AURORA, Ill. – The Carthage College football team opened their 2017 season with their first shutout since 2011 as the Red Men topped Aurora University on the road Saturday, 24-0.
The defense led by linebackers Emmet Trost and Nick Ganzke with six tackles each, held the Spartan offense to just five first downs on 116 yards of total offense. Trost, along with cornerback Connor Calvert and safety Moaso Bumba each recorded interceptions in the win, which led to ten points, as the Red Men forced Aurora into three turnovers for the second-straight season. Carthage finished the win with 416 total yards of offense and did not turn the ball over once.
"I thought the defense played really well today," said head coach Mike Yeager following the win. "We had some tough situations because of special teams and the defense responded well, which was good to see. Our offense needs to clean some things up even though they made the plays when they needed to. But we have a lot of work to do. We need to get a lot better before we play Bethel next week… Anytime you can create turnovers and win the turnover battle, as we talked about before the game, you give yourself opportunities to score points and we had those opportunities and took advantage of them today."
Carthage's first touchdown came after Tommy Bazarek set the Red Men up to start their second drive of the game at the Aurora 32 following an AU penalty. Carthage needed just five plays to get on the board for the first time in 2017, with McGary rushing four times for 29 yards, including a six yard touchdown up the middle behind the lead block of Joe Godlevske.
McGary led Carthage on the ground with 18 carries for a career-high 104 yards with one touchdown and never losing a yard on any carry.
2016 All-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin second team pick Connor Calvert set the Red Men up with a short field following his first interception of the season in the second quarter. From the Aurora 25, Carthage needed just two plays two plays to find the end zone again, as backup quarterback Bobby Suchecki hit Evan French in the front corner of the end zone for a nine-yard TD pass.
Suchecki finished 1-for-2 passing with the touchdown and nine yards.
Carthage extended the lead heading into the half following Trost's interception to halt an Aurora drive at the Carthage 46 with just over a minute left in the half. After getting into Spartan territory, starter Kyle Friberg found Dominic Lucito over the middle for 26 yards down to the two-yard line, setting up junior kicker Lance Unland for a 26-yard field goal as time expired in the half.
Dominic Lucito ended the day with six rushes for 47 yards and a pair of receptions out of the backfield for 47 yards. Unland was perfect on the day going 1-for-1 on field goals and 2-for-2 on PATs.
On Dominic Lucito's play Yeager said, "Dom had a great camp this year. He had a great camp last year but got injured, so this is the first time he has been healthy, which is good. We are going to need a lot of backs because we are going to run and pound the ball."
Defensively in the first half Carthage was dominant. The Red Men limited Aurora to just 22 total yards of offense on 28 plays and just a single first down, forcing the Spartans to go 0-of-8 on third down attempts and 0-of-2 on fourth downs. On top of that, the front seven of the defense limited Aurora to only three yards on 13 yards.
The second half saw just a single score from the Red Men when Friberg hit senior wide out James Cobbs for a 71-yard touchdown pass to put Carthage up, 24-0.
Friberg finished his start 14-of-22 for 198 yards and one touchdown, and Cobbs had game-highs with four catches for 90 yards in the victory.
The Red Men will return to action for their home opener on Saturday, September 9th, as Carthage welcomes Bethel University to Art Keller Field at noon.
Looking ahead to Bethel coach Yeager noted, "We got really lucky last year. We should have lost that football game. Fortunately, Darquise Holmanmade an unbelievable play on the blocked extra point to keep the game going. But it will be a huge, huge challenge and it will be good to see where we are at because they would be an upper echelon team in the CCIW."
Defense Fuels Offense As Red Men Blank Spartans To Open 2017
/seasons/2017/boxscores/20170902_6fuq.xml
2017
Carthage
24
Aurora
0
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carthage (1-0) | 7 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 24 |
| Aurora (0-1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Sep 02, 2017