LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
PARIS – On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Paris Tigers football team had a chance to do something that no other Little Illini Conference opponent has accomplished. That feat: defeating the Mt. Carmel Golden Aces.
Since joining the LIC in 2020, Mt. Carmel has marched through the conference portion of their schedule unscathed. That looked to change on Saturday afternoon in yet another game affected by the weather. However, the Tigers could not hold the lead in the second half, falling to the Golden Aces 34-27 to spoil Homecoming. Paris falls to 2-3 on the season and 2-1 in the LIC while Mt. Carmel improves to 3-2 and keeps their streak alive with their third conference win.
For the third time this season, Mother Nature forced a delay for the Tigers. This time, the carnage was brought on by Hurricane Helene, which brought much-needed rain to the area, but also brought on sustained winds around 30 miles per hour with gusts reaching close to 50.
Administrators made the wise choice to move the game from Friday night to Saturday afternoon in hopes of avoiding the brunt of the storm. Even with the field saturated from the previous day’s rain and a fairly stiff breeze throughout the contest, neither team let the elements affect their play.
Mt. Carmel won the coin toss but elected to defer possession until the second half. A program as successful as the Golden Aces doesn’t get to where they are without doing their homework. On the opening kickoff, the Aces chose to kick the ball just over the front line of the Tiger return unit in a move that has caught Paris off-guard in the past. However, Carter Cochran read the ball perfectly off of the kicker’s foot and grabbed the ball before it had a chance to hit the ground. This gave the Tigers excellent field position at their own 39-yard line heading into the teeth of the wind. Paris rode their workhorse Mason Byrnes, who gained 45 of the 61 yards on the opening drive, with the final yard resulting in a touchdown to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead after the Garret Rigdon extra point.
Mt. Carmel touched the ball for the first time with 6:59 remaining in the first quarter and they too were gifted with excellent field position at their 49-yard line. The Golden Aces rely almost exclusively on running the football and wearing their opponents down. That was never more evident than on their opening drive as they marched 51 yards on 10 plays to score on a one-yard touchdown run by Elliott Acree with 1:23 left in the period. The Tiger defense denied the two-point conversion to hold a 7-6 lead.
After going three-and-out on their next possession, the Tigers were forced to punt the ball back to the Aces and once again they were working with a short field. Starting at their own 39, Mt. Carmel plodded their way into the wind with an eight-play, 59-yard scoring drive capped off by yet another one-yard run from Acree. The two-point conversion failed again, and the Tigers trailed 12-7 with 7:18 left in the half.
Following another short kickoff, the Tigers started their third possession of the game at their own 41-yard line. On the first play of the drive, Drew Rogers found his brother Dawson Rogers for a 30-yard reception to move the ball to the Mt. Carmel 29. Rogers then found Madox Hutchings for a four-yard reception, but a face mask penalty moved the ball all the way to the Mt. Carmel eight-yard line to set up first and goal for the Tigers. On the next play, Rogers found Karic Vitale in the end zone for the touchdown. Rigdon added the extra point and the Tigers led it 14-12 with 6:10 left in the second quarter. Neither team scored in the remainder of the half, but a huge stand by the Tiger defense late in the half kept the score in Paris’ favor heading into intermission.
Mt. Carmel began their first drive of the second half at their 42-yard line. Facing third and nine, quarterback Shane Meador dropped back to pass for the first time in the game. Carter Eastham stretched his arm up to knock the ball down and force the Aces to punt the ball. Carter Crippes returned the ensuing punt 23 yards to the Mt. Carmel 46-yard line.
Three plays later, following a pair of penalties against the Tigers, the Rogers-to-Rogers connection came through in a big way on a 48-yard pass completion for the touchdown. Rigdon remained perfect on the day with the PAT to make the score 21-12 in favor of the Tigers with 8:21 left in the third.
Down two scores, Mt. Carmel began their second drive of the half with their worst field position of the day at their 27-yard line. Unlike their previous clock-grinding drives, the Aces needed just three plays to find the end zone with Jackson Kling scoring on a 45-yard touchdown run with 7:06 left in the third period. Once again, the two-point conversion failed and the Tigers held a 21-18 lead.
Mt. Carmel scored on their next two possessions as well to grab a 34-21 lead with 3:36 left in the game. Paris scored their final touchdown with 2:23 left as Byrnes once again found the end zone from two yards away. The extra point was no good and the Tigers trailed 34-27. After an unsuccessful onside kick, Mt. Carmel took over at the 50-yard line and was able to run the remaining time off the clock.
After topping the century mark in the first four games of the season, Byrnes was held to 79 yards on 16 carries and a pair of touchdowns. Drew Rogers added 19 yards on four carries, Crippes had four yards on his only tote, and Rigdon recorded -4 yards on a pair of touches. Rogers completed 13 of 20 passes for 203 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Dawson Rogers caught three passes for 95 yards and a score, Vitale also found the end zone with three grabs for 44 yards. Crippes hauled in three passes for 30 yards, Rigdon caught three for 30, and Hutchings caught one pass for four yards.
The Tigers ran just 43 plays on offense while Mt. Carmel dominated the time of possession with 63 plays from scrimmage. Paris’ defense surrendered 401 yards rushing in the game.
The Tigers will travel to Newton on Friday, Oct. 4 to battle the Eagles in another LIC matchup. Mt. Carmel faces Olney in a battle of two of the top teams in the conference on the same night.