Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
The Carthage College football team (1-2, 0-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin) came from behind in the final period to defeat Lakeland College (0-3), 21-14, under the lights of Art Keller Field on Saturday, Sept. 27 in Kenosha, Wis.
Lakeland scored the only touchdown of the first half at 8:31 second period on a 20-yard pass from A.J. Veloz to Michael Esiobu that capped a six-play, 80-yard drive. The Red Men tied the game, 7-7, with one second remaining in the third period on an 11-yard carry by Nick Anzelmo. That scoring drive was set up by a 21-yard interception return by Marcus Harnett at the Lakeland 41-yard line that brought the ball back to the Muskie 20-yard line.
Lakeland wasted no time in re-gaining the lead, 14-7, at 14:42 fourth quarter on a 68-yard touchdown pass from Veloz to Esiobu. After the two teams traded punts, a 41-yard pass from Nick Anzelmo to Jamahl Wright set up an 18-yard touchdown carry by Derek Bellamy at 10:15. A bad snap on the extra-point attempt left the Red Men down by a point, 14-13.
The Muskies were forced to punt again on their next possession, and the Red Men took off on a 70-yard scoring drive that ended with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Anzelmo to James Cobbs III at 5:14. The two-point conversion, a pass from Anzelmo to Wright, was good, and Carthage led, 21-14. Shawntrel Garner intercepted a Veloz pass on the next Lakeland drive, and the Red Men were able to run out the clock from there.
Carthage had 385 total offensive yards, 98 yards rushing and 287 yards passing, while Lakeland collected 265 total yards, 53 on the ground and 212 in the air. The Red Men collected 21 first downs to 14 for the Muskies and had a 32:16-27:44 edge in time-of-possession.
For Carthage, quarterback Nick Anzelmo (So., Schaumburg, Ill.) completed 25-of-40 passes for 287 yards. Jamahl Wright (Jr., Brookfield, Wis./Hartland-Arrowhead) caught 10 passes for 123 yards, and James Cobbs III (Fr., Urbana, Ill.) caught six passes for 109 yards. Jonnie Evans Jr., (So., Kankakee, Ill./Bishop McNamara) ran for 50 yards on 13 carries. Lakeland quarterback A.J. Veloz completed 12-of-32 passes for 212 yards and two touchdowns, with Michael Esiobu catching five passes for 154 yards.
"Lakeland has some good skills guys," said Carthage coach Mike Yeager, "and they loaded up the box and blitzed on us. Fortunately, we started to run the ball well in the second half and wore them down a little. We also cut down on our mental mistakes in the second half and moved the chains. It was a good win. When you've lost as many games as we have, it's tough to get kids to stick with things, but we have. Jamahl Wright had a great game, and he just keeps getting better and better. We have some work do on techniques. We also had a lot of missed opportunities in the first half, but we found a way to finish this one. We'll see where we're at this week with the start of conference play."
Carthage opens CCIW-play on Oct. 4 with a 6 p.m. game versus Illinois Wesleyan University (2-1, 0-0 CCIW) at Tucci Stadium in Bloomington, Ill.