High School Football
Miami Northwestern edges Southlake Carroll in battle for top ranking
Prep game attracted national television audience and nearly 32,000 fans in Dallas.
In what may turn out to be the top high school football game of 2007, ESPN’s top ranked Northwestern High School of Miami, Florida, defeated USA Today’s top ranked Carroll High School of Southlake, Texas 29-21 before 31,896 fans in Dallas Sept. 15.
The game was played at Southern Methodist’s Ford Stadium and was carried nationally on ESPNU.
The loss ended Carroll’s 49-game winning streak that extended back to 2001, the longest in the nation. It dampened the Dragons’ chances of winning their third mythical national championship in the last four years.
Teams ranked first and second in both ESPN and USA today polls
The two teams went into the game ranked first and second in the ESPN national high school ratings and just the opposite in the USA Today prep football poll. They ranked second and third behind St. Xavier of Cincinnati in the National Prep Poll.
The win gave the Northwestern Bulls a 3-0 season record and dropped Carroll to 1-1. Northwestern is Florida defending state champion and Carroll is Texas defending state champion.
Senior Quarterback Jacory Harris, who has already committed to the University of Miami, threw four touchdown passes for the Bulls. Senior Wide Receiver Tommy Streeter caught three of them and was named the Old Spice Player of the Game by ESPN. He had four catches for 130 yards.
The Miami Herald said 4,000 Northwestern fans followed the Bulls to Dallas. The school’s marching band collected $21,000 to make the trip.
High school football growing
The presence of three national polls, the size of the crowd, the distance teams travel for such games and the national TV audience indicated how far high school football has come in recent years. It has generated concerns about the amount of pressure being placed on the young players and the money being poured into such programs.
A spokesman for Paragon Marketing Group, the game sponsor, said the Northwestern-Carroll match was the most high-profile, made-for-TV high school game since LeBron James and his basketball teammates at Akron St. Vincent played St. Mary on ESPN2 in 2002.
The Dallas game matched two contrasting teams. Carroll is located in a predominantly white Dallas suburb where the average income is $185,000. The Herald described Northwestern as an all-black team from the Miami intercity where average income is $23,000. The nearby Scott housing project is nicknamed "Pork and Beans."
Streeter said "Football is football."
Streeter said the Bulls were bothered by the media’s pre-game emphasis on Northwestern’s poverty. "We just had to go out here and show the rest of the nation football is football," he said.
According to The Herald, the Bulls team was hit last season by a sexual battery scandal involving one of its star players. It resulted in the dismissal of coaches and administrators who were accused of covering up the incident to protect the player. Billy Rolle, who took over as coach this season, vowed to rebuild the team’s image.
October 30. 2007 Composite Rankings
Prep Football Composite Rankings
