Carterville, the No. 10-ranked team by the Associated Press in the Illinois High School Association’s 4A class, ambushed Charleston with 36 unanswered points on homecoming night at Trojan Hill, leading to a Lions 49-13 win Friday night. 

Before the half, the Trojans answered with a touchdown pass from junior quarterback Wyatt Gordon to junior wide receiver Dray Sean Eich. 

This pass was one example of the improvements Gordon has made week-by-week. 

“Part of that is we’re improving up front,” head coach Brian Halsey said. “We went sophomore, sophomore, freshman, senior, sophomore on the offensive line tonight. And we haven’t had the same five all season. So there was some improvement there, and we’re going to build on it.”  

Halsey said they made three changes in their starting offensive line for the game. 

Then the second half saw less scoring, especially with the running clock being initiated with 4:50 left in the third quarter on a 36-yard pick six by Carterville’s senior defensive back Drake Capie, and the Lions burning out the clock when that was set in motion. 

One standout for Charleston was junior running back and defensive back Treylin Couch, who had an interception and a rushing touchdown.  

“He’s a junior, he’s been doing this since he was a freshman,” Halsey said. “He’s grown as a young man. He’s got a terrific attitude. He plays hard, and it’s starting to rub off on some of our other guys, and we need that out of him. We had a lot of guys step up tonight.”  

Despite the 36-point loss, Halsey is proud of the physicality and perseverance that his team showed in the game 

“We played physical, we did a lot of great things,” Halsey said. “They didn’t carve through us like a hot knife in butter. We did a lot of great things. We were physical, we played hard, we rallied around each other, we had some stops. We just had some silly penalties that kind of shot us in the foot here and there, and it finally hit a point where we’re out of depth. We had a lot of kids sick and injured that we’ll have back next week. But I’m proud of our kids. They could have rolled over and died, and we fought in that first half. 

Charleston will start Apollo Conference play next Friday against Effingham. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. 

Bryce Parker can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].