Prep Football: Carterville collars Bulldogs in first round of 4A playoffs

History has a way of repeating itself and it did in a eerily smilier fashion Saturday afternoon.

A week after beating Harrisburg 45-12 to close out the regular season, Carterville, the No. 5 seed, turned the trick again in Saturday's IHSA Class 4A first round matchup, collaring the Bulldogs 42-12.

Saturday was also all about Carterville quarterback Andrew Hellrigel as the 6-foot-1, 156-pound junior threw for 309 yards, while going 21-for-25 and four touchdowns on the afternoon.

The passing game was something Lions head coach Brett Dial said his team turned too after Harrisburg's defensive front took away the running game.

"This was a tough task for us," Dial said. "We knew (last Saturday night) we would have to come back and play the same team. (Harrisburg) really had nothing to lose and they made some adjustments defensively, some that were pretty significant. They brought the house and gave us some trouble trying to run the football. They took that out of the playbook, but fortunately for us, we do have the ability to throw and throw pretty well and we were able to do that today."

After Carterville's Townsend Barton got Carterville on the scoreboard in the first quarter with a five-yard rushing touchdown, Hellrigel and the passing game went to work.

First he found Blake Burkey on a 29-yard pass and catch for a score, giving the Lions a 14-0 lead.

Harrisburg was able to cut the lead to eight after Bryant Lester scored on a fourth-and-one situation from the Carterviille two-yard line with 4:37 left to play in the first half, but the momentum was short lived as Hellrigel found Barton for a 48-yard touchdown completion on the next possession and that was followed up with a 10-yard slant route to Brandon Skelcher in the end zone as the Lions grabbed a 28-6 halftime advantage.

In the first half, Hellrigel was 13-for-13 for 215 yards and Harrisburg head coach Matt Griffith acknowledged his Bulldog club forcing Carterville to go to the air.

"We switched around the defensive front a little and played a little more of a 3-4 defense and I thought the defensive line allowed us to stay in the game. We forced them to pass the ball, because we took away the run. We knew they were dangerous, but we were going to hang our hat on making them throw the ball."

In the second half, Hellrigel's final passing TD came from five yards out, hooking up with Peyton Bittle with 1:15 left in the third and Ethan Lannom busted into the end zone from three yards out with 6:40 in the fourth.

Harrisburg's only other TD of the game came compliments of Lester, finding pay dirt from seven yards out with 3:51 left in the fourth.

Hellrigel also accounted for 48 yards on five carries, while Barton had 17 yards rushing on four carries and four catches for 95 yards. Burkey netted seven catches for 95 yards, while Bittle had six catches for 99 yards. Jordan Cordes had one catch for six yards, while Aiden Hinton had two carries for 20 yards and Lannom finished with 12 yards on seven carries.

Harrisburg (5-5) was led by Lester's 76 yards on 15 carries, while Ross Rider had 53 yards on 11 carries. Vaundre McIntosh had one carry for 20 yards, while Sam Martin had one carry for 13 yards.

Ben Gulley went 5-for-11 for 23 yards under center, finding Martin for 12 yards, McIntosh for nine yards and Connor Henshaw for nine yards.

The Bulldogs broke a six year streak of missing the playoffs this season and Griffith said he is already looking forward to next season, but not before appreciating the building blocks for the foundation set by this year's team.

"We told them at the beginning of the season, this year was about changing the culture and creating an environment that Harrisburg football is used to. I'm proud of them for what they accomplished this year and I have a lot that I can learn from. I have great players and good coaches that made my job a lot easier this year, but we'll go back to the drawing board and put us in a position to be successful in the coming year."

Carterville (8-2) will now travel to No. 4 seed Freeburg (8-2) as the Midgets took care of Richland County 69-19 Friday night.

Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.