Mason Holmes to start for Dragons

Carroll head coach Hal Wasson said junior quarterback Mason Holmes will start Friday at Tulsa Union.

The move comes on the heels of Carroll’s season opening 20-14 loss at Austin Westlake this past Friday. In that game, senior Montana Murphy went 13-of-27 for 202 yards with an interception and no touchdowns.

However, Wasson stressed this isn’t a move because of performance. The coaching staff wants to get a look at Holmes. During the Westlake game, Wasson said the coaches discussed whether to use Holmes. However, they decided to let Murphy finish the game. Holmes did not play.

As ragged as it was, Carroll still had a chance to win it. However, Lil’Jordan Humphrey couldn’t corral a touchdown pass in the end zone on the game’s final moments. Carroll had driven to the Chaparral 10-yard line.

“We’re not looking at this as a change,” Wasson said. “We have two guys battling it out. We’re going into every game trying to win it. We can win with either. It’s going to be a hostile environment.

“I just don’t want it to be a case where a guy is playing two or three series and then looking over his shoulder. I want to see what he’s got.”

Holmes received the majority of the spring snaps and worked with the receivers during the summer as Murphy was recovering from a back injury.

Against Westlake, the Dragons could not climb out of a 20-0 deficit because of execution issues – nine penalties for 80 yards and two turnovers. What made it more difficult was that Carroll didn’t have any timeouts in its final possession. Carroll also missed a 27-yard field goal in a previous possession that went as deep as the Westlake two-yard line.

“We had to burn two timeouts because of mental errors, and that’s my fault,” Wasson said. “It’s frustrating. As poorly as we played, we still had a chance to win the game. We played a stressful three quarters. And then with about six or eight minutes to go, they got all of this energy. We came alive and made plays. We will come around.”

The Dragons came out of the game with no significant injuries.

About Tulsa Union

Carroll won the 2014 meeting in dramatic fashion, 42-41, on a gutsy two-point conversion in overtime at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The return game will feature the first out-of-state game ever in the history of Carroll football. It’s set for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Union Tuttle Stadium.

Like Carroll, Union has won eight state championships. This will be the season opener for the Redskins. They return a pretty talented running back in Tyler Adkins (5-9, 190). Adkins already has an offer from Navy and could emerge as one of those late Division I recruits. He rushed for 1,397 yards and 21 touchdowns in 2014. The Redskins went 11-2 before falling to Jenks, 21-14, in the Oklahoma Class 6A-1 state championship game.

The game can be heard on the KWRD 100.7FM The Word. The pregame show game begins at 6 pm.

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Mason Holmes to start for Dragons."