The MSHSAA football playoff schedule says the state quarter finals game should be played on Saturday, Nov. 17, but Carthage Tigers Head Coach Jon Guidie said after this Friday’s games that he and the coach at Lebanon are talking about moving it to 7 p.m. Friday night, Nov. 16.
Guidie said he and the Lebanon coach would both rather maintain the routine, set for the past 11 weeks, of practices through the week and playing on Friday instead of disrupting that routine with a Saturday 1 p.m. game.
“With the proximity of the teams, Lebanon only being a couple of hours up the road, we wanted to maintain that routine,” Guidie said Friday after Carthage’s win over Parkview. “If we were traveling to St. Louis or something, that would be different, but they’re just a couple of hours away, so we’d both rather maintain that routine.”
The move is pending a final decision from both schools’ activities directors.
Lebanon defeated Willard 32-19 to set up the game.
Carthage manhandled Parkview 65-16 on Friday at David Haffner Stadium on the Carthage High School campus on the backs of a defense that stymied the Vikings in the first half and five touchdown runs by Junior Running Back Tyler Mueller.
“Tyler ran hard and he also got to show off his speed,” Guidie said. “He’s a tough runner and he got some tough yards against Parkview, but he also has the ability to get out in space and use his speed. He did that tonight.”
Guidie said the Tigers defense was challenged to stop a team that was scoring in bunches in the playoffs and the regular season.
“They were averaging about 50 points in their last four games,” Guidie said. “They averaged 39 points a game through the season, but they were putting up bigger numbers in the playoffs. That was a big challenge for our defense to make plays, and they sure dialed it in and got some stops.”
Carthage kept the ball on the ground. Quarterback Patrick Carlton only attempted three passes in the first half, all incompletions.
Carlton scored Carthage’s second touchdown of the night on a four-yard run in the first quarter. Carlton also ran in a two-point conversion to make the score 35-0 at the half.
Quarterback Zeke Sappington got in some plays with the first team at the start of the second half, completing a 19-yard pass to Colton Winder, then scoring on a 20-yard touchdown run to put the Tigers up 42-0.
