron Nelson (4-2, 2-2).
