L-E falls to Carthage in 42-28 loss

Penalties and turnovers will cost you every time.

Liberty-Eylau fell to Class 4A, Division I defending state champion Carthage on Friday night at Harris Field, 42-28.

The Leopards committed six turnovers, while the Bulldogs finished with five.

“We definitely have to work on the turnovers,” Liberty-Eylau head coach Steve Wells said. “Our kids played hard and I’m proud of their effort. We missed a few picks we thought we had and we didn’t get.

“Once again, I’m proud of our kids effort and we’ll evaluate our film. When you watch that film, you can see some of the things you missed. That’s what we’ll do and we’ll get better as a football team together.”

Jakeem Butler caught a 4-yard dart from Isaiah Cross for the Leopards with 0:47 remaining in the contest.

Tucker Smith scored his third touchdown of the night on a 7-yard pass from Gunner Capps to seal the victory for Carthage.

Capps was 12 of 25 for 158 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions for the Bulldogs.

Cedric Dickerson caught a 40-yard pass from Cross in the fourth quarter for Liberty-Eylau with 10:43 remaining in the game to cut into the Bulldogs lead.

Kel Williams caught a 7-yard pass from Capps in third quarter with 2:03 remaining for Carthage.

Kelvontay Dixon caught a 28-yard pass from Capps in the third quarter for the Bulldogs.

Mason Courtney added to the Bulldogs lead in the third quarter with his 6-yard run, with 3:35 left on the clock.

Carthage converted Leopard turnovers into points in the second half.

“We just made too many turnovers late,” Wells said. “We didn’t make too many good decisions in the kicking game. We ran a kickoff out of the endzone, when we should’ve kneeled it and taken over on the 25. We had bad field position at that point and kinda self-destructed.”

Smith scored his second touchdown of the game from three yards out, to tie the contest in the third quarter with 6:30 remaining, 13-13.

Smith ended the night with 137 yards on 20 carries and three scores.

“I was proud of the way we played defensively in the first half,” Wells said. “The difference in the game of course was the third quarter. We had a couple of picks and a couple of fumbles.

“Turning the ball over in the third quarter was the difference in the game. We have to understand too, when a little adversity hits like that, we have to handle adversity a little bit better. That’s just all apart of growing up but I was proud of the way we played.”

The Leopards opened the second half on fire.

El-Amin Greer caught a 88-yard bomb from Isaiah Cross with 10:24 left in the third, to put the Leopards up, 13-7.

Greer finished the game with three catches for 99 yards and a touchdown.

“When El-Amin caught that touchdown pass, that was big for us,” Wells said. “We go up 13-7 at that point and kinda had the momentum. We told our guys coming out, the first five minutes of the second half is going to be more crucial than the last five minutes.

“We told them all four quarters were going to be crucial. You want to win that battle during that time.”

Smith got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard on their opening drive in the second quarter on a 1-yard dive.

Dickerson put the Leopards on the scoreboard early on his 7-yard dash to the pylon in the first quarter, with 7:42 remaining.

Dickerson finished the game with six carries for 16 yards a touchdown and he also caught three passes for 58 yards and a touchdown.