Lake Worth dominates Carter-Riverside to set up showdown with Kennedale next week
On paper, Thursday night’s game between Lake Worth and Fort Worth Carter-Riverside was pretty evenly matched, at least offensively.
Lake Worth, which is No. 3 in the latest Star-Telegram Class 4A-3A area rankings, had scored 164 points through four games.
Carter-Riverside, which had previously been No. 1, had scored 150. Plus, both teams had identical 3-1 records.
But as was the case as the previous two meetings, the Lake Worth Bullfrogs put up 50 points and blew out the Eagles 51-13 at Scarborough-Handley Field.
Lake Worth (4-1 overall, 2-0 in District 6-4A Division 1) got a four-touchdown performance from speedy Cornell Avington, who touched the ball four times on offensive snaps and scored each time.
“I’m not that fast,” said Avington, who had two rushes for 80 yards with TD runs of 68 and 12 yards and two receptions for 63 yards with scores from 43 and 20 yards out. “I just thank my teammates for blocking for me. That was the best blocking tonight. It made it look like I was going fast, but it was the best blocks that I could ask for.”
Avington partially blocked Carter-Riverside’s first punt setting up a one-yard TD run by Damion Hopkins that upped the score to 16-0 with 8:12 left in the first quarter.
Avington’s 47-yard punt return set up his own 20-yard touchdown reception. Avington was wide open in the left side of the end zone and quarterback Jose Meza found him to give the Bullfrogs a 30-0 lead with 1:09 left in the first quarter.
“He’s a game breaker,” said Lake Worth coach Jerry Prieto of Avington. “He’s just one of those kids that you’ve gotta find ways to get him the ball in space and he’s going to do the rest. He’s worked his tail off all summer and fall, just learning everything, and has stepped up to be a leader as a senior and it’s paying off for him this year.”
Avington opened the scoring for the Bullfrogs, leaving the Carter-Riverside secondary in the dust on a post pattern. Meza was on target and Hopkins’ two-point conversion run made it 8-0 with just over a minute gone on the first quarter clock.
Avington took a jet sweep 68 yards, tight-roping his way down the right sideline to give Lake Worth a 23-0 lead.
““I thought that I was out of bounds,” said Avington. “I was waiting for them to call it because I was slowing down.”
Meza tossed another TD pass, this time to Kayden Duhon from 22 yards out, to make it 37-0 early in the second quarter before Carter-Riverside (3-2, 0-2) started to make some noise.
The Eagles went on a 10-play drive covering 75 yards, capped by a 29-yard touchdown run by running back Jameer Muhammad that cut the lead to 37-6.
After an 11-yard Meza to Charles Williams TD pass for Lake Worth, Carter-Riverside drove 69 yards in 12 plays. Muhammad, who’s committed to Division I-AA Lamar University, made a terrific catch, tipping the ball to himself in the end zone, for a 17-yard touchdown with no time left in the first half to cut the lead to 44-13.
“He’s a really good football player and we’ve talked about that all week,” said Prieto of Muhammad. “He’s a really explosive football player and that was the goal all week, to keep him in check. There’s a reason why he’s going on to play Division I football.”
Muhammad rushed for 146 yards on 23 carries and caught four passes for 20 yards.
Lake Worth added just one more touchdown in the second half on a 12-yard run midway through the third quarter by Avington, who came into the game with nine total touchdowns this season (4 rushing, 5 receiving).
“We were moving along pretty good, keeping them to three and outs, and then they went on about a 10-minute drive and then they went on a drive with about a minute twenty left to score so we kind of let our foot off the gas a little bit.,” said Prieto. “We learned from it and came out and shut them out in the second half.”
Not only did the Bullfrogs shut out Carter-Riverside after the intermission, Lake Worth allowed a mere 53 total yards in the third and fourth quarters. The Bullfrogs ran a scant 30 plays on the night, compared to 56 for C-R, but averaged 12.2 yards per play for 366 total yards.
Meza finished with 141 passing yards completing six of nine with the four touchdowns. Hopkins had 80 rushing yards on six carries.
The Bullfrogs beat Carter-Riverside 52-6 last season in district play, which was the first meeting between the schools since 2009 when Lake Worth won 53-29. The same season the Bullfrogs won a district title.
It took 13 years for the Bullfrogs to win their next district title, when they snapped Kennedale’s 61-game district win streak in defeating the Wildcats 10-3 to share the 6-4A D1 title a year ago.
It was the first win for Lake Worth over Kennedale since 1999. Kennedale’s district win streak had dated back to 2011.
“For me this game was to showcase to Kennedale what we’ve got,” said Avington. “We know that they’ve put us on their calendar this whole year.
“We’ve been waiting to play them and we’ve been talking. They’re out for blood and we’re out for blood too.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2023 at 12:45 AM.