High school football: Kaden Anderson shines in debut at quarterback, No. 22 Southlake Carroll beats Highland Park 45-21

No. 22 Southlake Carroll (Southlake) showed it is still one of the favorites to win the Texas Class 6A Division 1 high school football state title this year even with five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers forgoing his senior season and enrolling at Ohio State earlier this month. Kaden Anderson got the start under center and the 6-foot-4, 205-pound junior quarterback completed 16 of 24 pass attempts for 261 yards and three touchdowns as the Dragons rolled past Highland Park (Dallas) 45-21 at AT&T Stadium. He added another score on the ground.

This was the first meeting between the two Texas powers since 2001 and the Dragons were in control from start to finish. Carroll jumped to a 14-0 lead with 7:40 left in the first quarter as Anderson completed his first six passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Highland Park cut the deficit to 14-7 after an amazing play by junior quarterback Brennan Storer, who escaped a sack and threw it across his body to Jay Cox for a 51-yard touchdown with 4:16 left in the first quarter. After both teams failed on fourth down attempts, Anderson led the Dragons on a 9-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 41-yard touchdown pass to senior South Carolina commit Landon Samson. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound receiver had five receptions for 127 yards and two scores in the first half.

Anderson completed 14 of 18 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns in the first half while Owen Allen had success on the ground, racking up 88 yards on 12 carries and one score. The preseason MaxPreps Texas All-State running back finished the night with 215 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

The biggest play of the game came in the final minute of the first half when sophomore running back James Lehman made a sensational one-handed touchdown catch from 18 yards out to put the No. 22 team in the MaxPreps Top 25 up 28-7 at halftime. Highland Park started the second half with a 75-yard drive capped by an 18-yard touchdown pass from Storer to John Rutledge to cut the lead to 28-14. But that was as close as the Scots would get.

On the next two drives for the Dragons, Allen ran one in from 25 yards and Anderson scored his lone rushing touchdown of the night on fourth and goal with 20 seconds left in the third quarter to give Southlake Carroll a commanding 42-14 lead.

Tyler White added a 25-yard field goal in the fourth quarter for the Dragons. Ben Croasdale scored the game's final points with a 13-yard rushing score for Highland Park with 2:56 left.

Anderson shined in his first varsity start under center and is next in line to be the big-time quarterback for the Dragons joining the likes of Ewers, Chase Daniel, Greg McElroy, Kenny Hill and current head coach Riley Dodge.

Up next for Southlake Carroll is a matchup with Rockwall-Heath (Rockwall) on Sept. 2 while the Scots will try and bounce back against Horn (Mesquite) on Sept. 3.