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Carroll makes it look easy in 40-7 win over Cedar Hill

ARLINGTON – Toward the end, Kenny Hill was just having fun. Deep in the fourth, up by a sizable margin, he scrambled for a 37-yard run, breaking tackles with a spin move twice, orchestrating a final display of Southlake Carroll’s rushing excellence.

“I was just trying to not get tackled,” Hill said, laughing.

In all seriousness, it did take a lot to bring Southlake Carroll down in Saturday’s 40-7 area round victory against Cedar Hill at Cowboys Stadium. The Longhorns couldn’t get their arms around Southlake Carroll’s rushing offense, this year’s strength for a team that owned the ‘aughts by throwing the ball.

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When Carroll’s current batch of players were going through elementary and middle school, they watched quarterbacks like Chase Daniel, Greg McElroy and Riley Dodge air the ball out, sometimes to the tune of 4,000 even 5,000 yard passing. This season presented a different kind of roster.

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Sophomore running back AJ Ezzard had a breakout spring and has progressed in spite of injury. Hill can run as well as he can pass. A seasoned line with estimable size provides blocking.

Combined, a run-based offense is optimal, and Saturday provided the example of what can happen when everything goes right. Hill said Carroll came in with plan of balancing the offense but quickly scrapped that idea when the rushing offense took off.

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Carroll finished with 41 rushing attempts compared to 22 passing attempts. Hill had 123 rushing yards and Ezzard 121, the two scoring all four of the Dragons' touchdowns.

"There's tremendous confidence, there's tremendous trust with everybody involved on our football team in our style," coach Hal Wasson said.

Carroll will continue with the playoff games fans are conditioned to – it plays Arlington Bowie next Saturday at Pennington Field – but with a priority different from its former traditions.

“We can run just about whenever we want to,” Hill said. “I mean, throwing is always going to be there.”