10/12/2024
BY JACK BULLOCK
CASEY - Saturday night's home game for Casey-Westfield didn't have a great start to it.

Coach Jeff Fritchnitch looked on as the Warriors allowed the Mt. Carmel opening kickoff bounce towards the sidelines where one of the Golden Aces fell on the ball at the C-W 30-yard line.

The hosts then gave up a four-play touchdown drive to trail 6-0 just over two minutes into the matchup.

The Warriors then struggled to get anything going offensively on its first possession, going three-and-out.

Those few minutes in the early going were the only problems Casey-Westfield had.

Coach Fritchnitch got his club rolling, scoring 37-consecutive points, as they remained undefeated at 7-0 with a 50-14 triumph.

The Warriors handed the Aces just their second LIC defeat in its brief history as a member of the league and Coach Michael Brewer's young squad now sits at 3-4 on the season.

Mt. Carmel will need to win its final two games at home against Marshall and on the road at Lawrenceville to finish with a winning record and perhaps qualify for their fifth consecutive playoff berth.

The Warriors lost at Mt. Carmel last season on a last second field goal 23-20.

This season Casey-Westfield left no doubt who was the better team.

Junior quarterback Nolan Clement went to the air on Saturday night and completed 7-of-10 passes for 286-yards and three touchdowns in the victory.

The two of the three scores went to 6-3 senior wide receiver Ryan Richards while the third TD toss fell into the hands of sophomore tight end Will Moore.

While the Warriors were successful throwing the ball around the yard, they were also impressive on the ground with an additional 154-yards on 22-carries as a team.

Six-three junior running back Luke Karras ran for 71-yards on the night from 11-attempts.

If the name Karras sounds familiar, it is perhaps from NFL history.

Luke is the great nephew of former Hall-of-Fame lineman Alex Karras.

Clement added 33-yards on the ground and junior Kellen Sullivan added 28.

Each carried the ball four times.

Richards had four catches with a total of 213-yards while Moore's two grabs accumulated 75-yards total.

“We have a fullback (Karras) who is 6-3, 220 pounds and if you try to take away him then we have the deep ball,” said Coach Fritchnitch, who is in his second season as head coach at C-W. “You can't cover them both (running and passing). Probably the most important thing is that we have an offensive line that is coming into their own. So we have time to throw and we're getting good blocks when we try to run the ball. Really it was a great team effort tonight.”

Mt. Carmel actually moved the ball pretty well rushing on Saturday night and controlled the clock on time of possession.

The Aces ran the ball 50-times for 220-yards and two TD's, one early and one late.

However MC failed to dent the scoreboard after the early six and didn't cross the goal line again until the 11:55 mark in the fourth quarter.

Part of the problem came from converting just 2-of-13 third downs and 3-of-7 on fourth downs.

Sophomore quarterback Shain Meador continues his on the job training, rushing for 82-yards to lead Mt. Carmel on 14-tries.

Junior tailback Elliott Acree rushed for 72-yards on 20-attempts.

“Good teams like Mt. Carmel know how to run the ball and we gave up some yardage against them tonight,” said Coach Fritchnitch. “He (Meador) is a tough kid because we kept banging him and he just kept running.”

Acree scored the game's first TD from 16-yards out after the early recovery.

The Aces had a chance on its next drive but Acree was denied a first down on a fourth-and-three from the Warriors' 45.

The first big play of the night came on the third snap on the next Casey-Westfield possession.

Clement found Richards crossing the field to the right sideline.

The junior speedster turned up field and found a seam in the Mt. Carmel secondary.

Richards sprinted to the endzone to cap a 55-yard scoring strike.

A PAT kick from sophomore Wyatt Erickson gave the Warriors 7-6 lead with 2:21 left in the first quarter.

(CONTINUED)

Despite a pair of false start penalties, Casey-Westfield marched home on a pass by Clement to sophomore Nicholas Fouty for 23-yards and then Clement used his legs for a 36-yards into the Mt. Carmel red zone.

Karras ran the ball into the endzone for the Warriors second touchdown from 14-yards away.

Another PAT from Erickson extended the C-W spread to 14-6.

Stopping the Aces again on the next possession set up the hosts for their third TD.

Clement found Richards once more wide open on a long pass play where the senior outraced the Mt. Carmel secondary for an 85-yard touchdown and a 21-6 lead.

A big defensive play by Sullivan gave Casey-Westfield back the ball as the junior recovered a fumble on the Aces' 35.

Karras scored three plays later on a 26-yard touchdown.

Another successful PAT kick by Erickson pushed the score to 28-6.

The second consecutive turnover by Coach Brewer's club gave Erickson a chance to show off his range.

Senior linebacker Owen Keeney intercepted a pass from Meador which set up Erickson, who nailed a 30-yard field goal at the horn for a 31-6 halftime lead.

Mt. Carmel tried to get something going after taking the second half kick off but they picked up just one first down before turning the ball back over to Casey-Westfield at the Aces' 43.

On a seven-play drive, the Warriors struck again with an 18-yard pass from Clement to Richards on a fourth-and-five from the Mt. Carmel 25.

The pitch-and-catch got the ball to the Aces' five-yard line.

Keeney was rewarded from his big defensive play as he took a hand-off and powered into the endzone for a 37-6 lead.

In what turned out to be the best drive of the game for the visitors, Mt. Carmel covered 80-yards in 12-plays on its next possession.

Meador picked up a key first down on a 20-yard run and four plays later scored from three-yards out.

Senior running back Tobias Fullop converted a two-point conversion for the Aces' final points of the night with 11:55 left in the fourth quarter.

Mt. Carmel's attempt at an onside kick went out at the Aces' 46.

Clement threw his third touchdown pass of the game on the first play of the drive.

The junior found Moore on a pass down the left sideline that went the distance.

Casey-Westfield added a final score late in the game after another completion between Clement and Richards (50-yards) set up Sullivan, who scored on a nine-yard run with under two minutes left.

Senior Pedro Barros-Costa kicked the extra point for the final points of the night.

While Mt. Carmel did pretty well running the ball, Meador was just 3-of-9 passing for 56-yards and an interception.

“We've given up just 56-points in seven games so far so we're doing pretty good,” said Coach Fritchnitch. “We're doing it (defense) even better than we did last year. They've really been students of the game with a new system in the second year. When you have a defense that can make plays like they did tonight it's a luxury for us.”

The biggest game of the season in the Little Illini Conference will take place next Friday night as the Warriors head to Richland County to tackle the unbeaten and high scoring Tigers, who dispatched Paris 64-36 Friday night on the road

Richland County, who didn't win a game in 2023-24, have done a 180 with the seven-game win streak by averaging 46.4 points a contest so far.

Mt. Carmel will host 2-5 Marshall next Friday. The Lions are coming in off of a 33-10 rout of winless Lawrenceville.

“We have to focus on Olney (Richland County) and they're a really good football team. They have some really good skill kids and big kids up front,” said Coach Fritchnitch. “They have a D-I kid (Casey Thomann) that is knocking people around and their quarterback (Gavyn Cothern) is running all over people. We have to just get ready for that and do what we do. Hit'em hard and when we have the ball we move the chains. It's a big game for us.”