CHICAGO – The Carthage College Red Men capped-off the 2016 season with a convincing 40-14 win Saturday at North Park University's Holmgren Athletic Complex on the north side of the city.
 
The win ends the football season for the Red Men at 7-3 and 5-3 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.  The best season under fourth-year head coach Mike Yeager since taking over the job in 2012 and the best record since 2009 when Carthage also went 7-3. 
 
North Park's season comes to an end at 1-9 overall and 0-8 in the CCIW.
 
A slow first quarter saw the Red Men score the only points of the opening 15 minutes as Kyle Friberg found senior Javier Rhoades alone in the middle of the field for a 35 yard touchdown pass.

"We got off to a good start which was great," said head football coach Mike Yeager.  "We gave them a little life before halftime which was disappointing that they were able to get that touchdown but if you take away that one touchdown and the kickoff return I thought we played pretty darn well. We were able to control the game in all three phases."
 
The Carthage running game started to take over in the second quarter as Jamel Davis and Nick Anzelmo punched in short TD runs to cap a pair of five-play 70-plus yard drives to put the Red Men up 21-7 at the half.  Davis finished with four carries for 16 yards and Anzelmo, a senior in his final game, finished with four carries out if the wildcat for nine yards.
 
The Red Men took less than two minutes to extend the lead out of the halftime break as Friberg connected with Rhoades for the second time on the day for a five-yard touchdown pass.  Friberg finished the day as the Red Men's leading passer, going 11-of-16 for 154 and the pair of touchdowns to Rhoades.  Rhoades finished his productive day with just the two receptions, both going for touchdowns.
 
After North Park took back the ensuing kickoff 88-yards for a touchdown, the Carthage special teams hung five points on the board with a 21-yard Lance Unland field goal and a safety as North Park snapped the ball over the head of the punter and into the end zone.  Unland finished the afternoon one-for-one on field goals and made all five point after touchdown attempts.
 
Senior London Townsend completed the scoring as scampered in to the left side of the end zone from 10 yards out for the final score of the game.  Townsend ended the game with a game-high 73 yards on 15 carries, followed by Lafayette McGary with 15 carries as well for 66 yards.
 
While the offense was clicking with 474 yards of total offense, the Carthage defense was just as good, holding the Vikings offense to 230 yard of total offense and just 32 rushing yards on 28 carries. 
 
Senior Greg Money led the Red Men with nine tackles on the day followed by fellow senior K.J. Simpson, who tied with Pete Laughlin, with six tackles each.  Laughlin also led the Red Men with two sacks as Carthage took down Jace Bankord six times total for sacks. 
 
After being honored a week ago as they played their final home game, Nick Anzelmo, Tony Block, Jon Gomulka, Fred McCann, Seth McDorman, Greg Money, Richard Motter, Ethan Olles, Rocco Rasnic, Javier Rhoades, K.J. Simpson, Jake Sutter, London Townsend and Jamahl Wright completed their careers in the Red Men uniforms with the win.

"It's going to be a tough group to replace. They're 14 great kids who have worked their tails off.  I don't know how many guys would battle through, go through a 1-9 season, get beat up, have people quit around them and they just stuck with it. It's a big credit to them. They can go from one win to three, to five, and to seven. I think it's also a credit to them that you go 7-3 and I don't think there's a guy down there that's satisfied."