Southlake Carroll’s Riley Dodge, 36, earns 100th win as head coach
For six weeks now, running back Davis Penn has been on the football field for Southlake Carroll.
The senior is less than a year removed from ACL surgery and had his best game of the season for the No. 1-ranked Dragons on Thursday. Penn had 7 carries and scored on three of them in a 66-7 drubbing of Haslet V.R. Eaton in a District 4-6A contest at Northwest ISD Stadium.
Southlake improved to 7-0 overall and 5-0 in district play. The win was No. 100 for Coach Riley Dodge as head coach of Carroll. He was given a helmet with stars representing 82 regular-season wins and 18 playoff wins.
“It means you’ve been in a place for a little bit and had amazing coaches and amazing players,” Dodge said. “It probably means so much more, personally, doing it in my hometown and at my alma mater. I love this place today just like I did on Day one, eight years ago.”
Eaton was one of three teams with only one loss in district play coming into the game. The Eagles fell to 0-8 overall, all-time, against Southlake.
The story of the game was the Dragons scoring a season-high 66 points, a week after posting 63 points in a win against Keller.
The offense mixed in touchdown passes by quarterback Angelo Renda and touchdown runs by Penn and Brooks Biggers to take a 56-7 lead into the break against Eaton (3-3, 2-2).
Penn had a touchdown run in the first quarter, which made it 14-0.
His last two scoring runs came in a 42-point second quarter, from 3 yards and 4 yards. The latter made it 42-7.
“We need 3 and we’ve been really taking care of him, trying to get his feet underneath him,” Dodge said. “Tonight, getting him more reps and being really the feature back was big time for us. He’s had a great week of practice and it was great to see.”
Penn has had more carries (10 against Euless Trinity and Keller Timber Creek) and more yards (72 against Timber Creek) — but the 3-TD effort was the best of the season.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Penn said. “I just attribute it to my o-line and my coaches.”
The Dragons have managed his workload since the ACL injury. He tore his knee in the first quarter of a playoff game on Nov. 21 against Wollforth Frenship. The Dragons held on for a 49-42 lead that day.
The injury meant he came up short of hitting 1,000 yards last year — and for the second straight year — for the Class 6A Division II runners-up.
This three TD effort was the second over an 8-game span. He scored three in the first round playoff game against Mansfield Legacy last year.
It was the 9th 100-yard game of his career. He’s seen varsity snaps in all four seasons now for the Dragons.
He missed Week 1 but made his debut in Week 2 against Hebron.
“I know the guys got my back,” Penn said. “Coach (Trent) Ayers always says to me I’m protected. So, I just go into the game with no fear of failure. It’s always a little bit of push and pull with the trainers. They’re like, ‘Come 3, you need to calm down a little bit.’ But they’re really starting to pull the reins off me a little bit. I mean, I want all the carries in the world, but got great receivers, so we’ve got to spread the ball out.”
Dodge said a big thing is getting Penn back in the routine of being the feature back.
“In fairness to him, we’ve been rolling with some different running backs this year and they’ve all done a great job,” Dodge said. “But a running back needs to get in rhythm and he’s going to get a lot more reps as the season extends.”
Up next, Southlake will host Northwest on Friday, Oct. 17 at Dragon Stadium.