09/09/2022
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARTERVILLE - Although he might be a bit sore come Saturday morning, Carterville senior running back Bryce Smith handed out as much punishment as he took against Murphysboro on Friday night.

The 6-1, 200 senior back ran around and all over the Red Devils.

Smith rushed 25-times for 224-yards and a touchdown as the Lions rolled up a 42-7 lead before head coach Brett Diel used his reserves for most of the final minutes of the game.

The end result was a 49-28 romp to improve Carterville to 3-0 on the season.

Senior quarterback Andrew Hellriegel rushed for just 21 yards on eight carries.

However the 6-1, 160 senior scored five of the Lions' seven touchdowns on the night.

Senior running back Nolan Hartford scored the other Carterville TD as the hosts led 28-0 in the second quarter with Murphysboro wondering what had happened.

The Red Devils, like Carterville, entered the game at 2-0 with wins over Carbondale (41-20) and Anna-Jonesboro (49-0).

But Coach Gary Carter's club just ran into a team playing as well as it could.

With all of the yards racked up by the Lions' offense, their defense that was more than up to the task in holding a high-powered offense in check.

It was simply a dominating performance.

Carterville held the Red Devils rushing attack to just 111-yards on 40 attempts in the game as senior running back Devon Clemons ended up with 74 of those yards on 23 runs.

Senior quarterback Drew Caldwell was hounded by the Lions defense as he was limited to eight yards on five carries.

Caldwell did manage to connect on 9-of-20 passes for 216-yards and one TD.

But other than a 61-yard reception in the second quarter that was tipped by a Carterville defender before it was caught by senior Red Devils' wide receiver Grayson Guthman, not much went right for the visitors in the opening half.

Guthman led the receiving unit with four catches for 126-yards while senior teammate Ethan Finke grabbed four receptions for 50-yards.

After forcing a Murphysboro punt on its opening defensive stand, Carterville used 12-plays to go 73-yards with Smith chewing up much of the yards.

A fourth down pass from Hellriegel to senior wide out Blake Burkey got the ball to the Red Devils' three-yard line.

Hellriegel did the rest with a quarterback run up the middle for the first TD of the contest with 6:12 left in the opening frame.

The PAT by kicker Riley Crain put the Lions up early.

After another defensive gem, forcing Murphysboro to punt again, the Lions took advantage of a bad-snap on the Red Devils punt attempt with the ball going just 21-yards to the Murphy 36.

Two completions to Burkey sandwiched around another Smith run, made it first-and-goal at the Red Devils' five.

Hellriegel ran for his second touchdown of the game at the 3:10 mark with another PAT by Crain making it 14-0.

In the two drives by Murphysboro, the Red Devils had a total of -3 yards offense.

"I will have to look at the film but I felt like we shut their run game down," said Coach Diel. "Clemons is a fantastic runner and Finke is a great compliment for them. I'm really proud of our guys. Our defensive staff have done a great job prepping us for these guys for a couple of years now."

If Coach Carter was thinking his club would get something going on its third possession, he was wrong.

Three more plays resulted in an incomplete pass, and two running plays by Clemons that resulted in two-consecutive four yard losses.

The third punt by sophomore kicker AJ Boese got only to the Red Devils' 30-yard line.

One play later, on his first carry of the night, Hartford took a hand-off from Hellriegel and scampered 30-yards through a big hole on the right side of the line and into the end zone.

The Crain PAT pushed the Lions' lead to 21-0 with just 1:43 left in the first quarter.

The Red Devils finally moved the chains on their next possession.

A pair of first downs moved Murphysboro into the Lions' end of the field and on a third-and-six from the 38-yard line, a Caldwell pass to Guthman turned into a pass interference penalty on Carterville.

But with the ball now on the Lions' 23, a bad toss from Caldwell to Finke in the backfield resulted in a fumble that was covered by Lions' senior Talon Walker at the Carterville 28.

Smith ran the ball five times for 41-yards on the next Lions' drive, which was aided by a holding penalty against the Red Devils.

Another run by Smith (nine-yards) set up Hellriegel for another run, this time up the middle for a 28-0 lead with 4:54 left in the second quarter.

