Lindale Hosts 3A No. 1 Carthage in Friday Matchup of Potent Offenses

No. 1 Carthage Bulldogs (1-0)

vs.

Lindale Eagles (0-1)

7:30 p.m. Friday

Eagle Stadium, Lindale

Coaches

• Carthage: Scott Surratt
• Lindale: Mike Meador

Last week

• Carthage: lost 42-28 vs. Carthage
• Lindale: won 26-12 at Waco La Vega

Next week

• Carthage: vs. Chapel Hill
• Lindale: at Van

Playmakers

Carthage

• QB Blake Bogenschutz, Sr., 6-1, 180 (committed to UTSA; 15 of 28, 276 yards, 3 TDs; 6 carries, 24 yards, 1 TD)
• RB/DB Tevin Pipkin, Sr., 5-10, 165 (21 carries, 190 yards, 2 TDs; 1 catch, 22 yards)
• WR/S Terian "Tee" Goree, Sr., 6-2, 170 (8 catches, 144 yards, 3 TDs)
• WR O'Keeron Rutherford, Sr., 6-5, 181 (3 catches, 82 yards)
• OT Adrian Goodacre, Sr., 6-4, 318 (committed to ULL)
• TE Marquise Guinn, Soph., 6-4, 220 (2 catches, 25 yards)
• OLB Tra Leary, Sr., 5-9, 160 (16 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 recovery)
• OLB D'vodney Brooks, Sr., 6-3, 205 (12 tackles, 1 forced fumble)
• DT Jhavontay Brown, Sr., 5-11, 190 (8 tackles, 1 for loss, 1 recovery, 3 QB pressures)
• WR/CB Keldrean Strong, Sr., 5-11, 165 (6 tackles)

Lindale

• QB Nash Walters (16 of 23, 216 yards, 2 TDs; 7 carries, 39 yards)
• QB David Slice, Sr., 5-11, 162 (14 of 20, 133 yards, 2 TDs)
• WR Nathan Evans, Sr., 5-7, 150 (9 catches, 123 yards, 1 TD)
• WR Kolton Pierce, Jr., 6-0, 175 (5 catches, 73 yards, 2 TDs)
• RB Delenis Garrett, Jr., 5-9, 212 (11 carries, 26 yards, 1 TD)
• WR Tayton Williams, Soph. (4 catches, 67 yards)
• WR Garrett Sir Louis, Jr. (3 catches, 27 yards)
• OL D.J. Williams, Sr., 6-2, 295
• OL Justin Young, Sr., 6-3, 302

Just the facts

• Carthage is 6-1 vs. Lindale since 1990.
• Carthage won last year's meeting 38-21 at home.
• Lindale's only win in the series came in 2011, when the Eagles won 33-21 at home.
• Lindale gained 459 total yards in last week's 56-37 loss at Chapel Hill -- 349 passing, 110 rushing.
• Lindale yielded 606 total yards to Chapel Hill, 506 of which came on 50 rushes.
• Carthage gained 510 total yards (54 percent passing, 46 percent rushing) in a 42-28 season-opening win at Jacksonville.
• Carthage yielded 476 total yards, including more than 270 through the air.
• Carthage senior QB Blake Bogenschutz' three touchdown passes vs. Jacksonville give him 65 for his career. He's second in school history behind Anthony Morgan (84).
• Carthage senior tailback Tevin Pipkin's 190 yards vs. Jacksonville give him 3,542 for his career, putting him third in school history behind Kris Briggs (5,130) and Johnnie Balous (4,413).

Key matchup: Carthage's back seven vs. Lindale's backs and receivers. Perhaps the more obvious key matchup is Lindale's defensive front vs. Carthage's offensive line, which is the gate-keeper to the Bulldogs' vaunted rushing attack. Too many past opponents know, if Carthage's running game gets going, you're usually in big trouble.

But Jacksonville showed last week that you can successfully move the ball with a pass-happy spread attack against a rebuilt Carthage defense. Yes, Carthage gained 510 total yards in last week's 42-28 win at the Tomato Bowl, displaying the Bulldogs' usual balanced attack with 276 passing yards and 234 rushing yards. But Jacksonville put 476 yards on Carthage's defense, which features five new starters in the front seven of its zone-heavy 4-3 scheme.

Junior quarterback Carter McCown completed two-thirds of his passes for almost 300 yards, spreading the ball to four receivers who caught at least five passes apiece. A look at Lindale's stats from its 19-point loss to Chapel Hill shows a high-powered passing attack split between quarterbacks David Slice and Nash Walters, who combined for almost 350 passing yards as they spread at least three completions to five different receivers.

Seeing if the Bulldogs can chase Lindale's skill players better than they chased Jacksonville's should be interesting.

Don't be surprised if: The teams trade some early scores, but Carthage's running game prevails. That's essentially the recipe the Dawgs used to subdue a game Jacksonville squad in the season opener, when senior tailback Tevin Pipkin ran for more than 100 second-half yards behind an offensive line that averages more than 260 pounds per player.

Jacksonville had enough firepower to stay within a touchdown of Carthage entering the fourth quarter, but the Dawgs sealed the game in the final period, thanks in part to a defense that played well enough to get must-have stops.

Can Carthage do that again? Can Lindale force a few turnovers to flip the script on Carthage? Lindale has beaten Carthage only once in the short series' history, but that was only two years ago and came at Eagle Stadium. Winning the turnover battle and surviving Carthage's running game would give Lindale a shot at an upset of the state's new No. 1 team in Class 3A, but achieving those goals will be very difficult. Lindale allowed 506 rushing yards to Chapel Hill's spread offense, so Carthage's pro-style attack could be equally as troubling for the Eagles.