In father-son matchup, Austin Westlake gets better of Southlake Carroll for state title
Todd Dodge will have bragging rights for the next year over his son, Riley, after Saturday night’s Dodge Bowl as he won a state title against his former school.
Pitting father-son head coaches in a Texas high school football state championship for the first time, it was the elder Dodge and Austin Westlake beating Southlake Carroll, 52-34, in the Class 6A Division 1 title game at AT&T Stadium.
Westlake won its second straight title and third overall. The Chaparrals won 6A D2 over Denton Guyer last season.
“I want to congratulate my son and the Southlake Carroll Dragons on a fabulous year. It was an unbelievable game. We knew going into it that it would be a knock down, drag out game,” Todd Dodge said. “I told my football team earlier in the week that the attention would be around the Dodge family and Dodge Bowl. Riley and I are honored to do this for the first time in the state of Texas, but it wasn’t about us. It was about the Westlake Chaparrals and Carroll Dragons.
“There were a lot of emotions. My grandson is 5 years old now and after we beat North Shore last week and Carroll beat Duncanville, he called me and said ‘paw paw, we beat Duncanville now we’re coming for you’ so really the only trash talking was coming from my 5-year-old grandson.”
The Chaparrals (14-0) broke a 21-21 tie with a 10-play, 75-yard drive and 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cade Klubnik with 1:12 left in the second quarter.
Carroll’s defense had no answer for the Westlake offense, which came into the contest averaging over 50 points per game. The Chaparrals scored a fifth TD on as many possessions to open the third, a 4-yard run by Grey Nakfoor to make it 35-21 with 9:10 remaining in the period.
Carroll 5-star QB and Ohio State commit Quinn Ewers, who came into the game with three interceptions all season long, threw two, both by cornerback Michael Taaffe.
Taaffe’s second was a leaping one-handed pick. His first halted a Carroll drive just before intermission.
Taaffe was voted defensive game MVP. He also made five tackles.
“We had one bad drive in the first half. We tried to make something happen before halftime,” Riley Dodge. “We went in down seven and felt good where we were at, just needed a big stop out of half and flipped the momentum on our sideline. We didn’t get it done.”
Klubnik scored from 4 yards out to extend the Westlake lead to 42-21 midway through the third.
“Cade is super dynamic with his legs,” Riley Dodge said. “A quarterback that’s as accurate as he is and on top of that, he can run ... in the open field, he’s one of the fastest guys on the field.”
The Dragons (12-2) finally made a stop on Westlake’s next drive, but it still turned into points with a 36-yard field goal by Mark Sayegh to push Westlake to a 45-21 margin at the 2:14 mark.
Nakfoor scored his third TD, from 5 yards, to make it 52-21.
Ewers hit RJ Maryland on a 10-yard TD pass and Owen Allen scored on a 2-yard run in the fourth for the Dragons.
“Obviously we’re super disappointed in the outcome tonight, but proud of the way the kids fought,” Riley Dodge said. “They went up three possessions and my kids had great character and fought. They could’ve rolled over and quit, but they kept on fighting.”
Todd Dodge was Carroll’s head coach from 2000-06 and led the Dragons to four Class 5A state titles. He was 79-1 from 2002-06 and 98-11 overall. He’s been with Westlake since 2014.
The Dragons went 16-0 and were named national champions by USA Today in 2006 after defeating Westlake in the title game. Riley Dodge was the starting quarterback.
“Very strange and something we didn’t see coming, but glad it happened,” said Riley Dodge of coaching against his father. “I’ll never wish away an opportunity to play in a state championship game and it happened against someone I’m very close to.”
The game started with fireworks and appeared to be the best game among the 6A-5A championships this weekend when the Dragons and Chaparrals traded touchdown after touchdown.
Carroll, in its first title game since 2011 and looking for a ninth ring, landed the first punch when it took the opening drive 75 yards on 10 plays, capped off by Allen’s 3-yard scoring run.
Westlake only needed one play from scrimmage to respond, a 75-yard TD run by Zane Minors.
Ewers connected with Minnesota bound receiver Brady Boyd, who broke two tackles and scored 49 yards later for a Carroll 14-7 lead midway through the first quarter.
Nakfoor scored on a 38-yard run during third down to tie the game at 14.
The Chaparrals made the first stop and scored seven plays later on Klubnik’s 15-yard pass to Jaden Greathouse to give Westlake its first lead at 21-14 early in the second.
Klubnik threw for 220 yards on 18 of 20 passes and one TD. He also rushed for 97 yards and two scores, and was voted offensive game MVP.
Ewers and Boyd hooked up from 27 yards to tie the game at 21 midway through the period.
Ewers threw for 351 yards on 23 of 39 passes with three TDs. Boyd made 12 catches for 190 yards and two TDs. Landon Samson added six catches and 91 yards. Allen rushed 15 times for 39 yards and two scores.
Carroll’s defense was led by Cinque Williams, Logan Anderson and Allan Kleiman, who all had nine tackles.
The game also featured Carroll defensive coordinator Lee Munn and his brother-in-law, Westlake receivers coach Boomer Collins. Riley’s grandfather, the late Everett Neptune Jr. was Westlake’s athletic director for more than 20 years.
This story was originally published January 16, 2021 at 10:24 PM.
