The Carthage College football team (3-4, 2-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) evened its conference record on Saturday, Oct. 24 with a 39-27 win over Augustana College (2-5, 1-3 CCIW) at Lindberg Stadium in Rock Island, Ill.
On a cloudy and cool day with temperatures in the upper 50s, the Red Men entered the game in a three-way tie for fourth place, along with Augustana and North Park University All three teams trailed No. 8 Wheaton College (6-0, 3-0), No. 16 North Central College (4-2, 3-0) and No. 19 Illinois Wesleyan University (6-0, 3-0).
Carthage took a 7-0 lead at 5:13 first period. The Red Men took the opening kickoff and were forced to punt from their own 37-yard line, but Augustana's Sean Fitzgerald dropped a fair catch, which the Red Men recovered at the Vikings' 44-yard line. Ten plays later, Tristan Peterson scored from the one-yard line. The Red Men got the ball back on the Vikings' 10-yard line on a fumbled punt attempt. Three plays later, James Cobbs III caught a nine-yard touchdown pass from Ethan Olles, and Carthage led, 14-0, at 3:08 first period.
Augustana got on the scoreboard at 14:51 second period on a 25-yard field goal by Jacob Stytz, and the score was 14-3. Carthage made it a 21-3 game at 12:20 second period on a 36-yard touchdown pass from Olles to Javier Rhoades, with an assist from Eddie Miklasz, who tipped the ball en route to Rhoades. The scoring drive covered 61 yards on five plays.
Carthage's Tommy Bazarek fumbled a punt return on his own 19-yard line at 5:47 second period. The Vikings converted that miscue into a touchdown at 3:20 when quarterback Sam Frasco carried the ball in from the five-yard line, cutting the lead to 21-10. The Red Men scored on a 42-yard field goal by Lance Unland with 6.9 seconds to play in the half, and the score was 24-10 at halftime.
Augustana scored the first 17 points of the second half. The Vikings narrowed the lead to 24-17 early in the third period on a 29-yard keeper by Sam Frasco. That scoring drive covered 63 yards on five plays. A 24-yard Carthage punt gave Augustana good field position on its next drive, and Jacob Stytz booted a 26-yard field goal at 5:38 third period to make it a four-point game, 24-20. The Vikings took their first lead, 27-24, at 12:59 fourth period with a nine-play, 74-yard scoring drive that ended with a three-yard TD pass from Frasco to Sean Fitzgerald.
The Red Men re-gained the lead at 9:30 fourth period with a seven-play, 63-yard drive the ended with a 34-yard touchdown pass from Olles to Sam Calderaro. A two-point passing conversion by kick-holder Kyle Friberg to Ethan Chester was good, and Carthage led, 32-27. Carthage went up, 39-27, with 2:41 to play, thanks to a 10-play, 65-yard scoring drive that was capped with a one-yard carry by Tristan Peterson. That touchdown closed out the scoring.
Carthage rolled up 365 total offensive yards, 168 yards rushing and 198 yards passing, while Augustana had 300 yards, 112 on the ground and 188 in the air. The Red Men had a 35:11-24:49 margin in time-of-possession and a 23-15 margin in first downs.
Ethan Olles (Jr., Palatine, Ill.), making his first collegiate start at quarterback, completed 16-of-26 passes for 197 yards, with Eddie Miklasz (Fr., Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) catching five of those passes for 45 yards. Tristan Peterson (So., Crown Point, Ind.) rushed for 55 yards on 12 carries. Augustana quarterback Sam Frasco completed 13-of-25 passes for 188 yards and ran for 82 yards on 15 carries. Sean Fitzgerald caught six passes for 57 yards for the Vikings.
Inside linebacker Greg Money (Jr., Palatine, Ill./Fremd) led the Carthage defense with seven tackles and a sack, while outside linebacker K.J. Simpson (Jr., Blue Island, Ill./Eisenhower) collected seven tackles, including one tackle-for-loss.
"We overcame some adversity that we put on ourselves," said a happy Carthage head coach Mike Yeager. "The wind was brutal today, and we had the wind in the first quarter and fourth quarters. That helped us, especially in the first period when we opened with a long drive. I thought Ethan Olles did a great job. He had command of the huddle and made the correct calls most of the time. We ran the ball well on the go-ahead touchdown drive, and that opened up the passing game a little bit. That was a great catch by Sam Calderaro for the touchdown, and a heads-up play by both Kyle Friberg and Ethan Chester for the two-point conversion. We couldn't stop quarterback Sam Frasco completely, but he's a senior, and I wish him the best—he's a really good player. No disrespect to Augustana, but we felt coming in that we were the better team, and we proved that today.
Carthage plays host to Millikin University (2-5, 1-3 CCIW) next Saturday, Oct. 31 in 1 p.m. game at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis. The Big Blue were a 20-17 winner over North Park on Saturday. "Millikin has some talent," said Yeager, but the next couple of weeks are about us. If we can play well, we have a chance for a pretty good season. This team doesn't really know what it's capable of. We still have to play a lot better. We still have a lot of guys doing stupid things and committing stupid penalties, but when we play disciplined football with passion, we're pretty good. Slowly but surely, we're getting there."