Lil' Jordan Humphrey leads the offense to the field against Midland Lee on 9/11/15. The Dragons took down the Rebels 52-14. Photo by Stewart Johnson.
By EJ Holland
Sometimes teams use a bye week as time for a little rest andbrrelaxation.
But not Southlake Carroll. After a blowout win over MidlandbrLee, the Dragons continued to practice hard, made some improvements in keybrareas and prepared for West Texas power Abilene.
Southlake Carroll (3-1) will hit the road this week to facebrthe Eagles (4-0), who are averaging more than 40 points per game. In fact,brAbilene has already knocked off two District 7-6A teams — ColleyvillebrHeritage (2-2) and L.D. Bell (0-4).
“We've got another tough test this week,” Wasson said. “Webrused the bye week to improve ourselves and get to where we need to be. I thinkbrwe used it to our advantage. We know we're going to have to play well againstbrAbilene.”
Abilene is a run heavy team. The Eagles keep it on thebrground on 65 percent of their plays out of their primary single back formation.brJunior running back Abram Smith, who has rushed for 512 yards this season, isbrAbilene's bell cow.
Smith missed most of his sophomore year after tearing his ACLbrbut is fully healthy and better than ever. As a team, the Eagles average 245bryards rushing per game.
“We have to be very disciplined defensively,” Wasson said.br“They have a good running back and a goof line. One of the things we focused onbrthis week was our front playing with a better punch and being more gapbrcontentious.”
On the other side of the ball, Abilene has an experiencedbrdefense that specializes in stopping the run. With senior linebackers RonnellbrWilson and Hill Holloway leading the way, Abilene is giving up just a littlebrmore than 100 yards per game.
The good news for Southlake Carroll is Lil' Jordan Humphreybris one of the best running backs in the state, and the Dragons passing game isbrimproving with the emergence of junior signal-caller Mason Holmes.
“Abilene has a very proud defense,” Wasson said. “They runbran odd 3-4 that stops the run. But we present a different challenge becausebrwe're very balanced. We just have to go out there and be us and protect thebrfootball.”
Southlake Carroll currently sits at 2-1. This will be thebrDragons' last non-district game of the season.