After two games on the road plus a week off, the Lakeland College football team finally gets to play its first home game of the season, and on Homecoming no less, when it welcomes Carthage College to Taylor Field Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
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The Muskies enter with a 1-1 record after being defeated by a very good Albion (Mich.) team last week, 47-21.
Michael Whitley (
So.-Vidalia, La.) and
Kezlow Smith (
Sr.-Pontiac, Mich.) had huge days, with Whitley completing 31 of 51 passes for 381 yards and Smith catching 12 of his passes for 193 yards and a touchdown. Lakeland moved the ball but was unable to finish a number of drives, with six ending in Briton territory.
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The Red Men enter with a 0-2 record and were idle last week but in their last outing were defeated by Olivet (Mich.) 42-32 at home Sept. 12. Carthage scored on its first two drives but trailed 27-16 at halftime and could never get over the hump despite closing the deficit to three points twice in the third quarter. James Cobbs caught touchdown passes of 47 and 44 yards among his four receptions for 120 yards, and the Red Men also received a 42-yard interception return for a touchdown by Virgil Young.
Lakeland is going for its ninth straight win on Homecoming.
The Muskies routed Wisconsin Lutheran on Homecoming last year 43-7 and have a sterling 55-20-3 all-time record in Homecoming games.Â
This also is the 26th meeting between Lakeland and Carthage on the gridiron, as well as the 20th straight year the two teams have met. The Red Men lead the series 18-7 and have won the last 11 meetings, including a come-from-behind 21-14 win last year in Kenosha.
Michael Esiobu (
Sr.-Chicago, Ill.) caught touchdown passes of 20 and 68 yards, with the latter putting the Muskies ahead early in the fourth quarter, but Carthage cut the deficit to 14-13 just over four minutes later and scored the eventual winning touchdown on a 27-yard pass from Nick Anzelmo to James Cobbs with 5:14 left. The series dates back to 1958, a 42-0 Red Men win back when the Carthage campus was located in Carthage, Ill. The Muskies' last win in the series came on Sept. 13, 2003, when Lakeland won 17-16.
Live video and stats for the game will be available from Lakeland College at
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/lc/. Carthage also will have a radio broadcast available on WLIP AM 1050 in Kenosha. The broadcast will be available over the air in the Kenosha area or online at
http://www.wlip.com, with John Weiser
calling the play-by-play.
For the rest of this week's game notes please click
here
