Allen Opens New Stadium With Win
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Fans of Texas High School football wait all summer in anticipation of the friday night lights and the season opener. Usually, the match-ups between the powerhouse teams don’t arrive until much later in the season. But this year the Dallas Metroxplex had a special treat. Two teams rich in football tradition, playing in a brand new state of the art stadium, with as much media hype as a big time college game. The Allen Eagles wanted a big stage to christen their new multi-million dollar stadium. Unfortunately, the game did not live up to the hype, unless you were an Allen fan. The Allen Eagles dominated the Carroll Dragons in front of a sold out crowd of over 21,000 fans.
Southlake Carroll, the defending 2011 State 5-A Champions, ranked number one in the state and number seven in the nation, was out played in all key areas. Carroll received the opening kick-off and ran it out to their own 30 yard-line. Six plays later they had to punt and Allen took over on their own 32. Allen, behind the running of QB Oliver Pierce, marched down the field and scored with 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter. Carroll, started their next series on their own 32 yard-line. Since the Carroll passing game was ineffective on their first series they turned to the run. A. J. Ezzard (RB), and Kenny Hill (QB) took turns caring the ball and 12 plays later they were on the Allen 19 yard-line. This would turn out to be their longest drive of the night and the only time they
were inside the red zone. After stalling out on the Eagle 20 yard-line, Drew Brown missed a 37 yard field goal as time expired in the first quarter. Allen 7 and Southlake 0.
Both offenses sputtered in the second quarter exchanging punts until the last fews seconds before half-time. The Dragons were forced to punt from their own 15 yard-line with 43 seconds left on the clock. Allen blocked the punt and recovered it on the SL 3 yard-line. One play later, Quarterback Oliver Pierce ran it end for a touch-down. Going in at half-time Allen was leading Southlake 14-0.
Allen received the ball at the start of the third quarter. QB Oliver Pierce ran the kick-off back to the Allen 9 yard-line. Subsequently he had to leave the game due to severe leg cramps. Sophomore back-up QB Kyler Murray took over for Allen and put together an eleven play drive that stalled on the Carroll 9 yard-line. On their next series, Carroll quarterback Kenny Hill fumbled on there on 49. Eagles quickly took advantage of the turnover. On their first play, QB Murray completed a 42-yard pass to receiver Troy Knudsen who was tackled on the Southlake 7-yard line. With 4:13 remaining in the third quarter, Allen scored on a 1 yard run by (RB) Jeff Harris. At the end of the third quarter Allen was leading 21-0 and Carroll was headed for their first shut-out since 1997.
With 6:19 remaining in the fourth quarter, Carlos Arochi kicked a 24-yard field goal and the Eagles extended their lead over Southlake to 24-0. Southlake’s only scoring threat of the fourth quarter occurred with 2 minutes remaining. The Dragons had first and ten on the Eagles 26-yard line. A. J. Ezzard rushed for 6 yards and fumbled on the Allen 20. The Eagles took over and ran out the clock. Defeating Southlake 24-0.
Allen was very impressive in all facets of the game and established themselves as potentially one of the top teams in class 5A this year. Southlake has a lot of room for improvement. Next week Allen takes on Cedar Hill and Carroll plays Midland.
