Southlake Carroll turns early deficit into big win, district title over Byron Nelson
You don’t see many games between two undefeated teams this late in the regular season.
But Byron Nelson and Southlake Carroll was one of only two undefeated showdowns across the state during the second to final week.
For at least a quarter, it seemed headed toward a instant classic.
However, behind star running back Owen Allen’s five touchdown runs, the Dragons erased a 13-0 deficit and used 31 straight points to come away with a 38-23 win over the Bobcats in District 4-6A on Friday at Dragon Stadium.
Carroll, No. 4 in the state rankings and No. 1 in the area, goes to 9-0 and 6-0. The Dragons clinch at least a share of the district title and can go outright next week.
Carroll secures its fifth straight district title, all under the Riley Dodge era. The Dragons also improved their district win streak to 32 games and home win streak to 38, a mark that dates back to the 2016 season opener.
“We heard a lot of noise the last three, four weeks. They were talking about them and not us so we went to work this week,” Carroll coach Riley Dodge said. “Goal number one, always. It’s something we really, really wanted. Probably the best one of the five.”
Byron was 8-0 for the first time in program history and entered the night with 55.1 points per game, the highest for any Class 6A team in the state.
The Bobcats, No. 19 and No. 4 respectively, fall to 8-1 and 5-1.
“You can talk about Byron before the game, during the game, but they know dang well who they’ll be talking about after the game and that’s the Carroll Dragons,” Allen said.
“It’s special. We knew it was a gold ball game. That’s our first goal and we just need to keep plugging away.”
The Bobcats meant business with an impressive opening drive, against a Carroll D that was allowing nine points per game. It took only five plays for Byron to find the end zone.
Aaron Darden took his first hand off for 27 yards and Jake Wilson hit Gavin McCurley for a wide-open 44-yard touchdown, but after a failed two-point try, the lead stood at 6-0 less than two minutes into the game.
Carroll wasn’t far off in points, averaging 49.1 this season.
But the Byron D did a good job after forcing the Dragons to a three-and-out and punt from 5-star Texas A&M commit Tyler White. From there, the Bobcats went back to work and landed another big blow.
Byron went 82 yards on 12 plays, capped off with a second Wilson-to-McCurley touchdown and 13-0 lead with three minutes left in the first. The drive took six minutes. Wilson went over 30 TD passes on the season, the most in the Fort Worth-area while McCurley picked up his ninth and 10th touchdowns.
But like in most fairytales, you never want to wake up the dragon.
Carroll dominated from that point on, scoring 31-unanswered points with all four touchdowns coming from Allen, the preseason all-area offensive MVP.
On the ensuing Carroll drive, the Dragons ran eight plays with seven going for Allen runs. The only pass came from Graham Knowles to Clayton Wayland for 24 down to the Byron 8. Two plays later and Allen punched in his 20th rushing score of the season to cut the lead to 13-7 with seconds left in the opening period.
The Bobcats would drive, going from their 25 to the Carroll 26, but a run from Darden was stuffed during a fourth-and-inches and the Dragons took over on downs. Eight plays later, with seven runs going to Allen again, and the Dragons took their first lead.
Allen picked up three straight first downs on runs of 22, 19 and 10 yards and then scored from the 8 to give Carroll a 14-13 lead with 4:52 left in the second quarter.
“Best running back in the state of Texas for a reason,” Dodge said. “The consistency, the explosiveness, but really proud of our offensive line and tight ends imposing our will tonight.”
Byron drove near midfield on its next possession, but ran into trouble. Following an 8-yard sack from Carroll’s Dustan Mark, a 1-yard reception and a 5-yard penalty, the Bobcats faced a fourth-and-23 and had to punt.
With 1:47 left in the half, Knowles hit Jacob Jordan for 47 yards to the Byron 6 and Allen rumbled in for his third touchdown to give the Dragons a 21-13 lead at halftime.
“There was a lot of disrespect we received especially leading up to the game, but props to that Byron team, easily the best team I’ve played in my four years in this district,” Allen said.
Allen, who is over 6,500 yards rushing and 100 TDs in his career, went into the break with 20 carries for 140 yards. He touched the ball 20 times out of Carroll’s 26 snaps in the first half.
Allen added two more touchdowns the second half from 3 yards and 1 yard, and went over 200 yards on the ground. He finished with 214 yards on 34 carries and a career-high five touchdowns.
It was his third game of the year with 200 yards rushing.
“Career high five touchdowns for me and I’m still freaking out about it,” Allen said. “Obviously that doesn’t come without the big five linemen and two tight ends up front and I think the unsung heroes are the receiver blocking out on the perimeter to help me break those to the sideline.”
James Lehman had 10 carries and 88 yards for Carroll.
White added a 39-yard field goal for the Dragons to extend the lead to 24-13 in the third quarter. Carroll’s D made a few sacks on Wilson, including one Aaron Scherp.
“We were talking about this the other day in one of our meetings, it’s next man up,” White said about this year’s team. “You have to be ready and the young guys learn from the old guys and it just keeps getting passed down year by year.”
“I wasn’t thinking about it too much,” he added about his field goal. “Just play the wind and it was nice and smooth.”
Byron’s second-half scores came from a 38-yard field goal by Pierce Dahlin and a 14-yard run by Landon Farco.
Darden had 15 carries for 138 yards and Wilson went 22 of 30 for 234 yards and two TDs. McCurley had seven grabs for 108 yards and Landon Ransom-Goelz added 72 yards on nine catches.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 10:45 PM.
