Ewers tosses five TDs as Southlake Carroll rolls past DeSoto and into regional round
Southlake Carroll quarterback Quinn Ewers tossed five touchdown passes to four different receivers as the Dragons dismantled DeSoto 37-15 in a Class 6A Division I area-round game Friday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.
Carroll (12-0), ranked No. 6 in the state in the final Dave Campbell’s Class 6A state poll, will play the winner of the Midland Lee-Arlington Lamar game in the regional round. Lee (10-1) and Lamar (10-1) meet at Cravens Field at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Carroll defense was solid early, holding DeSoto (9-3) to three punts and then on downs on the first four drives.
The offense, meanwhile, was building a 17-0 lead.
The Dragons took the opening kickoff and moved the ball from their own 26 to the Eagles’ 4. The march was highlighted by incredible catches by Wills Meyer (24 yards) on a third and 8, and R.J. Mickens (38 yards) down to the 4-yard line.
The drive stalled, and Carroll took a 3-0 lead on a 21-yard Joe McFadden field goal.
Ewers threw for 365 yards on the night, completing 18 of 28 passes, and added to the lead just before the end of the first quarter. Wills Meyer was wide open over the middle, and Ewers hit him in stride for a 76-yard score.
Meyer led the Dragons with 138 receiving yards on five catches.
Ewers, a sophomore, was presented with man-to-man coverage with no safety help in the middle of the field, and he took advantage.
“I like when they bring the heat,” Ewers said. “It tells us that they don’t think we can beat them in man coverage. It was a lot of fun.”
Brady Boyd hauled in the first of his two scores with 2:53 left in the half, when Ewers found him from 30 yards out to give the Dragons a 17-0 lead.
DeSoto finally found some rhythm on offense when quarterback Samari Collier scrambled for 39 yards down to the Carroll 10. Collier then found Kansas commit Lawrence Arnold in the back corner of the end zone for a TD that cut the lead to 17-7 with 1:33 left in the half.
Carroll looked to add to its lead with seconds left before intermission, but a 46-yard field goal attempt by McFadden was blocked by DeSoto’s Devyn Bobby.
It was all Carroll after the half, as the Dragons scored on all three of their second-half possessions.
Two of the scores were set up by interceptions by Carroll’s Brandon Howell and Dylan Thomas, both in the end zone to kill DeSoto drives.
Ewers and Mickens, a Clemson commit, connected for a 10-yard score. Blake Smith, who is headed to Texas A&M, grabbed a 14-yard TD throw. And Boyd capped the scoring with a 4-yard scoring reception with 3:25 left.
“I just act like it’s recess out there,” Ewers said. “That’s what coach (Riley) Dodge always tells us — that we practice like recess and we just have a lot of fun with what we do.”
The Boyd touchdown culminated a 14-play, 95-yard drive, during which the Dragons took more than seven minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter.
DeSoto, which had lost two games previously by one point each, scored late on an 11-yard run by Joshua Jackson against Carroll reserves.
“It was just a relentless effort on defense by all 11 guys,” said Dodge, whose team allowed 327 total yards with 74 coming on the final drive. “Statistically they’re the most explosive, and by yardage, the best in the area. We knew it was going to be a challenge for our secondary, but I think we had a good night.”
This is the fourth straight season in which the Dragons and Eagles have met in the second round of the playoffs. DeSoto won in 2016 on its way to the state title. Carroll has now won three straight (33-15 in 2017, 41-20 in 2018).
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 8:33 PM.