MOUNT CARMEL — Kyle Karycki was enjoying a well-deserved a rest. The Mount Carmel senior stood on the sidelines watching as his teammates tried to finish off their 20-10 victory over Danville in a cold, windy homecoming game at the Silver Bowl.
So Karycki, who had already rushed for 360 yards on 39 carries, was finished for the night.
But, wait, it seems there was a record to be broken.
Word came to the Mount Carmel bench from longtime statistician Jose Gonzalo that the Mount Carmel senior tailback needed three yards to break the school’s single-game rushing record.
The 5-foot-11, 218-pound Karycki went back onto the field and ran one more play, picking up eight yards on a play that he nearly broke for a touchdown. With that he supplanted Lucas Klingerman in the record book.
“Honestly, I had no idea. I knew I ran for a good bit of yards, but I didn’t know it was that much,” said Karycki as the cheerleaders stood at the field entrance waiting to congratulate him.
“I’ve got to give all of the credit to that line. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be in this position right now,” he added. “I had absolutely no idea I was anywhere close to the record and coach (John) Darrah grabbed me and said, ‘You’ve got to get back in there.’ He stared me straight in the eyes and said, ‘you’re two yards away.’ ”
Darrah asked him what play he wanted to run and Karycki told him “I don’t care, you give me a play and I’m getting those two yards.”
He was supposed to run an off-tackle play to the right, but the hole closed. He picked up a block on the wing and turned the corner and was tackled as he stumbled eight yards downfield.
“Right when I got around the edge, what was going through my mind was ‘open field, I’m going for a touchdown; we need to put this game away,’ ” he said.
“We were at the time in the game we wanted to get him out of there,” Darrah said. “I told him and he didn’t believe it, but we are proud of him. He earned it. He ran hard.”
Danville coach Jim Keiser, while disappointed that his Ironmen had turned the ball over twice in the Mount Carmel red zone and wasted a third red-zone trip with a personal foul penalty, couldn’t help but marvel at the performance by Karycki.
“Kyle Karycki is a special kid. And they outmanned us up front,” he said.
Despite Karycki’s exploits, done mostly running from a direct snap in the wildcat formation, the Ironmen were not only in this Heartland Athletic Conference Division II game, they led it 10-8 at halftime and didn’t give up the lead for good until there were 19 seconds left in the third quarter.
While Karycki paved the way for the Red Tornadoes, Danville’s bellcow was junior fullback Trent Hilkert, who piled up 151 yards on 24 carries and a TD.
But the Red Tornadoes’ second-half adjustments paid off. They were able to put together two long scoring drives and also limit Hilkert to 12 yards on six carries in the second half.
Danville (2-3 overall, 0-2 HAC-II) took the first lead on a 29-yard field goal by Peyton Riley with 3 minutes, 24 seconds left in the opening period. That was set up by a 35-yard run by Hilkert.
But Karycki and Co. answered immediately. On the first play after the kickoff, Karycki took the direct snap and broke through the left side of the line and went untouched the rest of the way for a 69-yard TD. Zach Zarkowski ran in for the two-point conversion for an 8-3 lead.
Danville drove into the red zone on its next two possessions, but lost fumbles, but then rallied to take the lead with the help of an interception by Riley, who returned it to the Red Tornadoes 10. Hilkert scored two plays later and Riley kicked the PAT for a 10-8 lead with 1:40 to play in the half.
Danville’s Matt Meloy preserved the lead with an interception at the Ironmen 3-yard line to close out the half.
Mount Carmel (3-2, 2-0) forced a three-and-out to open the second, then drove 74 yards in 18 plays and took the lead on a 3-yard TD run by Karycki. A two-point play failed.
Danville took another trip to the end zone in the fourth quarter with a chance to regain the lead, but Tommy McDonald kept Riley from catching a Gannon Feldmann pass in the end zone on fourth-and-nine.
Five plays later, Karycki iced it with a 66-yard TD run.
Game Summary
Dan (2-3) 3 7 0 0 — 10
MC (3-2) 8 0 6 6 — 20
Dan — FG 29 Riley
MC — Karycki, 69 run (Zarkowski run)
Dan — Hilkert 9 run (Riley kick)
MC — Karycki 3 run (run failed)
MC — Karycki 66 run (run failed)
Dan MC
First Downs 13 21
Rushes-Yards 34-176 57-404
Passes 2-4-0 2-10-2
Passing Yards 41 42
Total Yards 217 442
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 2-0
Penalties 4-18 10-81
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Danville — Hilkert 24-151, Ryan Palm 3-11, Feldmann 6-11, Truesdell 1-3. Mount Carmel — Karycki 40-368, Yancoskie 7-36, McDonald 2-7, Tanney 2-4, Zarkowski 4-2, Team 2-(-13).
PASSING: Danville — Feldmann 2-4-0, 41 yds. Mount Carmel — McDonald 2-10-2, 42 yds.
RECEIVING: Danville — Riley 1-32 Truesdell 1-9. Mount Carmel — Tanney 1-27, Wes Shurock 1-15.
INTERCEPTIONS: Not provided.