Carthage Blanks Lakeland, 38-0, on Sept. 10
The Carthage College football team (2-0, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) blanked Lakeland College (0-2), 38-0, on Saturday night, Sept. 10 at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis. It was the biggest win in the Lakeland series, which began in 1958, as well as the Red Men's first shutout of the Muskies.
Carthage led, 31-0, at halftime. The Red Men scored twice in the first quarter. Kyle Snell (Sr., Kenosha, Wis./Tremper) caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Beazley (Sr., Kenton, Ohio) at 10:55, and Alex Vitkauskas (Jr., Tinley Park, Ill./Chicago-St. Rita) returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown at 4:47. Quarterback Pete Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored on two running TDs in the second period, the first a 10-yarder at 14:28 and the other a 28-yard carry at 12:40. Kurt Krause (Sr., Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) booted a 33-yard field goal at 4:01 second quarter. Carthage scored one more time, when Marcus Williams (Sr., Lake Villa, Ill./Lakes Community) return an interception 19 yards for a touchdown at 9:16 third period.
Carthage rolled up 293 total offensive yards, 190 rushing and 103 passing, while Lakeland had just 97 total yards, 45 on the ground and 52 in the air. The Red Men had a narrow edge in time-of-possession, 30:44 to 29:16. Carthage used five different quarterbacks. Trevor Beazley completed three-of-eight passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. Pete Djurickovic rushed for 35 yards on five carries. Jonny Brewster (Fr., Loveland, Ohio/Kings Mills-Kings), Randy Ratajczyk (Fr., Antioch, Ill./Lake Villa-Lake Community) and T.J. Trepanier (Jr., Winthrop Harbor, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) also played.
Wide receiver Mike Koeneman (Sr., Barrington, Ill./Palatine-Fremd) caught three passes for 75 yards. Lakeland quarterback Dylan Van Straten completed six-of-19 passes for 51 yards, while tailback Tarrel Jackson ran for 42 yards on 11 carries. Red Men outside linebacker Brandon Mecozzi (Jr., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) collected a team-leading eight tackles (6 solo, 2 assisted), including a tackle-for-loss. Tony Faller led the Muskie defense with nine tackles (8 solo, 1 assisted), including two tackles-for-loss.
"After getting just 16 offensive yards in the first half at Carleton last week," said Carthage coach Tim Rucks, "we put a lot of emphasis on getting off to a good start on both sides of the ball. I thought we had the better team, and I wanted to take control of this game. We played with a purpose and played with more passion than we did last week. It's not about the other team—it's about us. It's hard work substituting as much as we did. We saw a lot of people in this game. We have better speed on this team than last year, but right now, I'm not sure we're a smarter team yet. We did come a long way from last week, though"
Carthage plays host to Concordia University (Wis., 0-2) on Saturday, Sept.17 in a 1 p.m. game at Art Keller Field in Kenosha, Wis.
