THEY DID IT! | Kilgore takes down top-ranked Carthage, 20-15, in season opener, at Carthage

CARTHAGE – When it comes down to it, when facing the Carthage Bulldogs in the last decade, a lot of teams talk the talk, but only a few have actually walked the walk.

And on Friday, not only did the Kilgore Bulldogs walk that walk, they did it with a strut all their own.

A gritty performance and a defensive slugfest is exactly what the matchup between No. 1 Carthage (Class 4A, Division II) and No. 5 Kilgore (4A, DI) came down to on a wet Friday night to kick off the 2024 season at the Carthage ISD Bulldog Stadium. (Rankings from Dave Campbell’s Texas Football)

A couple of Class 4A East Texas heavyweights went toe-to-toe for 48 minutes in a defensive battle royal.

It came down to Javon Towns, who was on the receiving end of a Kayson Brooks scoring pass earlier in the contest, returning a kickoff 69 yards to set up a one-yard Isaiah Watters touchdown, giving Kilgore a 20-15 win over Carthage.

“It was a great performance by both teams,” Kilgore coach Clint Fuller said, following the win. “We both laid it on the line tonight, and in the end, we were able to make the plays we need to in the end to win the game.

“There ain’t a substitute for experience, and  what better to start a season than to come to Carthage and beat a good program? I’m so proud of the way we fought, all the way around.”

Since starting the 2016 season 3-2 and 0-2 in district, Carthage’s five-point loss to Kilgore was its fourth (110-4) with five (2016, ’17, ’19, ’20 and ’22) state championships.

The win was significant also because it was coach Clint Fuller’s first (1-2) against Carthage. Fuller is now in this his fourth season as the Bulldogs’ head coach. He has a 39-8 overall record.

Next week, Kilgore entertains Whitehouse at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium, while the Dawgs are open, before playing Liberty-Eylau in Texarkana on Sept. 13.

Whether you consider it an upset or not, it was Kilgore’s first win against Carthage in ‘the new’ Bulldog Stadium. The Ragin’ Red’s last victory, other than a first-round playoff win here against Livingston last season, in Carthage against the Dawgs came at Martin Stadium in 2003.

Brooks for Kilgore was 12-of-24 for 115 passing yards and a touchdown with one interception.  Watters led the Bulldogs’ rushing attack with 84 yards on 22 carries for two scores. Rayshaun Williams gained 27 yards on seven carries.

Carthage quarterback Jett Surratt had a rough night against an outstanding Kilgore secondary. Surratt was 10-of-27 passing for 51 yards and a touchdown with four interceptions. K.J. Edwards was the leading ball carrier in the game with 129 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown.

Surratt made his varsity debut last year against Kilgore and it was probably his worst game of the season. Yeah, he threw three interceptions, but the Dawgs rallied late in the fourth quarter to win 30-27.

The junior quarterback, who threw for 3,818 yards and 46 touchdowns last season, started the same way (as a year ago). Kinda bad, as defensive back Ja’Kalen Sheffield picked off his second pass of the contest at the Kilgore 49-yard-line.

Seven plays later, Watters, who rushed for 43 yards on four plays in the drive, scored on a four-yard run to give Kilgore an early 7-0 advantage, after Eddie Jiminez converted the extra point.

Before the half was history, Surratt was 6-of-17 for just 32 yards with a scoring pass of seven yards to Blake Marion with 2:52 remaining in the second quarter, which gave the Dawgs an 8-7 halftime lead.

Besides the interception by Sheffield, Lakeyleon Graves and Dre’ Sanders also had picks in the first half. And, in the fourth quarter, Michigan commit Jayden Sanders came away with one of his own in Carthage’s end of the field.

Carthage’s first score of the 2024 season went to its defense on a safety, following a Surratt pooch punt of 51 yards that was killed at the Kilgore 1-yard-line. Williams, on the first play of the series from the 1, was hit initially in the backfield by nose guard Braylon Allison and tackled by DeQuives Beck.

The Dawgs trailed by five in the second quarter, but put together an 11-play, 84-yard march, with Surratt finding Marion for the touchdown.

Kilgore regained the lead, using a 14-play, 60-yard drive that took 6:37 off the third-period clock. It was a nice mix of run (six) to pass (eight) with the scoring play, coming on a one-yard Brooks to Towns completion with 2:33 left in the quarter.

Jiminez hit the PAT and Kilgore led 14-8.

Kilgore got a turnover on the kickoff, but Jaydon Lewis intercepted a Brooks pass, giving the home-standing Dawgs the football late in the third period.

The teams traded possessions before Carthage’s K.J. Edwards capped a three-play, 68-yard march with a 52-yard run with 5:13 remaining in the contest. Leo Medrano’s conversion gave the Dawgs a 15-14 lead.

At this point, Towns stepped up big, returning the kickoff 69 yards to set the stage for Kilgore’s 27-yard, game-winning march to a one-yard Watters run for his second touchdown of the evening. The big play of the drive was a 23-yard completion from Brooks to Jayden Sanders down to the 1.

Jayden Sanders led the Kilgore receiving corps with six catches for 58 yards. Graves, Jacory Walton and Towns also had catches for the Ragin’ Red.

Edwards, Marion, Junior Henderson and Cale Preston also had catches for Carthage.