#COVER1: Duncanville Outruns Southlake Carroll 49-35 to the Semifinals

MCKINNEY, TX — Duncanville’s athleticism outperformed Southlake Carroll when the south Dallas Panthers defeated the Dragons of the northwestern Metroplex suburbs Saturday afternoon in McKinney ISD Stadium for the quarterfinals of the 6A division 1 UIL High School Football championship.

Both teams were very good and the game was undecided until about 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter.

The game began with Southlake Carroll’s possession. The Dragons were able to move the ball into a second set of downs, but were then shut down by Duncanville’s secondary. Duncanville’s coverage of Carroll’s first attempts to deploy its spread offense were quashed by excellent ball swats like the one this drive by Duncanville’s senior defensive backs, Ennis Rakestraw, Jr.

When Duncanville took over after the punt, the Panthers quickly set the pace of the game and took all the momentum with a 46-yard reception by WR Marquelan Crowell who ran it down the right sideline to pay dirt. After the extra point was good, Duncanville led 7-0.

Much of the first half saw Carroll probing for weaknesses on both sides of Duncanville’s ball, in particular the Duncanville secondary. Once the Dragons could establish a running game, it pulled the Panther secondary back closer to the line of scrimmage allowing for some success with the Carroll air attack.

But Duncanville was adjusting as well, and near the end of the 4th quarter, Duncanville put the score to high for Carroll to recover.

In all, Southlake Carroll’s gains in yardage on each play wasn’t enough to overcome the explosive plays that Duncanville was able to use to punch the Dragons in the teeth, particularly with long yardage rushing plays. Duncanville dominated Carroll on total rushing yards 334-134 yards. Duncanville only passed 8 times and got 8 receptions, each for huge gains — 22.9 yards per pass.

In all, Duncanville gained 183 yards on just 8 catches. In contrast, Carroll had more yards passing, obtaining 33 receptions on 52 attempts and gaining 393 total passing yards at 9 yards per run. That was not enough to win against the Duncanville ground attack backed up by making big passing plays when it mattered.

Usually, you see offensive strategies using the run to open up the passing opportunities. Duncanville uses the pass to open the run, but only if it needs to.

The final score was 49-35 and Duncanville (14-0, 4-0) advances to the semifinals to face  Rockwall (12-2, 3-0) next week. The winner there will play in the 6A D1 state championship game.

Final stats of the game:

For more discussion on this game, see the possessions as they happened on our play-by-play.