KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Red Men dropped their final home game of the 2018 regular season on Saturday at Art Keller Field, falling to the #24 Wheaton College Thunder, 48-3.
The loss drops the Red Men to 3-6 on the year and to 3-5 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Thunder improve to 7-2 and 6-2 in the league.
Saturday was the perfect storm against the Red Men as Carthage was unable to get off the field defensively when facing third down, yet unable to convert and extend drives offensively. Wheaton finished the first half 4-6 on third down, while the Red Men 1-6 on third down in the half. Carthage finished just 2-13 in the game on third downs to the Thunder's 8-14.
Carthage finished the game with just 112 yards of total offense in the loss with 75 coming on the ground and just 37 through the air, while Wheaton tallied 432 yards of offense, 339 of which came in the passing game.
Lafayette McGary led the Carthage offense with 40 yards on 14 carries and added three catches for 20 yards, while backup quarterback
Colton Klein led the passing attack for Carthage, going 4-11 for 23 yards.
Trailing 14-0 in the second half the Red Men had their best scoring chance of the day as
Billy Dury connected with
Tommy Bazarek for a ten-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead in half, however in ineligible man downfield negated the touchdown and Carthage had to settle for a 33-yard field goal from
Lance Unland, to make it 14-3. Dury left the game in the first half having gone 3-3 passing for 14 yards before being injured.
Defensively, the Red Men the secondary led Carthage in tackling as Gjogi Bumba and
Albert Rogalski each recorded seven tackles and Rogalski added a game-high two passes defended.
Kameron Stubblefield had another strong defensive performance for the Red Men in the loss, as the junior finished with five tackles, 3.0 for loss and a sack.
The Red Men will conclude the 2018 season on the road next week with a trip to Rock Island, Illinois on Saturday, November 10
th. Kickoff next week is set for 1:00 p.m.