As he had done many times while donning a green and white football uniform for Carroll, quarterback Riley Dodge put on a show.
Competing at the Texas High School Coaches Association All-Star Game in San Antonio earlier this week, the University of North Texas-bound athlete officially played his last game on the Texas high school football stage. It was also his first time to compete in a football contest since injuring his shoulder in a rare Dragons playoff loss back in December.
Dodge didn’t disappoint. Sharing the quarterbacking duties for the North team with Rockwall’s Braden Smith, Dodge helped orchestrate a late-game comeback that turned a 15-0 deficit with under two minutes left in the fourth quarter into a 16-15 victory.
A fitting end to Dodge’s high school career, a miracle comeback at the Alamo Dome was poetic justice. Dodge had pulled off another exciting rally at the same location 19 months earlier when Carroll defeated Austin Westlake by a 43-29 final in the 2006 5A Division I state championship.
Trailing Westlake 12-0 early and 15-7 at halftime, Dodge rallied the troops despite battling nausea during the game. Tied 29-29 in the fourth, the Carroll quarterback threw the now infamous puke pass, in which Dodge vomited before the snap and then flung a 29-yard strike into the end zone that gave the Dragons the lead for good. The play gave new meaning to the phrase "hurling touchdowns."
Finishing his high school career with a separated shoulder and Carroll’s 22-21 defeat to Abilene in the regional semifinal round last season just didn’t seem to be the right way for Dodge to go out. His all-star game dramatics were a more suitable ending.
Dodge was 13-of-20 passing for 134 yards in the all-star game, with one touchdown and one interception. The touchdown came at the right time, sparking a North team that looked dead in the water late in the fourth. With 1:38 remaining in the contest, Dodge hooked up with Highland Park’s Seth Gardner for a 38-yard touchdown pass. The extra point made it a 15-7 game.
Then, an onside kick recovery gave the North another chance. Smith (7-of-14, one interception) quickly threw a 37-yard touchdown to Lubbock Estacado’s Jeremy Watson just 14 seconds after the previous score. A two-point conversion attempt that could have tied the game failed, keeping the South in front at 15-13, but the game wasn’t over.
Another onside kick was recovered by the North, setting up a winning 41-yard field goal with 25 second remaining by North kicker Ben Parks of Argyle.
It was the North team’s first time to put points on the board since the third quarter of the 2006 all-star game, as the North was shut out in 2007. Leave it to Dodge, who threw for a team-record 101 touchdowns during his two years starting and one year as backup at Carroll, to end that drought.
It’s ironic that Dodge and Smith were the two quarterbacks that helped make the comeback possible for the North. Last September, the two were engaged in a football shootout when the Dragons faced Rockwall in a memorable regular season game. Trailing the Yellow Jackets by a 28-14 deficit, Dodge led Carroll back for a 49-42 victory. Dodge passed for 387 yards and seven touchdowns in the win.
The all-star contest, played among the top high school football graduates from across the state, could serve as a good final tune-up before Dodge officially begins his college career at UNT, playing for his dad and former Carroll coach Todd Dodge. UNT’s preseason begins shortly, as the Mean Green Eagles open the season Aug. 30 at Kansas State.
Padron Leaving UNT
While younger brother Kyle Padron, Carroll’s starting quarterback heading into the 2008 season, recently announced a verbal commitment to play next year at SMU, older brother Justin Padron was making plans to leave the University of North Texas.
Padron, a star linebacker for the Dragons who graduated in 2007 and was the first recruit to sign for former Carroll coach Todd Dodge at UNT, decided to part ways with the school after dealing with health issues related to diabetes last season.
Padron was in the hospital three times last year, and doctors recommended the linebacker alter his plans. Padron’s options were to either step away from college ball altogether or possibly find a change of scenery.
Recently arranging his release from his scholarship at UNT, Padron said it was nothing personal to Dodge or the school’s football program. But for his health’s sake, other options must be explored, he said.
Padron said he is comfortable with the idea of ending his college football career if that is what he must do. However, he is not ruling out his options, as he plans to look into playing for another local college and seeing if there’s a fit.