With the top seed in Class 5 District 6 all but officially locked up, the Carthage football team will wrap up its regular season on Friday against Ozark.
The Tigers, ranked fourth in Class 5, are 7-1 with a seemingly unsurmountable lead over the rest of the five-team district. That means Carthage will earn a first-round bye for the fifth-straight season.
But first: Ozark. The visitors own a 1-7 record this season but have won two straight against Carthage while finishing 7-5 last year and 8-3 in 2016.
“We need to finish hard here,” Carthage coach Jon Guidie said Tuesday. “The last couple weeks have been ballgames for us. We’ve had to battle a little bit and it’d be nice to get out and play a clean game, not turn the ball over and not have penalties.”
Much was made about Carthage’s string of fourth-down conversions in a 42-26 win at Republic last week. The Tigers scored on fourth down on four-straight drives, but Guidie noted his team found itself in those spots largely because of penalties.
A 10-yard penalty and then a loss of nine yards put the Tigers in a third-and-29 hole in the first quarter. They scored on fourth-and-17 when Patrick Carlton threw a perfect pass to Tucker Downing for 32 yards. A false start penalty put Carthage in a fourth-and-11 dilemma in the second quarter, which led to a Carlton-to-Jayden Morgan touchdown pass for 21 yards.
“We’d get backed up and put ourselves in that situation to have to convert on fourth down,” he said. “We had seven offensive penalties. That was a big contributor to having to convert on those big yardage plays. This last week, you can’t lose focus. You want to come out and play well. Not just win the game but come out and play well for our kids to have some confidence going into that bye week.”
As for Ozark, those other Tigers beat Carl Junction 17-10 on Sept. 21 but haven’t won another game. Ozark has scored just 53 points this year, an average of 6.6 per game. Guidie said turnovers on offense and big plays on defense have done a lot of the damage.
“It feels like they’ve been in a lot of games, particularly early,” he said. “They’ve moved the ball on teams. They’ve just turned it over. I’m anxious to see their turnover margin. It seems like they’ve turned it over at inopportune times. That’s stalled them out offensively I think. Defensively it seems like they give up the big play. They play pretty solid, pretty solid and then somebody will hit a big play on them. I think overall they’re pretty solid on both sides. They just have a hard time being consistently productive.”
Guidie said Ozark returned just four total starters from its 2017 team that was loaded with seniors. Offensively he said junior quarterback Chance Strickler (6-0, 175) does a good job running the flexbone offense.
“He looks pretty savvy,” Guidie said. “He makes some good reads and is kind of elusive when he does pull it.”
Up front Guidie pointed to senior guard Trenton Sederwall (6-6, 270) who he said has a Division 1-type body and is probably Ozark’s best lineman. In the backfield he noted senior running back Ethan Sandoval (6-0, 205) who he described as a big, athletic “bruiser type” runner.
“They like to give it to him inside the tackles and he does a real good job,” he said.
Defensively, Ozark has allowed 19 or fewer points in three different games, and the Tigers gave up just six in a loss against Branson. Joplin has scored 49 and Webb City 42 in the last two weeks, though, and the Cardinals rushed for more than 400 yards in a 42-0 win last week.
Guidie has been impressed by the unit’s trio of linebackers, especially senior middle linebacker Logan Emmerth (6-1, 210).
“I would say the strength of their defense is their three linebackers,” he said. “They’re all seniors. Two of them played last year. Probably their best one is Emmerth. I bet he leads them in tackles. It just seems like he’s a downhill physical kid and is always around the ball, makes a lot of plays.”
Carthage notes
Quarterback Zeke Sappington had the cast removed from his broken hand this week. He suffered the injury to his throwing hand in week four against Neosho. He rushed for more than 400 yards and threw for more than 200 before the injury, accounting for seven touchdowns. He could return to the field later in the season, depending on how long Carthage plays.
Running back Tyler Mueller, who injured his ankle in the Neosho game, may finally be back to full speed. He missed two games but got nine carries against Willard and 11 carries at Republic.
“He’s looked like his old self in practice this week,” Guidie said. “He was doing awfully well the first four weeks and he had some really big games for us. He just hadn’t gotten that step yet. Just based on practice this week I feel like he has.”
Mueller has 510 yards and five touchdowns on 91 carries this year.
Patrick Carlton, who replaced Sappington at quarterback, should surpass 1,000 rushing yards this week if the last few games are any indication. He’s got 944 yards and 17 touchdowns on 132 carries this year. He’s rushed for more than 200 yards in two-straight games.
On the defensive side, senior linebacker Colton Winder is nearing 100 tackles for the season. He’s got 83 so far, including a team-leading 22 solo tackles and he also leads with three fumble recoveries. He ranks second behind Oscar Campa in tackles for a loss, with Campa recording seven. Mason Bryant leads the team with four sacks.
