BEDFORD — James Franklin knew it. Michael Young also knew it.

When Lake Dallas’ quarterback and coach were asked what went wrong on Friday night during their Class 4A Region I area playoff at Pennington Field, both knew the answer without blinking.

“We didn’t execute,” Franklin, the quarterback, said.

“We didn’t make the most of opportunities,” Young said. “It’s all about execution in this game.”

The last missed opportunity during its 21-16 loss to Everman may haunt Lake Dallas (10-2) the most.

After the Falcon defense held Everman (10-2) to a three-and-out with 2:47 remaining in the game, the Falcons had the ball on their own 28-yard line with a chance to drive down the field and win the game.

After a first down and a couple of Everman stops, Franklin faced fourth and 15 at his own 39.

After getting flushed out of the pocket he threw the ball on the run, but Franklin’s pass was dropped by a streaking Dontonio Jordan, who would have picked up the first down and much more.

But Franklin wasn’t blaming Jordan. Young wasn’t, either.

“I should have thrown it more in front of him,” Franklin said. “[Jordan] is more of a running back, and he is inexperienced at wide receiver. It was my fault. I should have led him more. I feel like I let everyone down.”

Young said that the play did not dictate why Lake Dallas came out on the losing end Friday night.

“That wasn’t the end-all for us,” he said. “We blew way too many opportunities before that. It should not have even come down to that.”

All throughout the second half, Lake Dallas’ defense held its ground and slowed Everman. The Bulldogs were stopped on their first four possessions of the second half and had just one first down.

But Lake Dallas’ usually potent offense could not get on the scoreboard.

After their defense made each of the four stops, the Falcons threw an interception, had a field goal blocked and punted twice.

“This one is hard to lose,” Young said, “because we played the third quarter like we wanted to. We had the field position and we thought if we kept it we would win. But we didn’t play well in the red zone, and it came back to bite us tonight.”

Everman finally broke the Lake Dallas defense when Cory Franklin rushed in from 20 yards out to give Everman a 21-10 lead with 6:24 left in the game. The big play on the drive was when Everman quarterback Barry Browning completed his only pass of the night: a 27-yard completion on third and 17 to keep the drive alive.

At that point it looked like Lake Dallas had no chance to win. But the Falcons finally looked like the team that won 10 games this year as they marched down the field in 10 plays to cut the score to 21-16. The touchdown play was an 18-yard pass from Franklin to Tyler McGee.

But it proved to be too little too late for Lake Dallas.

Franklin was contained most of the night, as he was held to 106 yards rushing on 28 carries. The usually explosive runner had only three carries of 10 yards or more. It also didn’t help that starting running back Tyler Waller missed the game with a torn ACL.

Everman, however, had little trouble running the ball. It rushed for 288 yards, led by Ruben Fletcher’s 101 yards.

A bulk of his yardage came on a 42-yard touchdown run that opened the scoring.

Lake Dallas also did not take advantage of Everman’s miscues in the first half. The Bulldogs turned the ball over four times before halftime, but Lake Dallas scored just 10 points off those opportunities.

Everman’s last turnover, an interception by Lake Dallas safety Caleb Cade, turned out to be a bad break for the Falcons.

After Cade picked off Browning’s pass, he fumbled the ball on the return and Everman regained the ball inside the Falcons’ 10-yard line. Two plays later, Cory Franklin scored from 4 yards out, giving Everman the lead at 14-10 going into halftime.

The Falcons had a chance to cut the lead to 14-13 late in the second quarter, but Adam Goodnight’s 32-yard field goal attempt was partially blocked.

“You have to score points to win,” Young said. “We played well enough defensively to win, but we didn’t capitalize like we should have.”

Everman will face the winner of today’s El Paso Irvin-Big Spring game next week in the Region I final.

MATTHEW MUENCH can be reached at 940-566-6869. His e-mail address is mmuench@dentonrc.com.

Everman 21, Lake Dallas 16

Lake Dallas         0              10           0              6              —           16

Everman              7              7              0              7              —           21

Scoring summary

First quarter

E — Ruben Fletcher 42 run (Daniel Cruz kick), 3:15

Second quarter

LD — Adam Goodnight 20 field goal, 11:56

LD — Dalyn Williams 22 pass from Jake Baine (Goodnight kick), 9:43      

E — Cory Franklin 4 run (Cruz kick), 1:25

Fourth quarter

E — Cory Franklin 20 run (Cruz kick), 6:24

LD — Tyler McGee 18 pass from James Franklin (pass failed), 3:24

Team statistics

                LD           E

First downs         14           12

Rushing                35-110   45-288

Passing yards     225         27

Total yards          335         315

Passing 18-29-2 1-4-2

Fumbles-lost     1-1          6-2

Punts-avg.          4-35.2    4-29

Penalties             3-20       3-15

Individual statistics

Rushing — E: Cory Franklin 16-70, Ruben Fletcher 12-101, Barry Browning 12-93, James Bailey 2-6, Shawn Sanders 3-18. LD: James Franklin 28-106, Raymond Thelemaque 6-11, Tyler McGee 1-(minus 7).

Passing — E: Barry Browning 1-4-2-27. LD: James Franklin 16-26-2-202, Dalyn Williams 1-2-0-1, Jake Baine 1-1-0-22.

Receiving — E: Cory Franklin 1-27. LD: Tyler McGee 4-42, Dalyn Williams 8-160, Dontonio Jordan 2-5, Jake Baine 3-17, James Franklin 1-1.