KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men weathered a one hour and 15 minute weather delay on Saturday at Art Keller Field before storming their way to a convincing 31-8 win over the Elmhurst College Bluejays.
The win moves the Red Men to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while Elmhurst falls to 2-5 and 2-3 in conference.
Running backs Lafayette McGary and Jamel Davis each rushed for over 100 yards and combined for three touchdowns, including two by McGary in the win behind the offensive line of Isaiah Trussell, Joe Godlevske, Nick Barker, Anthony Kudra and Camden Cotter. As a team the Red Men finished with 230 yards on the ground, the second most by Carthage this season.
On the offense's play Yeager stated, "Offensively we ran the ball pretty well considering what they were doing. Elmhurst was loading the box, which made it really hard in these weather conditions that make passing even harder. That said, we made a few throws when we needed to convert on drives. But I thought it was solid day on offense and special teams played outstanding… Today was a challenge for the guys up front on the line. Like I said, they were loading the box and blitzing every single play. Our big guys rose to the challenge and we are excited to come out of today with a W."
McGary opened the scoring on a career long rush of 82 yards in the first quarter to put the Red Men up 7-0 to open the game. The Bluejays answered with a touchdown and two-point conversion to take a brief 8-7 lead with 9:11 remaining in the first half.
McGary then found the end zone for the second time on Saturday on a three-yard run with 6:28 left in the second. McGary finished with 18 carries for a career-high 134 yards.
It looked as though the Red Men would take a 14-8 lead into the halftime break but a blocked punt by linebacker Nick Ganzke setup Lance Unlandfor a 42-yard field goal in the final seconds of the half gave the Red Men a 17-8 advantage.
Carthage tacked on a pair of touchdowns in the second half, as Kyle Friberg found James Cobbs on a six-yard touchdown pass in the third to put the Red Men up 24-8. Friberg finished 9-18 for 76 yards, while Cobbs' TD reception was his only of the game.
Jamel Davis put the Red Men on the scoreboard for the final time in the fourth to cap a nine play 50-yard drive with a one yard rushing touchdown. Davis ended the game with 104 yards on 19 carries to give him his second 100-yard game of the season.
The Carthage defense, which had allowed just 222.0 yards per game entering Saturday, allowed just 178 yards on the day and held the Bluejays to just five total rushing yards on 29 attempts.
"I thought our defense played really well with the exception of one series," noted Yeager. "In that series we had three bad plays in terms of high discipline and man-to-man coverage with leaving guys open. Besides that they played fantastic. Elmhurst didn't really try to run the ball today and our guys held up in the pass game."
The Red Men sacked the Bluejay passers six times in the game and Carthage recorded 12 tackles for loss in the win, led by Cedrick Fry led all Carthage players with 5.5 tackles, five of which were solo and a pair of sacks. Pete Laughlin had three sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss, and Joey Pausa recorded the Red Men's 16th interception of the season as Elmhurst was driving in the fourth quarter.
"Our whole defense has played well to this point in the season but out defensive line is banged up a little bit…Ced and Pete are awesome. They are playing really, really hard and when you play hard with great technique you are going to have number of opportunities to make some plays and that is what you saw today."
Next up for the Red Men, Carthage will head to Illinois Wesleyan University for a matchup of one-loss teams in Bloomington, Illinois on October 21st.
Red Men Defeat Elmhurst At Home Saturday, 31-8
/seasons/2017/boxscores/20171014_vy07.xml
2017
Elmhurst
8
Carthage
31
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elmhurst (2-5) | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Carthage (5-1) | 7 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 31 |
Oct 14, 2017