CARTHAGE, Mo. — Carthage dropped its home opener to the visiting Branson Pirates 28-14 on Friday, with costly turnovers hurting the Tigers throughout the night.
“That’s a big win for our program. I think it was 42-0 at halftime against these guys last year,” said Branson head coach Aaron Hafner. “To get a road win in the COC is great, period.”
Branson was first on the board, opening the game with a quick six-play scoring drive—finished off by a Daniel Giles 12-yard touchdown run.
The Tigers responded with a methodical drive on their first possession, holding the ball for nearly eight minutes on a 13-play, 56-yard drive. However, they came up empty after being stopped on fourth-down-and-2 at the Branson 21-yard line.
The first quarter ended with the visiting Pirates holding a 7-0 lead.
After forcing a Branson punt early in the second quarter, Carthage came up with its first points of the night.
The Tigers drove 66 yards on eight plays midway through the second quarter, with Brady Carlton hitting a wide open Karson Murray down the middle for a 24-yard touchdown connection.
The Tigers appeared to be on their way to taking their first lead later in the second quarter. They forced a three-and-out on the following Branson possession, with Landon Bland getting a big tackle-for-loss on third down. After a short punt, Carthage took over at the Branson 43-yard line.
Carthage lost that momentum moments later, as Gage Depee stepped in front of a Carlton pass for an interception and returned it all the way to the Tigers’ 6-yard line. The Pirates punched it in on the very next play to take a 14-7 lead.
Branson stopped Carthage on downs on the following possession and took over on their own 43-yard line with 1:05 remaining before halftime. With just one second remaining on the clock, Branson quarterback Luke McCormick heaved a last second pass into the front right corner of the end zone. Junior wide receiver Tegan Asbury fought through double coverage to haul it in and give the Pirates a 21-7 lead at the break.
“It was just an unbelievable catch by Tegan,” Hafner said. “He does that all the time in practice, but to see it in a game obviously was super cool. Tegan to me is a star in the making.”
“That was deflating,” said Carthage head coach Jon Guidie, “We were right there to make a play. We were in position to make a play, and we just didn’t make a play.”
The Tigers’ misfortune continued early in the third quarter. Branson’s defense forced and recovered a Carthage fumble on the very first play of the second half. One play later, Depee took a handoff and busted through an open lane 32 yards for a touchdown to give the Pirates a 28-7 lead just 17 seconds into the third quarter.
Turnovers continued to haunt Carthage on its next offensive possession. On a tipped Carlton pass, Javen Finkbone came up with an interception for Branson’s third forced turnover of the game.
The Tigers showed signs of life late in the third quarter, putting together their second scoring drive of the night. The drive ended with Carlton floating a pass down the right sideline to Jackson Hettinger for a 27-yard touchdown. Carlton’s second touchdown pass of the night brought Carthage within 14 heading to the fourth quarter.
Carthage continued to battle in the final period. They had a chance to make it a one-possession game with a little more than four minutes remaining. With the ball at the Branson 10-yard line, Carlton targeted Karson Murray in the end zone—but another tipped ball resulted in a third Branson interception by Ryder Schroeder.
The Pirates forced four turnovers defensively Friday night.
“Our number one key for this week was ball security,” Guidie said. “You can blame that tonight, but we have a lot of areas to row. We’re just not there yet.”
“I thought our kids did an excellent job of running to the football, and open-field tackling,” Hafner added. “I thought they rallied to the ball well and in clutch situations, came up with big plays.”
After the Tiger defense forced a quick three-and-out, the Tigers got one more chance to cut into the Pirates’ lead. Once again, the Branson defense came up with a stop—swatting down a Carlton pass on fourth-down-and-11 in the red zone to secure their 28-14 victory.
Branson improves to 1-1 with the victory, while Carthage has an 0-2 record for the first time since 2017.
“There’s only one way to go from here, and that’s up. The conference championship is out of our minds right now,” Guidie said. “It’s just, can we get better through the next several weeks and hopefully make a run in districts? That’s a tall order because our conference is loaded, but that’s really where we’re at.”