"Our three games we have been run heavy and I didn't think we would be that way but what our offensive line has done so far has made it work," said Coach Diel. "Bryce Smith and Nolan Hartford have ran well and after three weeks I'm a little surprised what we're doing on the ground."

Despite being down four touchdowns, Murphysboro battled back and got on the scoreboard before intermission.

Facing a third-and-eight from their own 26, Caldwell threw a pass deep down the left sideline that was tipped by a Lions' defender and into the hands of Guthman, who turned it into a 61-yard gain to the Carterville 13.

Clemons ran through the defense on the next play to get the visitors on the board with 2:35 left.

A Boese PAT got the Red Devils to 28-7, which ended the first half scoring.

(Continued)

Carterville had zero let down coming out of the intermission.

Taking the second half kickoff, the Lions proceeded to romp 80-yards in five-plays.

A pair of passes from Hellriegel to senior tight end Jordan Cordes and another completion to Burkey got the ball to Murphysboro territory at the 47.

Then Smith padded the stats with two runs (11-yards and 35-yards) got the ball down to the Red Devils' one.

Hellriegel took care of the final yard up the middle and it was 35-7 with a fifth-consecutive Crain PAT.

Clemons made a couple of nice runs on the next drive for Murphysboro, which stalled at the 50-yard line.

Faced with a fourth-and-four, Caldwell tried to complete a pass on the left side to Clemons, but the ball sailed just barely over the senior running back's outstretched hands for an incomplete pass and a turnover on downs with 7:30 left in the third.

Seven plays later, the Lions tacked on another score.

This time Smith finished the drive in style with a 14-yard run into the end zone for the sixth TD of the night and a 42-7 advantage with 4:51 left.

The Red Devils managed to make the score look respectable in the final quarter and a half.

A five-play, 65-yard drive culminated with a Clemons score on a direct snap from one-yard out.

After finally getting a stop against the Lions early in the fourth quarter, Murphysboro drove to the Carterville 40 only to turn the ball over once again.

A bad hand off exchange between Caldwell and Clemons turned into a fumble that was recovered by Carterville senior linebacker Elijah Mohring at the 43.

Hartford and Smith put the finishing touches on the home team scoring on a final drive that ended with another short rushing TD by Hellriegel from the five-yard line with 6:32 left.

The seventh PAT by Crain made it 49-14.

Against the Lions' third-string reserves, Murphysboro scored a couple of 'window dressing' touchdowns in the final minutes.

A 33-yard pass play from Caldwell to Guthman and an 11-yard run by Finke gave Murphysboro its third TD.

A Caldwell to Guthman touchdown strike from 19-yards out closed the scoring with just :23.5 remaining.

"The score is a little bit misleading at the end. We got a bit conservative and tried to run some clock and get out of here healthy," said Coach Diel. "We got some of our young kids in and that's a good thing. This was a great test for us against a team, like us, that got into the second round of the 4A playoffs last year and have a lot of guys back from those teams. This team expects to be back in the playoffs this year with 17 returning starters. We want to get in the playoffs and compete."

Defensive standouts for the Lions include Mohring, who was credited with six solo tackles to go with 10-assisted stops.

Senior defensive back Peyton Bittle, sophomore Luke Johnson and senior Riley Bradford all had three solo tackles for Carterville while Walker and Mohring each recovered Red Devil fumbles in the win.

Carterville will travel to DuQuoin next Friday night.

The Indians have dropped two-straight games to Harrisburg (25-14) and Herrin (20-14) after a 26-0 win over Chester.

It's back to work for Murphysboro as the fell to 2-1 on the season and will face off with Massac County on the road next week.

"That is a very good program (Murphysboro) and they do things very well over there. To win a game in that fashion against that program is something that we'll enjoy for a couple of days," said Coach Diel. "For our guys up front, I thought on both sides of the ball our offensive line, our defensive line and our linebackers played well. They throw a lot at you and we made open field tackles with a lot of guys getting to the ball. I was very pleased in how we played up front. We really took the fight to them.