Diboll falls to Carthage

It was truly a tough outing for the Diboll Lumberjacks Friday night in their first home loss this season to the Carthage Bulldogs 62-28.

The contest featured the now 7-2, 3-1 Jacks and the 7-2, 4-0 Bulldogs in a battle for the District 18-3A Title.

Plagued on the night by four turnovers, three of which resulted in touchdown scores by the Bulldogs was just completely impossible for the hometown team to overcome.

"We can't turn the ball over and expect to beat a good team like that," Diboll Lumberjack Head Coach Tom Sheppard said.

On the night Carthage took control early on and kept pouring it on all game long.

Led by highly touted runningback Dwight Smith, the Bulldogs were able to keep their ground game going and it just kept coming.

Smith finished the evening with 242 yards of rushing for the Bulldogs, while quarterback Si'Darius Blackshire attacked the Jacks by air and came away 234 yards with four scores in the contest.

The Jacks fell behind after Carthage opened up the game with a touchdown, followed by an interception of Diboll quarterback Jacoby Spencer that led to another Carthage touchdown pass.

Diboll did not just bow out, with the Jacks down by a pair of scores they moved back down the field and Kendal Jackson capped it off with a 29 yard touchdown run.

Jackson finished the game just short of another 100 yard night; the Diboll runner had 94 yards and a touchdown.

Spencer walked away after a rough night that saw the senior quarterback come away with 125 yards passing with a touchdown rushing, and a second half toss to junior Anotnio Johnson.

The Jacks did get an impressive kick return from Cornelius Polk for 90 yards in the second half.

On the night the Jacks finished up with 323 total yards of offense, while the Jacks defense surrendered 605 yards to the Bulldogs.

Diboll freshman Terrance Taylor also got some time at the runningback position and was fairly impressive gaining 79 yards on 10 carries.

There was also what appeared to be a major injury to Diboll standout sophomore Chase Oliver.

The injury was serious enough that Oliver had to be transported to the hospital for an evaluation.

According to Sheppard the injury to Oliver was bruised ribs.

Now the Jacks turn their focus to the Rusk Eagles (4-5, 1-3) and the final regular season game of the year.

Rusk comes into the affair on a losing note, after Jasper destroyed them last week 35-0.

A Diboll win will most likely pit the Jacks against Gilmer in the opening round of the playoffs.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. in Rusk, come out and cheer on the Jacks.