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Southlake Carroll plows Lewisville, Dragons to meet Allen in the state quarterfinals

Southlake Carroll football coach Riley Dodge preaches a couple of things to his team frequently. ‘Repeatability’ and ‘keeping the family together’.

The Dragons seem to be taking it to heart as the offense is becoming more and more unstoppable and the defense continues to be impenetrable. The Carroll family will be together at least one more week as the Dragons dismantled Lewisville 52-0 in a Class 6A Division 1 Regional on Saturday afternoon at Echols Field.

Carroll (13-0), ranked No. 3 in the final Class 6A state rankings, advances to the quarterfinals and will meet No. 17 Allen (11-2) at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Apogee Stadium in Denton. Allen pummeled No. 14 Euless Trinity 59-21.

“Repeatability in the sense that play in and play out, drive in and drive out, just don’t get complacent,” said Dodge, whose team punted on its first possession then scored on the next six. “We’ve been able to do that.”

While the offense was piling up the points, the defense was smothering Oregon State commit Damien Martinez and the rest of the Fighting Farmers’ offense. Martinez has averaged 140 yards per game this season, but was held to 52 yards on 16 carries.

The Dragons, led by defensive back and Wisconsin commit Avyonne Jones, held Lewisville to 89 yards rushing on 31 tries and 64 passing yards.

“The whole point of our defense and what the coaches preach is 1/11th,” said Jones. “You may not have one player making standout plays, but it’s just trusting your brothers and knowing that sure, you may have to go get blocked, but you set that edge and someone else is going to come.

“Plus we think that we have the best running backs in the state in Owen Allen to scrimmage against so we know that we can come out here and trust our technique and trust what the coaches are telling us and perform.”

Lewisville (11-2) was set on stopping Allen which allowed Dragon’s quarterback Kaden Anderson plenty of room to work.

Anderson tossed four touchdown passes, two each to Landon Samson and R.J. Maryland, with three coming in the first half and the fourth on the opening drive of the third quarter.

“They loaded the box and that just opened up the passing game,” said Anderson who was 13 of 20 for 130 yards. “When we’re running the ball like that it brings down the corners and safeties and that’s when you’re able to go over the top.”

Maryland made a nice catch across the middle, tipping the ball back to himself, for a 19-yard score to make it 7-0 with 3:44 left in the first quarter. Maryland led Carroll with five catches for 101 yards.

Anderson then hit Samson on almost identical 6 and 17 yard touchdown passes, sandwiched around a Tyler White 42-yard field goal, to give Carroll a 24-0 lead at the break.

A blocked punt by Carroll’s Logan Anderson set up the first Anderson-to-Samson score. A 34-yard punt return by Jacob Jordan led to the White field goal.

Lewisville was forced to punt on its first three possessions and didn’t reach Carroll’s side of the 50 until midway through the second quarter, but the Farmers lost the ball on downs at the Dragon’s 37 with 4:08 left in the first half.

Anderson and Maryland connected for a 57-yard scoring strike on the first series of the second half. Maryland drug two defenders the last 10 yards into the end zone.

Allen, who did manage 121 rushing yards on 28 carries, scored on a 4-yard run with 4:34 left in the third quarter to up the lead to 38-0.

“They loaded that box and there’s a lot of hard hitting guys on that team,” said Allen. “Lewisville is a really proud football program, but at the end of the day we knew what we were trying to do. When they bring those guys in the box we’re going to dish it to Landon and R.J. like we were and it worked out pretty well for us.”

Reserves took over for both teams in the fourth quarter, but James Lehman added a 3-yard TD run with 8:22 to go and Maddux Reid darted up the middle for a 55-yard score with 2:47 left for the Dragons.

“We love going out there and doing what we can to try continue and keep the family together as Coach Dodge always says,” said Jones. “Keep them together for one more week.”