BY BRIAN GOSSET
X – @gosset41
X – @gmsportsmedia1
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ARLINGTON – Both teams took the field, met for the coin toss and lined up for the national anthem – ready for a 7 pm kick at Choctaw Stadium on Friday night.
A few seconds later, they went back to the locker room with lightning in the area.
Minutes turned into hours as the delay lasted over four hours. The two schools finally settled on a decision – to play the game.
The official kick was around 11:20 and by the end of it, Southlake Carroll came out on top and lived to play another week – defeating Prosper 49-31 in their Class 6A D2 regional semifinal game.
Carroll (13-0), the #1 team in the 6A state rankings, advances to play Denton Guyer (11-2) in the Region 1 Championship at 2 pm Saturday Dec. 6 at Crowley ISD Stadium. Guyer beat Byron Nelson 24-21 on Friday with a game-winning field goal with one second on the clock.
The Dragons have reached the fourth round in nine straight seasons – the last eight with head coach Riley Dodge. They’ve also hit the 13-win mark for the seventh time under Dodge.
The game ended at 1:42 am Saturday morning.
Carroll took the opening kickoff and drove right downfield – as if the Dragons weren’t coming off a four-hour break. Angelo Renda connected with wide receiver Brody Knowles down the left sideline for a 36-yard touchdown and 7-0 lead.
Both teams traded punts until Carroll’s D created a turnover.
Parker Harris, who went on to have an incredible night, picked off a Prosper pass attempt and the Dragons turned it into points. Renda extended a play and threw a beautiful pass off the run 35 yards to Ohio State commit Brock Boyd for a 14-0 lead with under a minute left in the first quarter.
Prosper scored the next 10 points to get back into the game.
Fahd Allan blocked a Carroll punt attempt and recovered the loose ball just outside of the red zone. A few plays later and QB Braeden Imhoff ran in a touchdown to get the Eagles within 14-10.
The Dragons responded on the ensuing drive.
They went into their bag of tricks as Harris took the snap and did a Tim Tebow (Florida) jump pass. Harris ran up the middle and before crossing the line of scrimmage, jumped and dumped off a pass to Blake Gunter to extend the lead to 21-10 with three minutes left in the second quarter.
Both teams still managed to score a touchdown in the final 1:34 of the half.
Prosper running back Bryce Robinson scored on a TD run and the Eagles got back to 21-17 of Carroll. But the Dragons scored with seconds left on the clock as Harris added to his night with a 2-yard touchdown run for a 28-17 halftime lead.
Prosper got the second half kickoff, but only held possession for 52 seconds before punting.
Carroll got out to its biggest lead of the night following a touchdown pass from Renda to Boyd, who was all alone in the end zone. The Dragons led 35-17.
With 3:25 left in the third quarter, Imhoff connected with receiver Lathon Latiolais to bring it back to 11 at 35-24. Rain started the come down again at the end of the period, but the game was never delayed again. Carroll’s D got its second INT thanks to Austin Bussmann and one play later, Carroll scored a touchdown – a 55-yard run from who else…Harris.
Davis Penn added the final score to give the Dragons a 49-31 advantage with 5:42 in the fourth.
Harris led all rushers with 95 yards and two rushing touchdowns. He added the 7-yard TD pass to Gunter, the defensive interception and had at least one tackle and one pass break up. Not a bad night, huh?
Meanwhile, Renda who is a Pitt commit, threw for 235 yards on a very efficient 13 of 16 passing and three touchdowns. Renda now has over 3,700 yards passing and 39 TDs this season. He’s up 10 touchdown passes through three playoff games.
Boyd had five catches and 126 yards.
He’s now recorded three straight playoff games with 100+ receiving yards.
Imhoff had over 300 yards total offense and three touchdowns to lead Prosper.
Imhoff threw for eight TDs and accounted for over 500 yards in their first round win over Hebron.
