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An untimely offsides penalty and a costly turnover turned a close, hard-fought playoff game into near rout as the Carthage Tigers ended a stellar season with a 34-13 loss at Jefferson City Helias on Wednesday.
In a disastrous one-minute span just before the end of the first half, the Tigers went from down by seven points and feeling confident in a defense that was holding fast against the two-time defending state runner-up, to down by 21 points and heading into the locker room in shock.
“If there’s a turning point, obviously, that was it,” said Carthage coach Jon Guidie. “We would have had the ball with five minutes left down seven, maybe you go in the locker room down seven or even tied at seven and have some hope. Instead, all of a sudden, it was 21-0 and they get the ball to start the second half. It got away from us right there, but it was our own fault, we made so many mistakes there in the first half.”
The Tigers were trailing 7-0 and Carthage’s defense had seemingly stopped a Helias drive at the Crusader 42 with just under four minutes left in the first half.
As Helias lined up to punt on fourth-and-2, Carthage was flagged for jumping early, giving Helias the first down. On the very next play, Crusader quarterback Zach Rockers tossed a shovel pass to running back Greg Lorang who dashed 51 yards before he was forced out of bounds at Carthage’s 2.
One play later, Helias’ Brendan Roberts scored the touchdown and Helias went up 14-0 with 3:11 left in the half.
Then on Carthage’s first play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Lorang, playing safety, picked off a Derek Peterson pass at Carthage’s 42 and dashed for the end zone. He was stopped at Carthage’s 2.
Switching to offense, Lorang scored on the 1-yard touchdown run two plays later and the PAT put Helias up on the Tigers 21-0 at the half.
Helias had one more advantage coming out of the half-time break — they would get the ball first in the second half.
“We really felt comfortable, but we really preached to the guys at halftime to stay focused,” said Helias coach Chris Hentges. “That first drive we had in the second half, it was an 11-play drive. It took six minutes off the clock and, it ended in a field goal but it was probably more important that we ran six minutes off the clock than anything, and we made it a solid three-score game.”
An untimely offsides penalty and a costly turnover turned a close, hard-fought playoff game into near rout as the Carthage Tigers ended a stellar season with a 34-13 loss at Jefferson City Helias on Wednesday.
In a disastrous one-minute span just before the end of the first half, the Tigers went from down by seven points and feeling confident in a defense that was holding fast against the two-time defending state runner-up, to down by 21 points and heading into the locker room in shock.
“If there’s a turning point, obviously, that was it,” said Carthage coach Jon Guidie. “We would have had the ball with five minutes left down seven, maybe you go in the locker room down seven or even tied at seven and have some hope. Instead, all of a sudden, it was 21-0 and they get the ball to start the second half. It got away from us right there, but it was our own fault, we made so many mistakes there in the first half.”
The Tigers were trailing 7-0 and Carthage’s defense had seemingly stopped a Helias drive at the Crusader 42 with just under four minutes left in the first half.
As Helias lined up to punt on fourth-and-2, Carthage was flagged for jumping early, giving Helias the first down. On the very next play, Crusader quarterback Zach Rockers tossed a shovel pass to running back Greg Lorang who dashed 51 yards before he was forced out of bounds at Carthage’s 2.
One play later, Helias’ Brendan Roberts scored the touchdown and Helias went up 14-0 with 3:11 left in the half.
Then on Carthage’s first play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Lorang, playing safety, picked off a Derek Peterson pass at Carthage’s 42 and dashed for the end zone. He was stopped at Carthage’s 2.
Switching to offense, Lorang scored on the 1-yard touchdown run two plays later and the PAT put Helias up on the Tigers 21-0 at the half.
Helias had one more advantage coming out of the half-time break — they would get the ball first in the second half.
“We really felt comfortable, but we really preached to the guys at halftime to stay focused,” said Helias coach Chris Hentges. “That first drive we had in the second half, it was an 11-play drive. It took six minutes off the clock and, it ended in a field goal but it was probably more important that we ran six minutes off the clock than anything, and we made it a solid three-score game.”
The defenses held sway over much of the rest of the game until a wild last seven minutes.
Carthage finally broke into the scoring column after recovering a Lorang fumble at the Helias 39 with just over 10 minutes left in the game.
Carthage took seven plays, including a key 23-yard pass from Peterson to Keith Lawrie on fourth-and-7, to score on Brian Poston’s 3-yard touchdown run with 7:19 left, a play that left a glimmer of hope for the Tigers’ season.
“It’s important that we score anytime but at that particular point in the game, we still weren’t out of it had we converted that two-point play,” Guidie said. “We would have been down two scores, it was early in the fourth quarter, you get the onside kick and who knows.”
It was not to be as the two-point conversion failed.
Helias took the kickoff and scored a touchdown with 4:51 to put the game out of reach.
Helias recovered a Keith Lawrie fumble on the next kickoff and added a field goal to make the score 34-6.
Poston scored on his final play as a Carthage Tiger, a 63-yard run around left end, but it was all window dressing as the Tigers fell and ended their season at 9-2.
Poston finished the game and his Tiger football career with 123 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Overall, the Tigers managed 223 yards on offense, while giving up a fumble, an interception and a sack.
Helias finished with 272 yards of total offense and moves on to face Webb City in Jefferson City on Monday.
Guidie said he was disappointed with how the season ended but proud of his team and a quality group of seniors.
“We’ve had a great run of it this year,” Guidie said. “I don’t know what people’s expectations were but you don’t want this to represent our season. We really did some nice things this season, the kids played hard, we stayed out of trouble and again, I really enjoyed coaching them. We’ve got some great seniors that have been, not just with us but have significant playing time over the years, Brian obviously, and Derek’s been a two-year starter for us and those guys, they meant a lot to us and they will be missed.”
