When Southlake (Texas) Carroll High School and Denton (Texas) Guyer high School both entered their midseason face off undefeated, it was seen as a likely District 5-6A title decider. It lived up to the hype.

Here’s what we learned from Southlake Carroll’s impressive 46-34 victory:

1) Carroll sophomore QB Quinn Ewers is about to get a lot more attention

Playing in the biggest game of his still (very) young career, Dragons passer Quinn Ewers made a statement. The sophomore was responsible for six Carroll touchdowns in the win, scoring four through the air and two on the ground, including one explosive 70-yard run. Ewers was too tough for a talented Guyer defense all night, which underscores just how bright his future may be, both at Carroll and eventually at the next level.

2) Guyer got off to the exact start it wanted, but Carroll’s defense took control.

When does a defense yield 34 points and still emerge feeling like it dominated a game? When it falls behind 14-0 very early, then sets the stage for the offense to outscore its opponent 46-20 (with most of those 20 coming when it was too late to change the outcome). There was confidence in the Southlake Carroll offense entering Friday night’s big game. The offense eventually came through, but the defense may have collectively been the biggest star.

3) It’s time to take Riley Dodge’s coaching success very seriously

Last year in his first season on the sideline, Riley Dodge led Southlake Carroll to an undefeated regular season during his first campaign as a head coach. This year the Dragons are off to an even better start. Through a season and a half, Dodge has still yet to sniff a regular season loss. Friday’s win was one of Dodge’s most impressive yet, rallying his team from a sluggish start and early hole to eventually claim a dominant victory. It was the kind of win upon which legacies are sometimes made, or in Dodge’s case, re-made. Having led the Dragons to a national title as a player under his father, Dodge’s return as the compromise candidate when his father couldn’t be lured back from Austin Westlake has been more successful, earlier, than any Southlake Carroll fan or booster could have imagined. Now to see if the Dragons can take care of business for the rest of the regular season and if they can make it even farther in the playoffs than the 2018 squad.