This one hurts, as Carmel falls short vs. Phillips

It was already a sobering night for Carmel.

The Corsairs weren't having luck with much of anything Friday against visiting Phillips.

Carmel was down by 35 points and hadn't even scored a point yet when its reality got worse. With 6:27 left in the fourth quarter, starting running back Dan Godziszewski took a handoff and got thrown to the ground. He didn't get up. In fact, he didn't get up for the next 20 minutes.

Players from both teams stood quiet and still. The fans were eerily quiet, too.

An ambulance drove slowly onto the field and eventually took Godziszewski to a hospital. The two teams somberly re-grouped and Phillips put the finishing touches on a 41-7 nonconference victory.

Phillips, the Class 4A state runner-up last season, improves to 2-0 while Carmel drops to 0-2.

"It was kind of like whiplash. We think he got grabbed by the facemask and thrown down," Carmel coach Andy Bitto said of Godziszewski. "But he's fine. It was all precautionary. They were going to try to walk him off (the field). He was moving his fingers and toes and was talking and conscious and joking. They checked his spine, it was all in place. They were just worried that he had tingling in his forearms that wasn't going away, so it could be whiplash.

"But ouch."

Bitto's last comment could have applied to Godziszewski. But it was actually about the game.

Carmel was dominated from start to finish by the Wildcats, who were up 14-0 by the end of the first quarter and 28-0 at halftime. Phillips out-gained Carmel in yardage, 407 to 203 and also forced 5 Carmel turnovers.

"It was (frustrating)," Carmel senior linebacker Remy Chitwood said. "The most important thing as a defense was that we had to keep doing our jobs and stay together and we weren't going to turn on each other. We just had to make tackles when they needed to be made. We were making contact in the backfield but they were slipping tackles and they had some big plays."

Quarterback Quayvon Skanes and running back Kamari Mosby were the most slippery characters for Phillips. Skanes, a wide receiver last year, rolled up 177 rushing yards (15 carries) and ran in 4 touchdowns. Mosby had 137 rushing yards (18 carries).

The two combined for 77 percent of Phillips' offense.

"We actually had a hard time running the ball last week," Skanes said of Phillips' season opening win over Fenwick (40-16). "But this game, it opened up and we stuck with it.

"Last year, I was a wide receiver, but I think I'm the perfect guy to be (quarterback). And Kamari is a really good back. He does what we need him to do. He gets first downs for us. We're up-tempo, we run our offense quick and we keep defenses on their heels. "

After Amani Jones capped an 8-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown run on Phillips' first possession, Skanes scored the next four Phillips' touchdowns. That gave the Wildcats a 35-0 lead with 5:53 left in the third quarter.

Carmel, after the long injury timeout for Godziszewski, finally got on the board when quarterback Jeremy Strutzel ran in a touchdown from 3 yards out with 3:56 remaining.

Reserve running back Greg Wallace capped the scoring for Phillips with a 5-yard touchdown run with 35.5 seconds left.

"We gained a lot of experience last year and we want to go back (to state)," Skanes said. "We have a lot of motivation from last year. We're looking forward to doing even better."

Rondel Jamison led Carmel with 48 rushing yards while Noah Turner caught 3 passes for 60 yards. Starting quarterback Zavier Barnes completed 4-of-7 passes for 70 yards for the Corsairs.