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The Carthage Tigers jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first half, then used a stout defense to hold on the rest of the way for a 28-6 win over Republic.
The Tigers moved to 5-2 on the season going into next week’s showdown with rival Webb City.
“It was a defensive struggle,” said Republic head coach Kurt Thompson. “We defended a lot of speed tonight and I think our kids, in the first half, it took a little while to get used to that. Their tailback (Seth Beckner) is a very good player and we knew that coming in. We knew we couldn’t get in a footrace with him.”
Carthage’s Seth Beckner accounted for all four of Carthage’s touchdowns. He scored three on the ground on 25 rushes for 142 yards and the fourth through the air along with three catches for 42 yards.
“He’s pretty special, he really is,” said Carthage head coach Jon Guidie. “You know what you’re going to get with him, you’re going to get a lot of effort in the running game. We like to use him in our passing game with our screens and he had a couple big ones tonight and then defensively, he’s a pretty solid cover guy, he does a nice job over there.”
Carthage quarterback Jordan Musser was six of nine passing for 87 yards while Gage Franklin added another pass completion for seven yards.
The Tigers had 293 yards overall on offense, including 199 on the ground.
“In the first half, the effort was tremendous, we came out and we did exactly what we wanted to do which was run the football, establish our running game,” Guidie said. “We might have only thrown one pass in that first half. We just wanted to rise up and see what we could get and in the first half, for the most part, we got it.”
Carthage’s defense won the turnover battle as well intercepting two of Republic quarterback James Desjardins nine pass attempts. Carthage’s offense gave up one fumble.
“I’m going to give all the credit tonight to our defense, they played tremendous, they really did,” Guidie said. “They do some nice things, Republic does, offensively and you had better be in position and you had better be able to wrap up and make plays and we just had big play after big play after big play back there.
The Carthage Tigers jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first half, then used a stout defense to hold on the rest of the way for a 28-6 win over Republic.
The Tigers moved to 5-2 on the season going into next week’s showdown with rival Webb City.
“It was a defensive struggle,” said Republic head coach Kurt Thompson. “We defended a lot of speed tonight and I think our kids, in the first half, it took a little while to get used to that. Their tailback (Seth Beckner) is a very good player and we knew that coming in. We knew we couldn’t get in a footrace with him.”
Carthage’s Seth Beckner accounted for all four of Carthage’s touchdowns. He scored three on the ground on 25 rushes for 142 yards and the fourth through the air along with three catches for 42 yards.
“He’s pretty special, he really is,” said Carthage head coach Jon Guidie. “You know what you’re going to get with him, you’re going to get a lot of effort in the running game. We like to use him in our passing game with our screens and he had a couple big ones tonight and then defensively, he’s a pretty solid cover guy, he does a nice job over there.”
Carthage quarterback Jordan Musser was six of nine passing for 87 yards while Gage Franklin added another pass completion for seven yards.
The Tigers had 293 yards overall on offense, including 199 on the ground.
“In the first half, the effort was tremendous, we came out and we did exactly what we wanted to do which was run the football, establish our running game,” Guidie said. “We might have only thrown one pass in that first half. We just wanted to rise up and see what we could get and in the first half, for the most part, we got it.”
Carthage’s defense won the turnover battle as well intercepting two of Republic quarterback James Desjardins nine pass attempts. Carthage’s offense gave up one fumble.
“I’m going to give all the credit tonight to our defense, they played tremendous, they really did,” Guidie said. “They do some nice things, Republic does, offensively and you had better be in position and you had better be able to wrap up and make plays and we just had big play after big play after big play back there.
They stepped up and made plays when they needed to. Cody Ellis had a huge game, “Michael York had a nice game defensively. Sam Carlton had a pick, but he had his hands on another one that he could have gotten. We pressured the quarterback very well with our defensive front. Griff Schram made a heck of a hit on that kickoff. Cody comes right back and ran through their line and made a great play. Then he followed that with another solo tackle on the stretch.”
Beckner opened the scoring with 3:49 left in the first quarter, capping a game-opening eight-play drive with a three-yard touchdown plunge.
He scored twice in the second quarter, once with a 24-yard run that capped a 45-yard drive and the second time with a 28-yard pass reception from Musser with 3:29 left in the half.
Aaris Vogt was perfect on four extra-point kicks.
Carthage gave up the ball on downs on its first drive of the second half, giving Republic the ball on Carthage’s 45.
Republic took advantage with a quick 40-yard pass completion from Desjardins to Garrett Metscher. It took him three plays, but Republic fullback Jake Laswell finally put the ball in.
On the point-after-touchdown, however, Beckner plunged through the center of Republic’s line and met the kicker at the ball, kicking the ball at the same instance the kicker did and blocking the kick.
Early in the fourth quarter, with the score still 21-6, Republic threatened with a drive to Carthage’s 15, but Desjardins came up one yard short on fourth and four to give the ball back to Carthage with 11:07 left in the game.
Carthage iced the game with a final 71-yard drive that featured two big pass plays, one from Musser to Kyle Reed for 17 yards and one on the next play from Musser to Zach Strubberg for 24 yards, setting the Tigers up on Republic’s 10.
Four plays later, facing fourth down with the ball inches from Republic goal line, Beckner punched it in for the final touchdown.
