CARROLLTON - Quarterback Gus Coonrod threw for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth, while both Kyle Leonard and Matthew Retherford scored twice as Carrollton took charge in the second half to defeat Hardin Calhoun 40-13 in a Western Illinois Valley Conference football game played Saturday afternoon at Carrollton's stadium.
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The Hawks led 12-6 at halftime, but blew the game open with 16 unanswered points in the third quarter, then outscored the Warriors 12-7 in the fourth to go on to the win.
Carrollton scored first with 8:10 left in the opening quarter on a 15-yard pass from Coonrod to Retherford to take a 6-0 lead after a two-point pass was incomplete. Leonard then scored his first touchdown on the day off of a 40-yard pass from Coonrod with 8:31 left in the second to double the Hawks' lead to 12-0 after another two-point pass missed.
The Warriors cut the lead in half 36 seconds from halftime when Sage White ran the ball in from one yard out to make the halftime score 12-6 after the conversion kick was missed.
In the third quarter, Coonrod connected with Leonard from 51 yards out with his third touchdown pass of the day, then hit Bo Flowers with a two-point pass to make it 20-6 for the Hawks with 8:53 left in the period. With 1:59 left in the third, Coonrod scored on a one-yard run, then hit Leonard for a two-point convert to make the score 28-6 at the end of the quarter.
Retherford scored his second touchdown of the day with 11:07 left in the fourth, taking the ball in from one yard out, but a two-point run was stopped short, leaving the score 34-6. Hunter Roth scored for Calhoun with 10:02 left in the period on a 44-yard run, with White's conversion making the score 34-13. Flowers completed the scoring with a 39-yard pass from Coonrod 8:09 from full time, with a two-point pass falling incomplete to make the final score 40-13 in favor of Carrollton.
In the second half, Carrollton head coach Nick Flowers decided to open up the offense and throw the ball.
“I saw some holes and we reverted back to our old ways,” he said of the offensive scheme change. “They were shutting down the inside run, so we started attacking the permitters with our running game. Right at the beginning of the third period, Kyle Leonard caught at 50-yard touchdown reception from Coonrod. Kyle Leonard had seven catches for 230 reception yards, the highest in Hawks history for one game. Gus Coonrod did his first game at quarterback and threw for four touchdowns and rushed for one. He had a great game."
Carrollton travels to arch-rival Greenfield-Northwestern this Friday night.
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