Football Gamer

This is from last season but any advice or critique would be greatly appreciated.



IRVING --- For a week there was no mention of revenge against Katy, the only team to hand Carroll a loss since it moved to Class 5A in 2002.

Not until five minutes before kickoff on Saturday was it even brought up, Carroll coach Todd Dodge said.

“We held it and held it and held it and then we brought it out,” Dodge said. “I didn’t need to say anything to the team. They know. A lot of them had brothers on that team.”

Carroll senior quarterback Greg McElroy had been on the sidelines in 2003. He’d watch the tears run down the faces of seniors after a 16-15 loss to Katy in the Class 5A Division II title game.
He didn’t want to have to go through that again and also wanted this team to add its own chapter the Dragon Tradition.

“You want to make up for a lot, for the players who lost their last game,” McElroy said. “Seeing some of those guys on the sidelines today when we were running out of the tunnel, we were like ‘this is for you’. It feels good to do that, but this was for us.”

The Dragons unleashed their fury on Katy and in the end Carroll came away with a 34-20 win over the Tigers in the Class 5A Division II state championship at Texas Stadium before a crowd of 29,840.
Carroll (16-0) won its third Class 5A Division II title in four years and clinched its second consecutive mythical national title. The Dragons are the top ranked team in both the StudentSports Fab 50 and National Prep Football polls. Carroll has won six state titles overall.

The Dragons have won 32 straight games and have posted a record of 63-1 since joining Class 5A in 2002. Carroll’s 32 straight victories is a new state record in Class 5A, surpassing its 31-game winning streak that ended with the loss to Katy. The Dragons became the first team in Class 5A to play in four consecutive state championships games.

“It feels fantastic,” said McElroy of winning the state title. McElroy earned game MVP honors after throwing for four touchdowns and 332 yards as the Dragons racked up 519 yards of offense.
While some players said revenge for the loss to Katy was on their minds it wasn’t on the mind of senior linebacker Patrick Benoist.

“Coach Dodge said this is not a revenge game because this is a new family. We weren’t going out to play for revenge because that’s not the way we play. We’ve done pretty well the other way. In our heads we knew they had beaten us. But it wasn’t about revenge against Katy. It was winning it for the Dragons.”

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world. I’m so proud of this team.”

Carroll led 17-0 before Katy responded with 13 points in the span of four minutes and 20 seconds to
close to within 17-13 midway through the third period.
The Dragons responded with a trademark quick-hitting drive that covered 76 yards in three plays in one minute and two seconds.

McElroy hit senior receiver McKay Jacobson for a 49-yard gain then on the next play Jacobson out leaped a pair of defenders and scooted into the end zone for a 26-yard score with 6:38 to play in the third period and 24-13 advantage.

“They had all the momentum,” Jacobson said. “We knew we had to score and answer back.”
The scoring strike also gave McElroy the Class 5A record for most touchdown passes in the season with 55 (he finished with 56).

Carroll’s defense got down to business after the score forcing a pair of interceptions and a missed 40-yard field goal on Katy’s next three possessions. The defense produced four interceptions, including two by senior safety Joseph Agnew who was playing in his 48th game.

Dodge said this state title was the toughest to achieve because “the bar and the expectations keep getting higher and getting higher.”

“The pressure keeps getting greater,” Dodge said. “To actually go out and get it done doesn’t happen very often. There are a lot of talented teams that don’t do this. Selfishness or egos never got in the way of this team. But right now we are going to enjoy this one.”

Dodge hoped the win would salve some of the wounds created by the 2003 loss to Katy and that maybe the 2003 team which went 15-1 won’t just be remembered for one game.

“It’s very, very unfair in our town that they are remembered for only one game a one-point loss,” he said. “That team went 15-1. They were players on this team who played in that game or had brothers who played on that team any they that wanted to get this done against this team for them.”

They did just that and protected the Dragons tradition along the way.

 

I can't tell from your early graphs what sport it is...

 

Sorry I forgot to mention this was the gamer that was part of a four-page wrap for the Texas Class 5A Division II State Championship Football game. If it was in the section. I would have been obvious.

 

Well, there was the word "kickoff" in the second graf. Just sayin'.