BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Carthage College Red Men dropped their second game of the season in a nail-biter on the road at Illinois Wesleyan University, falling to the Titans 13-10.
 
The loss drops the Red Men to 5-2 on the season and to 3-2 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Titans move to 7-1 and 5-1 in the conference.
 
"It was a battle today and obviously we didn't play well enough to get the W," said a disappointed Mike Yeager following the loss.  "Against a good football team you have to play well in all three phases.  We played solid today but had one or two plays that were the difference…  I think both defenses played really, really well.  Illinois Wesleyan doesn't give you anything and our defense responded well to the blocked punt.  We gave up just the one touchdown, but the rest of the day we were really strong."

A defensive battle broke-out for most of the first half, as the Carthage defense had yet another strong half, holding the Titans to just 86 yards of total offense and negative-ten yards in the rushing game. 
 
Carthage scored the lone touchdown of the first half on their first drive of the game as Kyle Friberg found Manny Jones for a 10-yard touchdown pass to cap a 11-play, 81-yard drive that took 4:20. 
 
After that however, the Illinois Wesleyan defense would use a bend but don't break approach, halting three drives deep in Titan territory and limiting the Red Men to a Lance Unland 20-yard field goal to take a 10-0 lead into the half.
 
The Red Men struggled out of the halftime break, gaining just seven yards on seventeen plays in the third quarter and gaining just one first down.
 
The Titan's scored twice to open the third quarter and flipped the scoreboard, as they got to a Nick Candre punt that was blocked for a touchdown, and a five-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a Brandon Bauer pass to Zach Walsh to give the Titans a 13-10 lead after a failed PAT.
 
The Red Men looked to answer on their next drive as Jovone Stricker had a step on Trevor Koepke in the secondary after the cornerback slipped but Friberg just overthrew the wide receiver, missing a sure touchdown opportunity.  In the fourth quarter, after a series of punts and turnovers on downs, gave the Red Men the ball with 6:41 remaining in regulation.  After moving the ball to midfield, Friberg found Stricker for a 50-yard touchdown pass that was called back due to a hold on the offensive line.
 
The Red Men would have one last chance with a minute left in regulation but after picking up one first down a third down pass over the middle to Manny Jones was picked off on a great diving interception by Trevor Staley to seal the Carthage defeat.
 
Friberg finished 22-of-36 for 252 yard with the touchdown to Jones and an interception.  Jones finished with a team-0high 63 receiving yards on three catches with Evan French catching a game-high seven passes for 60 yards.
 
Moaso Bumba, Cedrick Fry and Shawntrel Garner each had nine tackles to lead the defense, with Fry and Garner each adding three tackles for loss each.
 
Carthage will return home for their fourth home game of the season next weekend as the Red Men play host to Millikin University, Saturday, October 28^th at 1:00 p.m.