Talented Knights too much for Cougars
By Mike Hoffman

The Class A, third-ranked Lafayette Central Catholic Knights blanked the Cougars 47-0 in Hoosier Heartland Conference action Friday night. The host Knights improved their conference record to 5-0 on the year.

The Cougars knew coming into this one that it would be a tough game to win. The Knights have an arsenal of weapons. With receivers taller than the shorter Cougars, it's hard to defend.

Time and time again the Cougars attempted to tackle high, only to have the CC players get away. Knights like Mike Murphy and Griffin Richeson broke several tackles for big gains.

The Knights gained 266 yards rushing. Richeson, a junior, had 150 yards rushing in 13 carries. Sophomore Murphy at 5'7" was a hard young man to handle. He had Cougar defenders off balance all night with his running. Murphy carried 11 times for 104, but no touchdowns.

Freshman quarterback Chris Mills is filling in for injured senior quarterback Mitch Reifenrath, who is out for the season. Mills had all night to set up to find his receivers, He threw for 333 yards, including 4 touchdowns.

The Knights drove 83, 86, 38, 29, 71 and 48 yards for 7 total touchdowns.

Telling of how bad it was, CC ran 66 plays for 599 yards, picking up 29 first downs to just 3 for the Cougars. On the bright side, the Cougar defense did intercept 2 Knight passes. One of the interceptions was picked off by Riley Eller and the other one by Justin Matthews.

Offensively the Cougars only had 107 total yards, 19-yards rushing and 88 yards passing.

Even though the Cougars lost this game, they kept their cool. The Knights' coaching staff kept the A squad in a lot longer than necessary.

The Cougars must regroup with home games the next two weeks. Next up for Carroll is Clinton Prairie, then Clinton Central. The Gophers are led by Snellenbarger who in 5-games has over 600 yards running and 10 rushing TDs. If the Cougar defense had trouble with Richeson, they are going to have an even harder time containing the running back from Prairie. This kid is talented. It should be a good game if the Cougars can put a night together like the one at North Newton.

The tailgate party gets under way at 6:30 p.m. in the CHS parking lot.

Donations needed

To help alleviate a shortage at the Flora Food Pantry, Carroll High School will collect canned fruits

and vegetables at Friday night's home football game.