Southlake Carroll drops South Grand Prairie in football opener despite slow start

Southlake Carroll (1-0) struggled to find its rhythm early, but the Dragons got their offense moving behind Kannon Kadi’s 101 yards rushing and sophomore Quinn Ewers’ 236 yards of total offense to beat South Grand Prairie (0-1) at Dragon Stadium.

The Dragons went three-and-out on their opening series and then missed on a field goal on their next series. Joe McFadden put Carroll on the board when he connected on a 40-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Dragons found their footing in the second quarter. Blake Smith scored the game’s first touchdown when he pulled in a well-placed throw from Ewers for an 11-yard TD with 9:06 to play in the half.

Carroll followed up with a six-play, 78-yard scoring drive on their next series. Ewers’ 30-yard completion to John Manero set up the Dragons on the South Grand Prairie 18-yard line. The play helped set up Kadi’s 2-yard TD run. McFadden added a 30-yard field goal to give the Dragons a 20-0 lead at halftime.

South Grand Prairie gained some momentum on the opening series of the second half. The Warriors faced a fourth down at the Carroll 33 when a pass interference penalty kept the drive alive. The play led to Drake Logan’s 17-yard touchdown pass to Kelan Robinson to cut the deficit to 20-7.

The Dragons immediately answered on the next series. Ewers found a crease in the Warriors’ secondary and broke loose for a 43-yard TD run.

On the next play from scrimmage, Carroll linebacker Graham Faloona picked up a fumble and ran it back 20 yards for a touchdown to give the Dragons a 35-7 lead with four minutes left in the third.

South Grand Prairie scored twice in the final period. Sean Stegall threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Deamaikkio Nathan and added a 2-yard TD run.

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