Carroll Academy football coach Bo Milton couldn’t really believe what he saw on Friday night.
Homestanding Greenville St. Joseph used some big plays and started fast in each half to take a dominating 36-0 win over the Rebels on Friday night.
Carroll falls to 3-2 on the season and will travel to Indianola on Friday night in a key district contest.
While Milton was quick to give the Irish credit for the win, he was also left scratching his head.
“If it could go wrong, it went wrong on Friday night,” Milton said. “There were some things that happened that you just don’t see. We dug ourselves in a hole and couldn’t get out of it. And they were too good of a team to make those mistakes and win the ball game.”
St. Joseph got the ball to start the game and needed just three plays to score to take an early 7-0 lead.
That’s when things went south for the Rebels. On their first play from scrimmage, quarterback Brennan Blaylock was hit on a pass attempt and a St. Joseph defender intercepted the pass and returned it 13 yards for a touchdown as the Irish led 14-0.
The Irish added a 42-yard field goal at the end of the first quarter and led 17-0 at the half.
In the second half, the Rebels got the ball to start the third. But fumbled on the first play when the backs ran into each other. On the next play, the Irish scored on a 27-yard touchdown run to take a 23-0 lead.
On the ensuing kick, the Irish recovered after a sky kick. Three plays later, the Irish scored on a 47-yard touchdown to take a 29-0 lead.
Greenville added a 2-yard touchdown pass late in the third for the final margin.
“It was just one of those nights,” Milton said. “Like the kick they recovered. The wind was really blowing and it looked like Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. The wind just blew it back and we couldn’t recover it.”
Milton said despite the final, there were some positives in the game.
“We didn’t quit,” Milton said. “We fought the whole game and played hard the whole game. We will build off of that and work on what we did wrong and learn from that. The bottom line is we aren’t playing well up front. I thought we ran the ball effectively but just aren’t playing well right now. We just have to get back to work and play better this week than we did last week.”
On offense, the Rebels had 161 yards of offense with 136 yards rushing and 25 passing. Mathis Beck led the offense with 74 yards rushing on 13 carries while Maddox Carpenter had 52 yards on 10 carries.
“I thought we moved the ball but we shot ourselves in the foot,” Milton said. “It was just not a pretty night. We just kept getting behind the chains and could get in any rhythm. It just wasn’t a good night.”
Maddox Carpenter led the Carroll defense with eight tackles while Mathis Beck and Mason McCluskey each had six tackles apiece.
“We truly only gave up 10 points in the first half,” Milton said. “I felt like 10 is what we should have given up. I have to tip my hat to them. They made the plays and we didn’t.”
This week’s game
The Rebels will host Indianola on Friday night in a key district contest.
The Colonels are 3-2 on the season with wins over Lee (44-20), Delta Streets (48-7) and Washington (46-6). They have losses to Tri-County (47-7) and Greenville St. Joseph (32-14).
“We are about to find out what kind of team that we have,” Milton said. “We have to see if we are mentally tough enough to bounce back from that kind of loss or not. As far as Indianola, it’s the same old, same old. They are fundamentally sound and run the football and play sound defense. The only difference is they get down 19-0 to St. Joe and them came back and made it 19-14. We will have to keep our foot on the gas and get after it.”
