Dragons fall short in Arlington – Collierville Independent

By STEVEN JENKINS
Special to The Independent

Head Coach Mike O’Neil knew his Dragons were in for a fight when they traveled to Arlington to play a tough Class AAA rival. With the talent and personnel the Dragons have on the roster, the team would need to execute the game plan and minimize errors.
In the first quarter, Collierville put together a 10-play drive but was stopped on a fourth-and-one with a turnover deep in Tiger territory. Arlington ran the fumble recovery to the Collierville 27 yard line and scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-0. However, the Dragons defense held strong with an interception by Cameron Doyle with a 50 yard return to the Tiger 10 yard line to end the 1st quarter.
Three plays later, quarterback Alex Hicks connected with Peyton McCay for an 11 yard touchdown pass (PAT from Dillon Scott was good), to even the score at 7-7.
In the second quarter, after an Arlington bad punt snap, Collierville put together a five-play, 30 yard drive scoring on the Hicks quarterback keeper (PAT from Scott was good), giving the Dragons the lead 14-7. On the next Arlington possession, the Tigers scored on a 40-yard pass play to make the score Collierville 14-14 at halftime.
Mid-way in the third quarter, Arlington scored on a 9-play, 80-yard drive ending with an 18-yard touchdown pass for the Tigers to go up 21-14.
Collierville answered early in the fourth quarter with a 23-yard field goal from Scott to cut into the Tigers lead 21-17.
The Dragons defense held the Tigers with a BJ Carrothers’ fumble recovery. However, Collierville couldn’t capitalize. A few possessions later, the Tigers scored on a 14 play, 69 yard drive ending with a 23-yard field goal to make the score Arlington 24-17.
With under a minute left in the game, Collierville had chances to score but fell short, with the final score: Arlington 24, Collierville 17.
Collierville had 258 total yards for the game to Arlington’s 283 total yards. Both teams were statistically very close. However, mental errors by the Dragons late in the game made the difference.
Hicks led the way on offense (20-38, 200 yards, one touchdown pass, one touchdown run and one interception) with Peyton McCay’s five catches for 65 yards and one touchdown.
The defense was led by Cameron Doyle with eight tackles, Korderic Taylor and Tyler Garrett both with seven tackles, Mitchell Jensen, BJ Carrothers, and Isaiah Kieren with five tackles each.
When asked about team play, Coach O’Neill stated “Across the board, I’m a little disappointed from an effort standpoint. We had breakdowns (mentally), and then at times we had some good plays. We had good momentum until we gave up the long pass in the first half. We need to mature as a team. We have a bunch of seniors on this team, and I need those guys to step up and get other players going.”
The Dragons travel to Germantown next Friday for a rival district showdown.
Collierville’s next game will be at Germantown on Friday at 7 p.m.