Cougars earn Senior Night victory
By Mike Hoffman Contributing sportswriter

Crucial play Carroll's #20 Andrew Hughes catches a pass from back-up QB Deric Finley over Frontier's defender, #23 Shawn Ruemler. The play gained the Cougars 22 yards and set up the team's second TD. The Cougars defeated the Falcons 14-7 at home Friday night. Photo provided by indianaphoto.net

The Carroll football team was determined to get a victory on Senior Night. That determination paid off with a 14-7 victory over Hoosier Heartland foe Frontier.

This was a game of halves. Carroll scored its 14 points in the first half, while Frontier scored its points in the second half.

This win was a priceless victory for the senior players.

"We have four seniors on our team" stated interim coach Steve Keown. "I'm thrilled for them to get this victory on senior night. We told them that if they won that they will remember this victory most, your senior game."

With that on their minds the Cougars went on the field ready to play and to keep the Falcons off the scoreboard and from taking the glory back home.

The Cougars were without their starting quarterback and defensive ace, Riley Eller, who is recovering from an injury that happened during practice earlier in the week.

Deric Finley got the call to lead the team at quarterback.

The game started with the Cougars receiving the football. Finley set up the first touchdown after he ran 28-yards to the 5-yard line. Ben Bennington put his seal on the deal when he ran it in from 5-yards out at 7:58 (1). Skylar Bagwell kicked the extra point.

"We started the game off with a lot of energy," said Keown. "Finley started with a lot of spark."

In the second quarter, the Cougars' second TD was set up when Finley completed a 22- yard pass to Andrew Hughes. With the ball on the four-yard line, the Cougars took a play out of the Chicago Bears playbook. Bear fans remember when they would call on William "The Fridge" Perry to go through the defensive line. The Cougars don't have the "The Fridge" but they do have Thomas Gillam, who burst through the Falcons' line on a 4-yard TD run. Bagwell's kick was good. The Cougars were up 14-0 at the 5:24 (2) mark of the second quarter.

The Cougars came out strong during the first half, playing a tough offensive and defensive game. They completely shut down the Falcons.

The game seemed to take a turn the Falcons way in the second half. The Cougars' offensive was stuck in second gear. The Falcons finally found the end zone on a 19-yard pass from Dustin Sterrett to Patrick Neary. Sterrett kicked the extra point 14-7 at the end of third quarter.

In the fourth quarter the Falcons were knocking on the door, only this time to be shut down by the Cougar defense. The Falcon quarterback was intercepted twice by Finley, killing drives that could have sent the game into overtime. The Falcons turned the ball over 3 times, to the Cougars 2 turnovers.

On defense Brandon Williamson had 17 tackles and Bennington had 14 tackles. The Cougars also recovered a fumble, which stopped a drive.

The Cougars rushed 35 times for 122 yards as Finley carried the ball 17 times for 63 yards and Bennington carried 11 times for 54 yards. Gillam had 4 yards rushing and a touchdown.

The Cougars, now 3-5 on the year with one regular season game remaining, play Friday night at North White. The Vikings lost to South Newton last week and are 1-7 on the season.