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CARROLLTON - Looking at the results in their last five games it seemed like the Carrollton Hawks figuratively walked through WIVC South play having outscored their opposition by an average of 42.6 points.
However, they would be tested by the Routt Catholic Rockets who are in the hunt for a playoff birth on by far the coldest night of the football season.
Despite some rain on the England Stadium artificial turf, the Hawks took down the Rockets 40-18 at Illinois College in Jacksonville on Friday night.
Carrollton, who came into the game already playoff bound, improve to 6-2 while Routt fell to 4-4.
“I felt like we were fast out here on the turf tonight. We really flew to the ball,” Carrollton head coach Nick Flowers said. “You take three plays out of it they don’t score, but at this point in the season, those start becoming excuses because at this point next week and playoffs it’s about every play. I’m very happy with the win tonight. This is huge for playoff seeding, and then we needed guys out here for four quarters.”
Coming into the game, the Hawks were dealt with a handful of absentee linemen; Blake Mauer, Jacob Decker, and Nathan Cummins.
Flowers and his staff had to make adjustments on both sides of the ball in the trenches, and the score speaks for itself.
“We had a lot of young guys step up and I”m proud of them,” Byron Holmes said. “They were making holes, and it was easy for me.”
Holmes rushed for 96 yards with 11 carries and one touchdown on the ground in his second start of the season at running back.
Quarterback Hunter Flowers was 17-for-31 with 203 yards and three touchdowns with an interception. He also scored on three rushing touchdowns, which now gives him 31 total touchdowns this season.
Lucas May put the Rockets on the board first with a 27-yard field goal, but the Hawks would answer in the form of power football, which was surprising given they mostly pass.
“I loved how we got an opportunity to play on the turf and how everything came together pretty well tonight,” Hunter Flowers said. We came out and knew if we could establish the run well the passing game would come like what Routt was trying to do with us. We thought we’d give them a taste of their own medicine and it worked out in our favor.”
Flowers capped the drive with a 6-yard rushing touchdown to put the Hawks up 8-3. However, on the ensuing kickoff, Alex Cosgriff found a hole up the middle and burst 95 yards to put the Rockets back on top 10-8.
“I was okay with the field goal but then to give up the kick return just drives me crazy,” Nick Flowers said smiling.
Carrollton calmy responded thanks to a long kickoff return by Zach Flowers. Holmes scored his first touchdown of the game on a 40-yard screen pass from Hunter Flowers on a second down and 25 to give the Hawks a 15-10 with 17.4 left in the first quarter.
After the Hawks got the first defensive stop of the game, the offense went back to work. A 20-yard run by Holmes to the one-yard line set up Flowers for a rushing touchdown that put Carrollton up 21-10.
There would be a defensive struggle after that score and while; the Hawks defense was keeping the Rockets in check. They held running back Dylan Marshall, who came into the game with 12 touchdowns and over 900 rushing yards to 45 yards on 16 carries.
“I feel like the only reason they did score was we took plays off in the huddle,” Holmes said. “If we didn’t we were solid on defense tonight on all cylinders.”
Jared Plunk was 8-for-28 through the air with 141 yards and a 39-yard touchdown pass to Jason Birdsell.
Alex Cosgriff is statistically one of the best receivers in the WIVC and tallied a decent 77 yards, but caught two passes thanks in large part to Zach Flowers.
“Zach can jump, and Cosgriff is a heck of a receiver,” Nick Flowers said. “He definitely played like a shutdown type corner[back], he played well.”
“Coming out [in] the second half [Routt] weren’t going to give up easy, and we knew if we gave them any hope then it would be a ball game again,” Hunter Flowers said.
The scoring drought ended on the first play of the fourth quarter with another one-yard rushing touchdown by Flowers. Just over two minutes later, Flowers connected with his cousin Zach on a 40-yard touchdown pass where Zach stiff-armed a defender and outran the remaining secondary to the corner of the end zone to give the Hawks more insurance at 34-10. He caught eight passes and amassed 86 yards.
With 6:20 remaining, Flowers lofted a jump ball pass to Nathan Walker who came down with it near the 20-yard line, broke away from his defender, and sprinted into the end zone to complete a 64-yard touchdown pass.
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