-By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
CARTHAGE - Visiting Cardinal Ritter came to Carthage on Saturday having averaged better than 50 points per game in its last six contests. The Lions left town a few hours later after their worst offensive showing of the season.
The host Tigers pounced on five Ritter turnovers and forced two punts and a turnover on downs as Carthage earned a hard-fought 20-8 victory in a wet and blustery Class 5 semifinal at Haffner Stadium.
Carthage, now 12-1, will face unbeaten Platte County for the state championship at 7 p.m. Friday in St. Joseph with the Tigers seeking their second title in program history and first since 2019.
"We get to go do it again, man," Carthage coach Jon Guidie said Saturday. "It feels amazing. Couldn't be happier for this group right here."
"Our kids wanted this, they wanted it," he said of the dismal weather conditions. "We didn't want to move the game to yesterday, they wanted to play in this kind of environment. We thought we'd have a little advantage, and I think we did when it comes to the turnovers."
Carthage set the tone from the very start when Landon West returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, and then the team's defense went to work. Joshua Hill recovered a fumble on Ritter's fifth play from scrimmage, and then Malachi Dougless intercepted a pass to halt the visitors' second possession.
Ritter found the end zone for the only time on its third possession, when Kenneth Robinson ran it in from 40 yards out, and quarterback Kasimir Manczuk III ran it in for the conversion to put Carthage behind 8-7 with seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Carthage regained the lead with about six minutes left in the first half with an 80-yard scoring drive. Quarterback Zane Browning twice moved the chains with third-down runs, and then tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Brayden O'Dell to make it 13-8 after a failed two-point conversion.
That would be Carthage's only offensive score in the first 46 minutes of the game.
"Didn't quite go the way we thought it might but that's a really good defensive front," Guidie said. "I don't know if people realize how good those guys are. Our guys stood up to them over and over and did what we needed to do but today was all about our defense. Our defense was fantastic. Stepped up every time, created I don't know how many turnovers there and forced a couple punts. It was just something special to watch those guys."
It was more of the same after the half. Ritter fumbled the opening kickoff and Jordan Brunnert recovered the ball at the Lions 24-yard line, but Carthage fumbled it back inside the five. Then the Tigers defense allowed one first down and forced a punt.
Carthage came up short on a 4th and 3 try inside the 20 early in the fourth quarter, then forced the Lions to go three and out. After that, the Tigers drove across midfield and punted, but the visitors couldn't corral the ball and Tate Nichols fell on it at the Ritter 16 with 3:42 remaining. Browning kept the ball on four straight plays and scored from the 3 on the last run to make it 20-8 with 2:03 left.
One play later, Noah Norbury intercepted a Ritter pass and then the Tigers kneeled it to end the game.
"That's a big credit to our guys being in the right spot at the right time," Guidie said of the five turnovers. "Our defensive coaches, coach (Chris) Edwards put a tremendous game plan together. Did some things differently than we're used to doing and it paid off big tonight with a couple picks and a couple turnovers."
