Commanding, balanced offense leads Carthage over Pirates in 4A DI title game

Carthage ran through a sign reading “Stairway to 7” on its way to the field prior to Friday’s 4A, Division I championship game against Waco La Vega. It took some climbing, but the Bulldogs claimed the school’s seventh state title with a 42-28 win by scoring touchdowns on six straight possessions.

“Seven championships is unreal,” Carthage coach Scott Surratt said. “Winning one is amazing, so that kind of puts this in perspective.”

Carthage’s seventh title, and third in the last four seasons, didn’t come easy. La Vega (14-2) led 14-7 after Elisha Cummings scored his second touchdown early in the second quarter. But Carthage (16-0), behind its massive offensive line, found enough success running the ball to force La Vega to change its defense.

“We played the first half with just six defensive players near the line,” La Vega coach Don Hyde said. “When they went to their 10-personnel [one back, no tight end], we knew that wasn’t a good matchup for us. When we tried to protect against the pass, they ran the ball on us. When we played to stop the run, they threw it over our heads. So, what do you do?”

Kelvontay Dixon proved tough to defend throughout. After a quiet opening quarter, he caught a pair of touchdown passes in the second, including a grab with three seconds left that broke put Carthage ahead. When he hauled in Kai Horton’s pass on Carthage’s first play of the third quarter, the Bulldogs had turned the 14-7 deficit into a 28-14 lead. His three touchdowns came in a 5-minute stretch that spanned the end of the second quarter and beginning of the third.”

“He’s electric,” Surratt said of his senior receiver, who finished with 120 yards on seven catches to earn offensive MVP honors.

When Kai Horton wasn’t finding Dixon for touchdowns, he was handing the ball off to Mason Courtney, who found plenty of room to run behind Carthage’s offensive line. Courtney rushed for 229 yards and three touchdowns including a 54-yarder midway through the third quarter that pushed Carthage’s lead to 35-14.

Carthage’s line paved the way for the team to maintain its balanced attack. Courtney led a ground game that gained 265 yards. Horton continued his efficient play, completing 16 of 22 passes for 231 yards and three scores.

“The line play was huge,” Surratt said. “You can do a lot of things in practice. You can throw it and catch it. You can run it. But without those five guys, you can’t do anything.”

Surratt also enjoyed seeing Carthage’s defense bounce back after a rough semifinal game against Lampasas. Cummings and Jar’Que Walton combined to gain 211 yards for La Vega, but only 89 came in the second half, and 58 of those came on one long run by Cummings.

“I really think that was the only play we gave up, and he broke seven or eight tackles on it,” Surratt said. “We weren’t happy with our defense last week and we focused on it a lot this week. We were able to execute today.”

- Jay Plotkin

VIDEO RECAP

BOX SCORE

Waco La Vega   7          7          7          7 - 28

Carthage           0          21        14        7 - 42

Scoring

1st quarter

La Vega-Elisha Cummings 19 run (Ian Chavez kick)

2nd quarter

Carthage-Mason Courntey 5 run (Brennan Phillips kick)

La Vega-Cummings 15 run (Chavez kick)

Carthage-Kelvontay Dixon 22 pass from Kai Horton (Phillips kick)

Carthage-Dixon 20 pass from Horton (Phillips kick)

3rd quarter

Carthage-Dixon 63 pass from Horton (Phillips kick)

Carthage-Courtney 54 run (Phillps kick)

La Vega-Jar’Que Walton 2 run (Chavez kick)

4th quarter

Carthage-Courtney 1 run (Phillips kick)

La Vega-Landry Kinne 21 run (Chavez kick)

Team Stats        WLV     Carthage

First Downs       19        22

Rushes-Yards    45-280  37-265

Passing Yards    92        231

Passing 8-14-0  16-22-0

Fum-Lost          1-1       2-2

Pen-Yards         10-76   6-59

Punts-Avg         4-35.8  2-37.5

Individual Leaders

Waco La Vega

Rushing: Elisha Cummings 15-144, 2 TDs; Jar’Que Walton 8-75, TD; Landry Kinne 9-71, TD

Passing: Kinne 8-14-0-92

Receiving: Malachi Wright 3-55; Manuel Ruiz 2-20; Walton 2-17

Carthage

Rushing: Mason Courtney 30-229, 3 TDs; Kelvontay Dixon 3-32

Passing: Kai Horton 16-22-0-231, 3 TDs

Receiving: Dixon 7-120, 3 TDs; Kel Williams 2-40; Courtney 2-19; Kavonte Brown-Hoskin 2-6