CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers flexed their offensive depth in a 42-7 win over the Neosho Wildcats at David Haffner Stadium on Friday night.
Playing without starting running back Luke Gall, who led the team in rushing with 333 yards through two weeks, Carthage (3-0, 3-0 COC) leaned heavily on senior quarterback Patrick Carlton, but also got contributions from sophomore wide receiver Hudson Moore, and running backs Cale Patrick, Ashton Lancaster and Rylee Barker.
Carlton ran for four touchdowns and threw another, totaling 201 yards on 7-of-8 passing attempts and 57 rushing yards in handling Neosho (0-3).
After committing a combined nine turnovers in the season’s first two games, the Tigers cut that number to one giveaway, a fumble, in Friday night’s game.
“We keep telling our kids that the thing that’s stopping us is us,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie said. “And we had a penalty that brought back a touchdown and of course we fumbled, but other than that I thought we were pretty efficient offensively. I thought we did a nice job throwing the football, mixing it up. We didn’t have Luke Gall tonight so that factored into some things, but Pat did a good job, Hudson Moore had some great catches again tonight.”
Guidie didn’t offer specifics on the injury that held Gall out of the game, saying only that the sophomore was “banged up, beat up a little bit.”
Moore caught both passes thrown his way for a total of 82 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown. Barker caught three passes for 79 yards, one of which was a screen pass he turned into a 53-yard gain to set up Carlton’s second rushing touchdown just two plays later. Patrick and Lancaster chipped in on offense with 32 rushing yards each, and Lancaster capped the game’s scoring with a two-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Neosho remains in search of its first win of the season, but did earn its first points of the year with a marathon third-quarter drive that culminated in an 8-yard touchdown run by junior running back Talon Mitchell. Receiving the second-half kickoff, Neosho ate nearly 11 minutes off the clock with an 18-play, 72-yard drive, on which they went to Mitchell for nine carries that produced 32 yards.
The Tigers’ win sets up a Week 4 matchup with rival Webb City (2-1), the last team to hand Carthage a loss. The Tigers have now won 12-straight games since their regular season defeat by the Cardinals last season.
Guidie said the improved ball security his team showed against Neosho will be important against Webb City and that he expects whichever defense contains the opposing offense better will prevail.
“Obviously you just try to go business as usual,” he said. “But its a rivalry, it definitely is, and we’ve had some really good games over the last few years. It’s big, it’s big for a lot of people in both communities and both schools and, you know, conference championship, that’s kind of up for grabs right now, too. So you factor all of that stuff in, I think it’s going to be a pretty exciting atmosphere.”
CARTHAGE 42, NEOSHO 7
Carthage 7 14 7 7 — 42
Neosho 0 0 7 0 — 7
Scoring Summary
CAR—Patrick Carlton 12-yard run. Caleb Calvin kick.
CAR—Carlton 4 run. Calvin kick.
CAR—Carlton 2 run. Calvin kick.
CAR—Carlton 2 run. Calvin kick.
NEO—Talon Mitchell 8-yard run. Yeison Juarez Vazquez kick.
CAR—Hudson Moore 46-yard pass from Carlton. Calvin kick.
CAR—Ashton Lancaster 2 run. Calvin kick.
