Some of the players on Southlake’s sidelines weren’t even born the last time the Dragons started a season 0-2 in 2000. They won’t have to worry about that this year as the Dragons bounced back with a 37-14 win over Arlington Martin to move to 1-1 on the season.
Southlake was dynamic on offense, their average pass per completion tonight was 21.3 yards and that had a lot to due with senior Robert Barnes making his first ever start at wide receiver. Barnes played defensive back last week and is committed to Oklahoma as a DB, but tonight he shined as a receiver. He totaled six receptions for 153 yards and had catches of 32 and 35 yards in the first quarter.
“That was my first game at receiver since fifth grade pee wee football.” Barnes said. “I had been practicing at receiver during the week so I knew I was going to play there tonight, and I feel like I have good ball skills and those translated tonight to receiver.”
The Dragons had 565 yards of total offense on the evening, 320 through the air and 245 on the ground, and that ground game really opened the deep ball. It only took 47 seconds to get on the board on a three-yard touchdown run by running back Audricke Gaines; his first of two on the evening. Four minutes later the Dragons made it 14-0 on a Jack Johansson two-yard run, one of his three TDs on the evening.
Martin (1-1) would get on the board after jump-starting a there drive on a fake punt that led to a one-yard score by Juma Otoviano to make it 14-7. It looked to be game on, but that was the closest the Warriors would get on the evening, as the Dragon defense was stout.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys bounced back tonight.” Head coach Hal Watson. “They showed the mental toughness tonight that I was hoping for and we need to continue that for the rest of the season. People didn’t expect us to win tonight but we came out and played Dragon football and found a way to win.”
Next up for Southlake is a trip to Rockwall and for the Warriors they face South Grand Prairie next week.
