CARTHAGE, Mo. — After scoring one of his six touchdowns in the first half on an extremely humid Friday night, Luke Gall suddenly felt sick. He ran off the field to the sidelines, knelt down and vomited.
The extra point try and kickoff took place in the background while he collected himself and sipped some water.
On the next two plays, the two-way senior standout was the first defender to the ball, stuffing run plays.
It was that kind of night for Gall and Carthage as they routed the Republic Tigers 56-26 at David Haffner Stadium to begin the 2022 football season 1-0.
“It’s just about the drive to win,” the running back/linebacker combo said of how he was able to continue, and thrive. “It’s humid tonight, it was raining earlier, it got humid. I just got tired, I threw up. But the game’s not over. In my opinion, it’s my responsibility (to help) the team win. That’s how I should think, to carry myself more and play better. If we lose, I take the loss personally. If we win, that’s on the team and it’s a good job. So I think it’s just about effort, I guess.”
Gall’s effort in the victory could be called satisfactory. In addition to playing nearly every snap at linebacker, he found the end zone five times on the ground and hauled in a pass from senior quarterback and first-year starter Cooper Jadwin, taking it 96 yards for a total of six scores on the night.
“We were backed up pretty good there,” said coach Jon Guidie, who reached 200 career coaching wins with Friday night’s victory, most coming at Carthage, but 47 as coach of Cherryvale High School in Southeast Kansas. “Second and long, we thought ‘Let’s try to get half of it, let’s see if we can’t get it back to manageable on third down.’ And then Luke turned into Luke and he just does what he does … beautifully executed play right there.”
At that point, Carthage held a lead of only 20-7 late in the second quarter. A block in the back penalty and a loss of four on a run by Jadwin had backed Carthage up to its own 6-yard-line. Guidie sent multiple wideouts deep, and Gall emerged from the backfield and floated into the flat, where Jadwin found him and he refused to be stopped until he found the end zone.
That touchdown was part of a 36-19 run in Carthage’s favor that sealed the deal.
Some season-opening jitters led the Tigers to use all three of their first-half timeouts by the 7:44 mark of the second quarter, meaning they had to eat a delay of game penalty before halftime, and they also allowed Republic some big plays, as those Tigers scored on plays of 53, 65 and 50 yards. Even so, the game ended with a 30-point margin and, thus, MSHSAA’s accelerated clock.
“That’s kind of what we said at halftime, ‘It feels like we’re just getting killed out here,’” Guidie said. “And it was because it was so stressful just getting the plays in, having to use those timeouts, getting the right personnel in, all those things. But, you know, it’s a first week and those things will get ironed out.”
Gall ended the night with 15 rushes for 115 yards and two receptions for 121 yards. That all added up to six total touchdowns and 236 yards from scrimmage.
Making his first-ever start at quarterback, Jadwin rushed 12 times for 89 yards and completed 4-of-7 passing attempts for 147 yards and the touchdown to Gall.
Guidie jokingly chalked up his career milestone to volume and time, but said what he appreciated about it most was his team celebrating on his behalf.
“I’ve been really fortunate to coach with some really good football coaches and coach some really good football players,” he said. “And, you know, I’ve been doing this a long time, so, eventually, you’re probably going to get there. But, no, it means a lot to have these guys do it and, you could see that they were very, very happy for me, which makes me really proud of them.”
Carthage will travel to face the Branson Pirates in Week 2.
