Carthage High School Quarterback Patrick Carlton totaled four touchdowns and sophomore running back Luke Gall added one for good measure in a 35-12 win over visiting Nixa Friday, Oct. 23 at David Haffner Stadium.
Nixa came into the matchup at 7-1, and looked ready to give Carthage a run for its money when sophomore tailback Ramone Green took a handoff on the game’s opening play and ran 80 yards down the sideline to give the Eagles an early 6-0 lead.
Nixa then forced a punt and moved the ball up near midfield on their next posession. On fourth-and-short however, the Eagles ran a fake-punt that came up just short and gave the Tigers the ball in good field position.
Carthage had other plans and never looked back after that, scoring 21 unanswered to head into the half with a 21-6 lead. Carthage then outscored Nixa 14-6 in the second half to seal the win.
“These guys are a special group,” Carthage head coach Jon Guidie said. “We talked all week about how this is a big game and we’ve been in big games before. We’ve been there and done that. Champions are gonna rise to the occasion, they’re gonna overcome adversity. We come out first play of the game, they go 80 yards for a score, and our kids didn’t flinch. They didn’t flinch and they very easily could have. They came back and got after it. I love this group.”
Carthage finished off a perfect 8-0 regular season and jumped ahead of Webb City for the No. 1 district seed on the strength of their 23-point win over a Class 6 Nixa squad. Both defending state champions have first-round byes in the Class 5, District 6 playoffs which start next week.
Carthage will host the winner of Republic and Branson in the district semifinals on Nov. 6. Carthage has outscored Republic and Branson a combined 96-39 in two games this season.
