Should Southlake Carroll's near-TD have counted in Texas high school semifinal loss to DeSoto?
Southlake Carroll appeared poised to reclaim the lead late against nationally ranked DeSoto late in the third quarter of a Texas high school football semifinal showdown on Saturday.
On a 4th and 1 designed QB run in the redzone, the Dragons' Graham Knowles found space and made a dive at the goal line, where he was met by DeSoto defensive end and 3-star Purdue commit Keylan Abrams, who delivered a massive hit to the Georgia Tech-committed QB in the air.
As Knowles came back down to earth, he stretched an arm out and reached the ball toward the goal line. Officials ruled him down inches shy of the goal line.
Should they have? Or did Knowles' efforts get the ball across the plane before he went down?
Video and photos of the play appear to show Knowles close, if not over the goal line. The ball only needs to partially cross the goal line plane before the carrier is down to be considered a touchdown.
A TD would have been momentous. Southlake Carroll would have reclaimed the lead with just over two minutes left in the third quarter, and had scored on all but one drive in the game at that point. Instead, the Dragons turned the ball over on downs.
Though nothing can actually change, and the case for overruling Knowles' run isn't irrefutable, Southlake Carroll's offense undeniably struggled the rest of the game.
They were also stopped on the next three drives — missed a field goal, a punt and and an interception — and did not reclaim the lead from there. They scored once more with just over a minute left to make it a one-score game, but DeSoto kneeled out.
DeSoto will face Summer Creek on Saturday in the UIL Class 6A Division II state championship at AT&T Stadium.
SBLive captured the entire sequence in photos. Should it have been a touchdown?
(All photos by Michael Horbovetz)
-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @sblivetx
