Hawks quarterback Wade Prough in a previous Carrollton game against West Central at Carrollton. (Photo by Dan Brannan)

WHITE HALL - Carrollton emerged a 25-6 winner at White Hall Friday night against North Greene, but endured what could be described as a “sloppy game” against the Spartans.

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A total of 21 penalties were called for a total of 190 yards, which will always slow down the tempo of a game. Yet like all good teams do the Hawks persevered and took down the Spartans.

“It was a pretty sloppy win but we’ll take it,” said Carrollton’s Cole Brannan.

The game was sloppy, however Brannan’s performance was solid. He rushed for 120 yards on 9 carries, had 13 tackles, and returned a 61-yard interception for a touchdown to seal the game with 4:46 to go.

Carrollton head coach Nick Flowers described it as a good old Greene County hard-hitting football game.

“We knew North Greene was going to play us tough, they always do,” Flowers said. “This was a big, emotional game for them, which was good for us because this was a physical game.”

Coming into the contest North Greene was on a four-game losing streak and at 1-4, but you wouldn’t of thought that after Carrollton’s first possession.

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The Spartans controlled the possession game, 48 minutes were played and they had the ball for 32 minutes and 25 seconds of it. Overall the boys in blue and silver made the Hawks work for it.

On defense North Greene were the first team since Mendon Unity to give Carrollton some serious fits. Quarterback Wade Prough was 4 for 16 through the air and threw the amount of yards that matched his number, 21. A big credit to that was the Spartan defensive line, which caused Prough to either throw quickly or scramble out of the pocket and sacked him 3 times. Aston Shanks of the Spartans led all tacklers with 17 tackles.

“They schemed up real well against us. They gambled on defense and said that we’re going to bring a ton of pressure against you and if you hit us on a big play then you hit us on one,” Flowers said. “They were gutsy and had luck doing that.”

Carrollton hit North Greene with two particular big plays. Both were reverse handoffs to Brannan. The first play went for 43 yards and set up the Hawks at the 2-yard line, which Jerrett Smith scored on a 4-yard rushing touchdown a couple plays later. The second play occurred mid-way through the 3rd quarter. This time Brannan went for 41 yards and two plays later he scored on a 13-yard scamper to make it 13-0 Hawks, which proved to be the game winner.

On defense Carrollton pitched in one of their best displays of the season. The Spartans ran off 65 plays and the Hawks surrendered 240 yards of total offense. Brody Howard led the defense with 16 tackles and was followed by Smith with 14 and Nate Shanks and Matthew Campbell with 10 apiece.

“Offensively they (North Greene) ran the football really well, they chipped it away, I think they played keep away from us,” Flowers said “It was a very slow paced game, but I thought they did a good job of controlling the tempo,”

North Greene ran the ball 54 times and gained 179 yards. Nick McEvers rushed for 104 yards on 21 carries. Jonah Hopper was 6 for 11 with 61 passing yards. The Hawks defense bended a lot, but hardly ever broke as they got forced 5 turnovers, three of them were on downs. North Greene got inside the 20-yard line four times, but scored once.

Carrollton was in control 13-0 with less than 11 minutes to play, but McEvers broke loose from a pile of Hawks and ran hard to the house for 34 yards and made it 13-6. All of a sudden the Hawks weren’t home and happy. However Prough guided the Hawks downfield in a hurry on the ensuing possession. He hit Brannan with a short pass and the 5’8” senior slotback did the rest himself for a 13-yard passing touchdown. Brannan then put the icing on the cake when he picked off Hopper on a 4th and 34 and managed to dodge a couple of Spartans on his way to end zone.

“We have to clean some things up and if they’re some positives, in the second half we had a couple of nice drives and the Cole Brannan interception was a pretty sweet play,” Flowers said.

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