No. 1 Southlake Carroll rolls behind a stout defense and explosive offense — PHOTOS

Much has been made of Southlake Carroll’s vaunted offense, but the Dragons’ defense has been just as stellar. Carroll’s defensive unit had only allowed 16 points coming in to its District 4-6A contest with Keller Timber Creek.

The offense kept rolling and the defense stayed on track, pitching a first-half shutout, en route to a 55-13 win on Thursday at Keller ISD Stadium.

“It’s just a relentless group and a really talented group,” said Carroll head coach Riley Dodge of his defensive unit. “There’s a lot of veterans over there and they’ve played a lot of football, but they’re just playing with a fanatical effort that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Starters on both sides of the ball didn’t touch the field in the second half as Carroll (5-0 overall, 3-0 district), No. 1 in the state in Class 6A according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football and No. 1 in the Star-Telegram Class 6A area rankings, built a 49-0 lead at the half.

Carroll running back Davis Penn opened the scoring for the Dragons capping an 8-play, 61-yard drive with a 4-yard scoring run. Penn, who finished with 72 yards on 10 carries, added a 2-yard touchdown run to start the second quarter to make it 28-0.

Carroll scored on seven of eight first-half drives with the only blemish being an interception by Timber Creek linebacker Joshua Rakestraw on Dragon quarterback Angelo Renda at the Falcons’ 19 yard line.

That was just about the only thing Renda did wrong as the senior threw for 241 yards in the first half completing 15 of 22 passes with touchdowns of 40 yards to Brody Knowles, 53 yards to Brock Boyd and 19 and 25 yards to Blake Gunter.

“That was our thought process going into the game, jump out on them quick,” said Dodge. “We wanted to be aggressive early to get guys in and then get them out. We had some young guys get some good reps in the second half, especially on the defensive side of the ball.”

Carroll linebacker Willian Leins ended the opening possession by Timber Creek (0-4-1, 0-3) by recovering a fumble at the Falcons’ 28.

“We’re so much better than we were last year because we’ve been through the fight playing in 16 games,” said Leins on the Dragons’ defense. “It’s like a brother love out there. I know that the other ten are going to do their jobs which gives me confidence to do mine.

“We’re relentless. The mentality is that if they’re up we’re going to punch the ball out and we’re going to get them down as a team with everyone tackling them. No one is selfish and we just love each other. It’s so fun playing with these guys.”

Carroll’s defense allowed 108 total yards in the first half and 182 for the game. The Dragons were especially tough against the run allowing the Falcons 41 yards on 29 carries.

Dragons’ defensive back Taevin Kunz made it 35-0 when he picked off a Timber Creek pass and returned it 43 yards for a score with 5:52 left in the first half.

“All week in practice I got ripped on that play and once I got yelled on it,” said Kunz, a senior. “We talked a lot about the receiver’s splits and it was third down and we knew it was coming. We really wanted to stop the run and I think we did a good job of that this week.”

Despite reserves giving up 13 points on short drives following turnovers in the second half, Carroll has averaged giving up 5.8 points per game this season while the offense is putting up 47 per game.

Timber Creek starting quarterback Lane Brinkley had a 25-yard scoring pass to Blaine Everage in the third quarter and backup QB Landon Druyvesteyn hit Tyshon Ellerbe with a six-yard scoring pass with 2:06 left in the game.

Emerson Ziadie actually led Carroll with 95 yards rushing on eight carries, all in the second half. Backup quarterback Preston Perazzo capped the scoring for the Dragons with six-yard run with 10:27 left in the fourth quarter.

“I think it’s with their preparation, how they’re practicing during the week,” said Dodge about his defense. “They’re able to fly around on Thursday and Friday nights and just have some fun.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM.