Open and Shutout: Allen upends Carroll in season opener, 24-0

Multiple players on the Allen defense said they felt like they had something to prove coming into the start of the 2012 football season.

Allen went a long way toward proving whatever point they wanted Friday night by shutting down defending Class 5A State Champion Southlake Carroll, 24-0, in both team's season opener and the first game at Eagle Stadium.

The new facility opened with a standing-room-only crowd of 21,778.

"Our guys played with a lot of emotion all night," said Tom Westerberg, Allen head coach. "They wanted to win the opener at our new stadium and then, of course, we've had trouble with Southlake in past, so we talked about some of the history with these guys during the week."

Carroll has been a destructive force to Allen in the playoffs over the past decade, eliminating the Eagles in the 2003 state semifinals, 2006 state semis and 2009 area round.

Friday, the primary destructive force on the field was Allen's front seven.

"Those guys were swarming all night," Westerberg said, "it was unbelievable."

Carroll had to punt on four of its first five series with a tackle by Allen junior Mayomi Olootu and sacks from junior Marcus Davis and senior Nick Cobb forcing the Dragons to vacate the field. The only non-punt resulted in a missed 37-yard field goal. That wasn't the worst special teams play of the half for Carroll though as Allen senior Cameron Hartsfield blocked a punt to give the Eagles the ball at the Dragons 2-yard line with 43 seconds left in the half.

Allen senior quarterback Oliver Pierce ran the remaining two yards to give the Eagles a 14-0 lead at the break.

As the score would indicate, that wasn't the only touchdown drive Pierce was part of in the first half as he also spearheaded a 13-play, 65-yard sequence on Allen's first possession. That drive featured 11 carries distributed between Pierce and senior running backs Jeff Harris and Marcus Ward with Harris punching it in from 1 yard out for a 7-0 Eagles advantage with 5:12 to go in the first quarter.

Pierce, who was also 4-of-4 for 40 yards through the air and caught two passes, toted the ball 14 times for 51 yards and a score while Harris finished the game with 59 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and Ward posted 40 yards on nine runs.

"Our guys have been working all summer because we wanted to run the ball and be physical up front," Pierce said. "I think we did that tonight."

Allen also displayed its physicality by controlling the defensive line of scrimmage.

One of the most electric players in the state, Carroll senior quarterback Kenny Hill was contained most of the night, at least by his standards, running for 54 yards on 16 carries. Hill was usually contained within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, that is when he wasn't being harassed by the Allen defensive line.

"Our three or four guys up on the line, they were animals," Pierce said.

After a tremendous open-field tackle from Carroll junior Steven Bergmark stopped an Allen 4th-and-1 play from the Dragons 9 to start the third quarter, Hill got a rude welcome to the second half as Davis stripped the ball from him and senior Byron Bonds recovered at the Carroll 44.

Allen sophomore quarterback Kyler Murray took over from there.

Murray, who joined the team a month ago after moving in from Lewisville and is the son of former Texas A&M quarterback Kevin Murray, had been rotating in every third series but played the bulk of the second half when wide receiver injuries forced Pierce back to the slot, where he played the last two years. Murray started the drive with a 37-yard completion to senior Troy Knudsen, who had four catches for 90 yards, and wrapped it up with a 1-yard scoring handoff to Harris that made it 21-0 with 5:12 left in the third. Murray completed 8-of-13 passes for 141 yards while running for another 27.

Carroll's offense continued to struggle from there.

While the Dragons got occasional sparks from junior AJ Ezzard, who had 34 yards on 11 carries, and sophomore Ryan Agnew, who had three catches for 62 yards as well as 23 yards rushing and a pass completion, Carroll's five second-half possessions ended with two turnovers, two punts and a turnover on downs.

Hill, who was 12-of-29 for 158 yards, completed passes to seven different targets, including three catches by senior Derek McLemore, but was also the victim of several dropped passes that stalled any progress down the field.

After managing a 24-yard field goal from junior Carlos Arochi to go up, 24-0, Allen ensured the shut out with a fumble recovery from junior Mason Bartke.

"Our guys on the line of scrimmage played fantastic tonight," Westerberg said. "And this is a really big win for us."

Carroll returns home Friday to host Midland at 7:30 p.m. while Allen will be on the road against Cedar Hill at the same time.

"Our guys played really well in Game 1," Westerberg said, "but we've got a pretty big one coming up in Game 2, so we've got to keep improving."

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