Southlake Carroll denies Keller’s shot at snapping drought in undefeated showdown
Keller has been trying to beat Southlake Carroll in football for the past two decades with no success.
The Indians haven’t beaten the Dragons since 1999.
As the case the last time these two teams met while undefeated (during the 2018 season), Keller led Carroll in the first half. Friday afternoon’s showdown was a different chapter in the series, but the same story.
The Indians couldn’t sustain their first-half lead while the Dragons scored 42 unanswered points to pick up the win, 49-13 at Keller ISD Stadium. The game was moved to 2 p.m. on Friday from its original scheduled start Thursday night due to lightning in the area.
Carroll, No. 3 in the Class 6A state rankings and No. 1 in the Fort Worth-area, improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in District 4-6A. Keller, No. 4 in the area, took its first loss and dropped to 5-1 and 1-1.
The Indians were off to their first 5-0 start since 1967 when the team won their first 11 games.
Dragon quarterback Kaden Anderson only completed five passes on the day, but three of them went for RJ Maryland touchdowns.
The duo’s first connection came from 32 yards to give Carroll a 21-13 lead with 7:14 left in the second quarter. The drive was set up on an interception from Logan Anderson, last season’s Star-Telegram defensive newcomer of the year.
“Biggest thing was running the football and we did that, but also our push and cover with Landon [Samson] and with RJ 1-on-1, we wanted to take advantage of that,” Carroll coach Riley Dodge said.
Anderson’s final three pass attempts resulted in Carroll touchdowns.
The first two on Maryland TD catches from 16 yards (late in the third quarter) and 11 yards (first play to start the fourth quarter) that extended the lead from 28-13 to 42-13.
Then Carroll made it 42 straight points when South Carolina commit Landon Samson caught a 74-yard scoring pass from Anderson with 7:16 left in the game.
Anderson threw for 138 yards. Maryland, a Boston College commit, had 59 yards receiving.
Keller pulled out the magic bag on its first drive of the day when the Indians ran a flea flicker. Quarterback Tre Guerra tossed a 71-yard pass and catch to Seth Henry to the Carroll 13.
On the next play, Guerra hit Amari Henry for a 13-yard score and 6-0 lead.
After a 5-yard touchdown run by Owen Allen gave Carroll a 7-6 lead, Guerra and Amari Henry connected on a second Keller score. Guerra’s pass was deflected, but Henry managed to secure it and raced 82 yards to give the Indians a 13-7 lead with under five minutes left in the first quarter.
“Coach [Carl] Stralow does an amazing job. He gets his group prepared and physical. We knew they would be ready so it’s not surprising especially early on,” Dodge said.
Allen, Carroll’s leading rusher, would go down in the first quarter with an apparent lower leg injury.
He was seen walking on the sideline under his own power, but never returned to the game. He finished with 12 carries for 65 yards.
In his place, sophomore James Lehman played well, running for 137 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. He scored from 9 yards out that gave Carroll a 14-13 lead and again from the 1 that made it 28-13.
However, Lehman also left the game in the second half with an injury around the shoulder area.
“Super proud of the way he stepped up,” Dodge said. “He got kind of banged up, might be going back to the drawing board, sounds like our first two guys might be out, but proud and we knew what we had in our second running back.”
Logan Anderson made two picks and timely pass breakups while defending Keller’s top receiver Amari Henry. Carroll had three takeaways, all interceptions with a third coming from sophomore linebacker Aaron Scherp in the second half.
“[Logan] is a smart football player and we put him in situations where he’s in a bind quite a bit. He’s an athletic kid and does a great job at takeaways and gets his body to the ball, Dodge said.
Added Logan Anderson, “Start of the game we gave up a few big plays so we had to battle back from that. We tweaked the game plan and found a way to stop them.
“It was a great victory and it’s always nice to get a W. [Keller] is better than they have been past couple years, but based on the opponents they’ve played, we knew we were better. We just had to come out here and play our football, and prove it.”
Carroll out-gained Keller 435-300 in total yards. The Dragons rushed for 297 yards on 35 carries. Guerra threw for 180 yards for the Indians while Austin Coleman had a team-high 39 yards rushing. Amari Henry had 113 yards on four catches.
This story was originally published October 1, 2021 at 4:37 PM.
