by Justin Thomas
7 p.m. Friday at Dragon Stadium
The Dragons will look to complete a perfect non-districtbrslate on Friday when Carroll welcomes storied Odessa Permian following winsbrover South Grand Prairie (25-8) and Colleyville Heritage (42-17) to open thebrseason.
The matchup features two programs that have combined forbr14 state championships, though Permian last hoisted a trophy in 1991.
Permian travels east to Southlake boasting a 1-1 recordbrafter dropping its opener against DeSoto, 38-28, before bouncing back in Week 2brwith a 43-27 triumph over El Paso Franklin.
Projected by prognosticators to claim the District 2-6Abrtitle, the Panthers return six starters on each side of the ball from a squadbrthat went 9-2 a year ago and was eliminated in the area round of the playoffsbrby Arlington Martin.
Running back Ed Williams returns to lead the Permianbroffense after posting 1,476 yards and 17 touchdowns last.
In Permian's opener, Williams picked right up where hebrleft off, racking up 117 yards and a score on 25 carries against a talentedbrDeSoto defense. Justin Hammond chipped in 79 yards for a Permian team thatbrrushed for 274 yards as a squad.
Quarterback and transfer Peyton Powell contributed 67 ofbrthose yards while also completing 7-of-18 passes for 91 yards with twobrtouchdowns and one interception with Hammond (four receptions, 63 yards) hisbrtop target.
Defensively, Permian not only brings back six starters,brbut five that were all-district performers last season (linebackers Matt Jones,brKaetyn Armstrong and Tanner Adams and defensive backs Rakeeb Adeyemi andbrChristian Tschauner). That hasn't spelled success early on, however, inbrparticular in the loss against DeSoto where the Eagles racked up more than 500bryards of offense, including 357 passing on just 17 completions (21 yards perbrcatch).