REPUBLIC, Mo. — The Republic Tigers scored on plays of 61, 72 and 80 yards in the first half. In the entire game, they had only six other plays go for 10 or more yards.
At one point, it looked like those long, quick-strike scoring plays were going to keep them alive in a matchup with the Carthage Tigers on Friday night, but the offense of the Tigers wearing blue and white just refused to stop. Carthage eventually turned what looked like a back-and-forth track meet of a game into a 63-29 rout to stay undefeated at 7-0, while Republic dropped to 2-6.
“Really, defensively, it was what we thought it might be,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie said. “We watched them on film and a lot of their big plays come from broken plays where the quarterback is scrambling around, buying time and we lose coverage on the back end and he finds somebody wide open down there.
“That’s pretty much what happened on some of those big plays they got,” he said. “But other than that, I thought our defense played really solid, really well, it was just a few broken plays.”
The first quarter ended 21-7 in favor of Carthage, and the margin would stay no greater than two scores as the teams traded touchdowns until a 68-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Luke Gall sparked a run of 35 unanswered points. With 8:14 to play in the first half, the score was 28-14 in favor of Carthage. The Tigers took a 49-21 advantage into halftime.
On a near flawless night for the Carthage offense, they racked up 598 yards of total offense, with 530 of those coming on the ground. Gall finished with 177 rushing yards on 15 carries, while senior quarterback Patrick Carlton added 18 carries for 224 yards, on top of six-of-eight passing attempts for 68 yards. The pair each accounted for four touchdowns.
“We kept coming offensively, never really got slowed down, to be honest,” Guidie said. “I thought our offensive line did a tremendous job … All that happens because of those guys up front and the pride they have in themselves is amazing.”
Guidie said he was pleased with this team’s performance, but acknowledged that Republic keeping itself in the game with its big plays — despite Carthage’s successes in all other facets — kept the feel of the game tight.
“It’s always tense for me,” he said with a slight laugh. “But yeah, you feel like you’re kind of in control of things, I think we went up 21-7 early in the first quarter and then they hit a big play and pulled back within seven. At that point you feel like ‘We’re going to have to outscore these dudes, we’re going to have to score every time we touch the ball.’”
With the exception of the drive in which the clock hit 0:00 in the fourth quarter, that’s exactly what the Tigers did. The effort sets up a showdown with 7-1 Nixa at David Haffner Stadium in Carthage next week in the teams’ regular season finale.
