Southlake Carroll continues playoff run with a chip on shoulder, blasts Wolfforth Frenship

Southlake Carroll scored on its first six possessions of the game and never looked back in a 49-14 rout of Wolfforth Frenship in a Class 6A Division 2 area-round game on Thursday at Wildcat Stadium on the campus of Abilene Christian University.

With the win, Carroll (11-1), No. 10 in the state in the Dave Campbell’s 6A Top 25, will move on to the regional round and face the winner between McKinney (9-2) and Highland Park (10-1).

Carroll dominated from the start with quarterback Graham Knowles, a Georgia Tech commit, using his accurate right arm to set up touchdowns by the Dragons’ running game.

Knowles went 14 of 14 for 192 yards in the first half had a hand in moving Carroll into position for running TDs on each drive. Riley Wormley and Davis Penn benefited, taking turns putting six points on the board.

“The defining take away from this game is man we’ve gotta love up our o-linemen because they went to work,” said Knowles, who finished completing a remarkable 20 of 21 passes for 218 yards. “I’ll go left to right, Ben Karlsson, Trent Wilson, Steve Cunningham, Johnathan McLaughlin and Harrison Moore, man those guys are some bad dudes and they showed everyone what they were about today and made it really easy for our running backs.”

Wormley started the game with three rushes, each going for scores from 12, 50 and 37 yards out. Penn scored on runs of 23, 1 and 2 yards, after each score by Wormley, to help the Dragons build a 42-7 lead at the break.

“It was great,” said Wormley who finished with 153 yards rushing on only six carries. “We came out strong and we came out fast. I really felt like the o-line was on point from the beginning. They gave me the opportunity to get the four touchdowns and it felt great.”

Wormley scored on a seven-yard run to cap Carroll’s opening drive of the second half to make it 49-7 with 11:11 left in the third quarter. Carroll had 220 yards rushing on the night on 24 attempts and added 236 yards passing for 456 total yards.

Penn had 52 yards rushing on seven attempts. Clayton Wayland was Knowles’ favorite target catching eight passes for 115 yards.

The Dragons put in backups on offense starting at the 5:46 mark of the third quarter.

The Dragons’ defense played extremely well, putting tremendous pressure on Frenship quarterback Hudson Hutcheson who had a difficult time finding an open receiver because of the coverage in the secondary.

Frenship makes no bones about being a predominantly passing team and the Tigers had their air attack rolling in the bi-district round a week ago.

“They put up 87 points last week and we knew that they were going to throw the ball 50-60 times,” said Carroll senior linebacker Bridger Jense, who picked off a pass for one of two turnovers by Frenship. “Especially with our front, we’re pretty confident in stopping the run so we knew that they were going to be slinging it and we were just prepping all week for that.

“We just let our defensive line get after them, and we have some really good D-linemen, with an excellent pass rush. We put a spy back there and our secondary took care of the rest.”

Frenship (9-3) threw the ball 50 times in the game completing 27 for 302 yards, but the Tigers were only able to pick up eight rushing yards on 22 totes.

After punting twice and losing the ball on downs once to start the game, Frenship finally got moving early in the second quarter and cut the Carroll lead to 21-7 on a 16-yard TD pass from Hutcheson to Leyton Stone.

From that point, however, the Tigers punted five times and had two turnovers in their final eight drives. Jaden Tackett scored on a five-yard run early in the fourth quarter for Frenship after Carroll had sat most of its starters.

“We just prepped all week for all of their little motions and there were so many little tells that we could pick up on,” said Dragons’ cornerback Sam Fuller. “Like if they zipped inside we knew smash was coming and if it was a single receiver and he did it we knew it was going to be post. They also had tells in their slam steps whether they were doing post or smash.

“All of us on defense, all eleven of us, are seniors so we just really dive into the preparation. We know this is our last ride. Our coaches put us in good spots and we just make the plays.”

Knowles admitted that his team has committed to being more focused after the Dragons got stung by No. 7 Trophy Club Byron Nelson 34-17 in a district game three weeks ago.

“They came out with a good plan, credit to their coaches and credit to their players, and they came ready to play,” said Knowles of the Byron Nelson game. “They hit us in the mouth early and we didn’t respond well. I wouldn’t say that we took the game for granted, but we certainly didn’t play our best game.

“We hit the film room that weekend after and saw what we needed to fix. We’ve got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder coming into these playoffs.”

The Dragons drubbed Keller Fossil Ridge (63-0) in their final district game and opened the playoffs blitzing Fort Worth Boswell (70-0).

“We have a lot of great players, a lot of athletes, and a lot of guys that can make plays,” said Wormley. “I’m really excited to see how far we can take it this season.”