After two days, Arlington opens with a win

The Arlington Colts are expected to have one of their best teams ever in 2009. With 15 starters returning from a regional finalist team a year ago and quarterback Matt Joeckel as well as his twin brother, offensive tackle Luke Joeckel, anchoring the offense, the team looks to be in good hands.

They put everything on display in their season opener this past weekend against Carrollton Creekview. Because of a lightning delay, the game that started on Thursday evening concluded on Friday night. Luke Joeckel says that the team was pretty happy with their performance in the 28-14 victory.

"The game against Creekview went well," said the four-star lineman. "It was really good through the first three quarters but kind of got sloppy in the fourth. Things got out of hand a little bit."

Though the score was relatively close on paper, it was not truly the case. Arlington outgained Creekview 461 yards to 206. However, untimely mistakes kept the win from being more lopsided.

"Pretty much the entire game, the offense did well," Joeckel said. "We fumbled the ball inside the five-yard line three times. We had a lot of trouble holding onto the ball. We fumbled it twice on the one-yard line. It just seemed like we couldn't get it into the endzone.

"Other than the fumbles, the offense pretty much dominated the entire game. We didn't really execute at times in the red zone, but we know what we need to work on now. Besides the fumbles, everybody feels good about the way things went."

Joeckel says the delay did not have an effect on the team, but his brother's numbers - 18 for 37 passing for 263 yards and three touchdowns as well as a rushing touchdown - could have been even better than they were.

"He played really well," the lineman said of his signal-calling twin. "His completion percentage wasn't great, but we had about six drops. Also, we were still getting used to game action. The receivers ran the wrong routes a couple of times. He threw for like 260 yards or something like that, so he had a good game."

Luke's numbers were not too shabby either as he had his best game ever on the varsity level.

"Yes, we do get graded," he said. "I graded out at 97-percent. That's the highest I've ever gotten. Before that, I think my highest was a 93. I had 18 knockdowns. I had 16 pancakes and two cuts."

With the first win out of the way, Arlington can now focus on their next game. It happens to be against a perennial power of the Texas high school ranks and both teams should put on an offensive display.

"We play Southlake (Carroll) this weekend," Joeckel said. "It's a huge game for us. They've been pretty much the team in Texas over the last decade or so. This is one of the best teams ever at Arlington, so we think it's going to be a good match-up. Carroll looked good this past weekend, so it should be a shootout. It would be huge for us to get the win."

The two Texas A&M commits and their Arlington teammates host Southlake Carroll at The University of Texas-Arlington on Friday at 7:30 p.m.