CARTHAGE, Mo. — Playing without its top playmaker, senior RB/LB Luke Gall, top-seeded Carthage fell behind early before finding its footing, taking a lead into the intermission and pulling away from fifth-seeded Willard in the second half en route to a 41-21 win in the Class 5 District 6 semifinals at David Haffner Stadium on Saturday.
“I can’t say enough about these guys and how they came out and executed,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie said. “Willard gave us a couple of different looks … but I was so proud of our guys up front for navigating through those different looks. At halftime, we were able to talk about it and in the second half, we came out and executed really well.”
Carthage (9-1) was without Gall, who dressed but did not play while recovering from an injury.
“It was just a precautionary thing with him,” Guidie said.
Carthage advances to the district championship where the Tigers will host third-seeded Republic (8-3) on Friday. Carthage is looking to win their first district title since 2019.
“They’re obviously playing really, really well and we knew when we played them back in Week 1 that they were a good team and only were going to get better,” Guidie said of his matchup with the RepMo Tigers. “They’ve had some big wins in the last few weeks and they are going to be excited to come back here and get another shot at us.”
Willard took the opening lead after converting a fourth-down-and-4 when Gary Walker took a run outside and bounced off several tackles on the way to a 37-yard touchdown with 8:49 on the clock to make the score 7-0.
Carthage didn’t flinch, marching right down the field and punching it in on a 1-yard touchdown run from Clay Kinder to tie things up at 7s with 5:13 left in the first half.
“No one can fill Luke’s shoes because he’s the best player in the state,” Kinder said. “I just did my best to play hard and try to help my team win. … I like running the ball, but I am mainly a defensive guy. It was fun to be back there for a game, though.”
Willard took the lead near the turn of the second quarter when QB Russell Roweton found Timmy Ruble for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 11:07 on the clock to make the score 14-7.
Carthage answered back with another scoring drive on a 2-yard run on the direct snap to Kinder to tie the game back up at 14-14 with 7:01 left in the first half.
Carthage forced Willard into turnover-on-downs on the ensuing possession and took the ball with less than five minutes to play in the half. CHS went to the air with a deep ball from Cooper Jadwin to WR Hudson Moore to get into the red zone and milked the clock down while in a goal-to-go situation before taking the lead on Kinder’s third rushing touchdown of the game, this one also from 2 yards out, with 24.8 to give Carthage a 20-14 lead, the Tigers’ first lead of the game.
“He was fantastic,” Guidie said of Kinder’s performance. “We split the time with Klay and Tavion Bailey, and those two guys did a really good job carrying that load. Both of them start on defense and already play a lot of snaps, so now they understand what it’s like for Luke (Gall) to come out every single Friday night and do that. I am really proud of Klay, and Tayvion, and I thought Cooper Jadwin did really well. He probably doubled his average number of carries tonight and his production was really good. … All three of those guys did a good job.”
Coming out of the locker room with possession, Carthage found the end zone quickly when WR Mason Frisinger took the end around handoff and found the edge for a 58-yard touchdown down the sideline for a 27-14 Carthage lead over Willard with 11:14 left in the third quarter.
“That was huge,” Guidie said. “We kept trying to get that one-score lead (by halftime). Our defense played hard, but (Willard) threw the ball really well and they completed a few of them that led to those two scores. But, our kids answered and got that score right before halftime and then came out and hit them on that second play (of the second half) and got up two scores, which is really big in these types of games.”
Carthage pushed the lead to 34-14 on a 1-yard rushing touchdown from Jadwin with 4:56 to play in the third quarter.
Jadwin added an 86-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to build Carthage’s lead to 41-14 with 11:02 left in the game.
Willard added a touchdown inside the final minute to wrap the scoring.
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Carthage found out how much of an impact Gall has on their team but still found out that they have the will and confidence to get the win.