Stewart Johnson
As his seventh season as a head coach comes to its final game, Riley Dodge is hitting his stride. This is a serious accomplishment for the Tom Landry award-winner whose win percentage entering the 2024 season was .906. Since then, all he’s done is add another 15 wins and a promotion to Athletic Director to an already stellar resume.
But don’t let the undefeated season fool you, Dodge and this year’s team have had to overcome adversity and injury and come up with a little Dragon magic to earn a matchup with Austin Vandegrift (14-1) in this weekend’s 6A Division II State Championship game at AT&T Stadium.
Before the season began, there were some big shoes to fill as new players stepped into leadership roles— especially on defense where the Dragons graduated 10 of its 11 week one starters. Juniors Robbie Ladd, Marcus Brouse and William Chen have proven their worth at the highest levels with 82, 82 and 77 tackles respectively. The trio have made their mark alongside seniors Austin Davidge (79 tackles, 9.5 sacks) and Jack Van Dorselaer (78 tackles, 7 sacks) atop the team leaders of a defense that gave up just 18 points per regular season game in the strongest district in north Texas.
Defensively the Dragons have not had it as easy during the playoffs. Outside of a lopsided 69-7 win over Mansfield Legacy, they have been giving up 35 points per game during the last month’s heated competition, including a 20-17 win over Longview via a Gavin Strange game-winning field goal to advance to the championship game.
Fortunately, the Dragons have averaged over 47 points per game during the last 5 weeks despite the loss of their top two running backs in Riley Wormley and Davis Penn. Christian Glenn has stepped up to keep the running attack churning. The third-string senior rushed for 132 yards on 18 carries against Longview that helped Dodge put forth a balanced approach to the team’s play calling.
Junior quarterback Angelo Renda has continued to elevate his play at the position both passing for 3,550 yards and 36 touchdowns while rushing for another 644 yards and 14 scores. His No. 1 target is fellow junior Brock Boyd who is far and away the team’s leading receiver. Through 15 games, the TCU commit has accounted for 1,690 yards and 18 touchdowns as one of the top pass catchers in the region. Sophomores Blake Gunter and Brody Knowles have also been steady receivers with 726 and 464 yards to their credit.
The Dragons are now ranked as the no. 31 team in the country and turn their full attention to Austin Vandegrift. The Vipers are the no. 40 team nationally according to Max Preps and are led by junior quarterback Miles Teodecki (3,016 yards, 46TDs passing) and senior running back Brendan Fournier (1,819 yards, 19 TDs rushing).
See our past article for more information on tickets and game day.