CARTHAGE, Mo. — Carthage used a strong rushing attack to build an early lead before pulling away from Joplin late to earn a 41-20 win, staying undefeated in the Central Ozark Conference with a 6-0 mark on the season.
“This was something you don’t want to build up too much with your kids, but this was a huge night for us in terms of the conference race and district seeding,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie said. “We try to tell them don’t worry about the outcome, just worry about the details and the outcome will take care of itself. We knew there was a lot riding on this game here.”
“Carthage is a really good team, and we knew that going in,” Joplin coach Curtis Jasper said. “We were going to have to play well. I liked our fight in the second half, especially defensively, I thought we played well. We just made too many mistakes and had too many penalties.”
Carthage took the opening possession and marched 70 yards on 11 plays, all on the ground, to go up 7-0 on a 1-yard rushing touchdown from Patrick Carlton. The Tigers chewed up nearly half the clock of the first quarter during that span.
“That was one of our keys going in,” Guidie said. “We wanted to dominate the line of scrimmage, really on both sides, but particularly with our offensive line. We wanted to come out with that mentality, and we did.”
After forcing Joplin (3-4) into a three-and-out on the Eagles’ first possession, Carthage used 11 more rushing plays to get the ball near midfield. After 22 straight plays on the ground, Carlton completed a 6-yard pass on fourth-and-4 to move the chains. On the next play, Caden Kabance lined up out wide, took the jet-sweep handoff before stopping in the backfield and heaving the ball downfield to Hudson Moore for a 32-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 14-0 lead with 10:31 to play in the first half.
Joplin found the scoreboard near the midway point of the second quarter when Nathan Glades crossed the goal line from a yard out to trim Carthage’s lead to 14-7 with 7:01 on the clock.
The Tigers didn’t take long to answer. After a strong return past midfield, Carthage needed just three plays to find the end zone, with Carlton ripping off a 29-yard rushing touchdown at the 6:11 mark to push Carthage’s lead back to two scores, 21-7.
With six minutes left in the half, and getting the ball out of the locker room, Joplin’s offense went to work getting a touchdown before the intermission to make it a one-score game. Joplin overcame several penalties but still managed to drive down inside the Carthage 30 before ultimately finding itself facing a fourth-and-13 from the 28. Joplin quarterback Always Wright was picked off by Carthage’s Justin Sneed on the fourth-down pass, with Sneed returning it to the JHS 33-yard line.
The Tigers made the most of the turnover shortly after, with Carlton scoring from 2 yards out to push the lead to 28-7 with 46.9 seconds left in the half.
“That turnover was huge, and his return to get us into plus territory was unbelievable,” Guidie said. “You want to be opportunistic on those things. Turning them over is one thing, but if you can convert them, that is a whole different animal.”
Penalties were an issue for Joplin all evening, as the Eagles were flagged nine times for 75 yards, unofficially.
“You just have to run so many more plays and execute that many more plays,” Jasper said. “It just adds up. We’ve had that trouble all season long. Obviously, I am doing something wrong because I have not figured out how to fix that because we have not been a penalized team in the past. I have to figure that out because we have to get better at it.”
Joplin’s offense came out of the half inspired, going on a 12-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in Wright finding Landen Atherton for a 23-yard passing touchdown. The PAT was no good, leaving Carthage in front 28-13 with 8:14 to play in the third quarter.
The Eagles’ defense forced their first and only three-and-out of the game on their opening defensive possession of the second half, which also forced the Tigers into their only punt.
Glades fielded the ensuing punt at the 17 before taking the ball to the far sideline, evading a pair of would-be tacklers and sprinting past everyone on the way to an 87-yard punt return touchdown to get Joplin within one score, 28-20, with 6:29 left in the third.
“We felt like if we could get or make a few breaks for ourselves, we could keep it rolling,” Jasper said. “Carthage went down and scored, and then we put ourselves in a position to press a little bit. We just have to do better in the first half so we don’t put ourselves in such a hole.”
Carthage methodically drove down the field, eating up the remaining clock of the third quarter with 11 plays and taking nearly three minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter before Carlton found running back Luke Gall with a screen pass, with Gall taking the ball to the house from 35 yards out to cap a 16-play drive to make the score 35-20 with 9:15 to play.
“That was huge,” Guidie said when asked how important it was to get back on the scoreboard in the fourth after going scoreless in the third quarter. “And to do it in the manner in which we did it, with a 16-play drive, that was kind of a backbreaker, I thought, for them and kind of took the wind out of their sails.”
Carlton added a 1-yard rushing touchdown with 1:53 to play to seal the win for Carthage.
STATS
Carthage ran 59 offensive plays for 433 yards, with Carlton leading the way on the ground with 27 carries for 145 yards and four touchdowns. Gall had 21 carries for 66 yards and two receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown. Cale Patrick rushed six times for 50 yards.
Joplin ran 61 plays for 322 yards of offense. Glades rushed 25 times for 70 yards and caught six passes for 56 yards. Wright completed 19-of-28 passes for 218 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
UP NEXT
Carthage travels to Republic, while Joplin hosts Branson.
SCORING SUMMARY
Joplin 0 7 13 0 — 20
Carthage 7 21 0 13 — 41
FIRST QUARTER
CHS—Patrick Carlton 1 run (Caleb Calvin kick)
SECOND QUARTER
CHS—Hudson Moore 32 pass from Caden Kabance (Calvin kick)
JHS—Nathan Glades 1 run (Keaton Huff kick)
CHS—Patrick Carlton 29 run (Calvin kick)
CHS—Carlton 2 run (Calvin kick)
THIRD QUARTER
JHS—Landen Atherton 23 pass from Always Wright (kick fail)
JHS—Glades 87 punt return (Huff kick)
FOURTH QUARTER
CHS—Luke Gall 35 pass from Carlton (Calvin kick)
CHS—Carlton 1 run (kick fail)
