Carroll Academy football coach Bo Milton will tell anyone he has a good group of skilled players.
But on Friday night, Greenville St. Joseph had better skilled players.
The Irish used the big play to take a 46-8 halftime lead and cruise to a 52-16 win over the Rebels to open district play on Friday night.
Carroll falls to 2-3 on the season and will take on Indianola in another district contest this week.
Milton said comparing the skill players from the two teams is like comparing apples and oranges.
‘They are really good,” Milton said of St. Joseph. “They are big, and they are fast. They are faster on defense than I thought they were. Our kids played hard and sometimes the other team is just better. We played hard but they were just better than us. It took a little while for them to take over. I think we played good coming out of the gates, but we just couldn’t sustain the things that we needed to do.”
The Irish set the tone early when they returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. The try for two failed and St. Joseph led 6-0.
Carroll responded with a three-play, 57-yard drive and scored on a 14-yard run by Maddox Carpenter, who also ran in the two-point conversion as the Rebels took a momentary 8-6 led.
Rebels got the ball right back on an interception but were forced to punt. That’s when things started to turn bad for the Rebels.
St. Joseph then scored on a 1-yard run and converted the two-point conversion to go up 14-8.
After a punt and bad snap set the Irish up at the Carroll 17, the Irish needed just three plays to score on a 2-yard run and go up 20-8.
The Irish added another score in the first quarter as they scored on a 53-yard run. The try for two failed and St. Joseph led 26-8 at the end of the first quarter.
The Irish continued to pour it on in the second quarter as they added three more scores on passes of 40, 61 and 52 yards to lead 46-8 at the half.
“We just couldn’t contain the quarterback,” Milton said. “To be competitive with them, you have to control the ball on offense, but we weren’t consistent enough. They have a couple of really good receivers. There are times when we got to the quarterback, but he still made plays. It’s dang if you do or dang if you don’t. But our kids never quit and never laid down.”
St. Joe’s only second half score came in the third quarter on a blocked punt to go up 52-8.
Carroll added its last score in the fourth quarter on a 5-yard run by Carpenter.
Carroll had 104 yards passing as Brennan Blaylock was 8-of-18 passing. The Rebels ran for 60 yards on 25 attempts. Carpenter had 43 yards on 10 carries to lead the Rebels.
Mathis Beck had six tackles and one sack for the Rebels while Lofton Holly had six tackles with two of them for a loss. Noah Beck also had an interception.
This week’s game
The Rebels will hit the road and make the short trip up Mississippi Highway 82 to take on Indianola Academy on Friday night in another district contest.
The Colonels are 2-3 on the season as well with wins over Delta Streets (36-0) and Washington (28-27). They have losses to Tri-County (41-0), Lee (35-7) and St. Joseph (46-13).
“They are kind of struggled but did beat Washington last week,” Milton said. “They look a lot like the same old Indianola but they haven’t been what they have been in the past. I don’t think they have a lot of depth, but we will see. I think it’s a game where we might have the better athletes.”
Last year, Indianola took a tight 18-16 victory.
