Richards quarterback Hasan Muhammad-Rogers gave Tacari Carpenter some flak on the sidelines following the wideout’s first-quarter fumble in the red zone.
But after Carpenter’s third-quarter explosion, Muhammad-Rogers had nothing but praise for his star wide receiver.
Carpenter hauled in nine passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns — with all three scores coming in the third quarter — as Richards turned a 6-0 halftime lead into a 31-0 romp over Argo in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs.
Richards (10-1) will host Lincoln-Way North in a quarterfinal next week.
“As a quarterback, sometimes you gotta know where the ball needs to be and know who’s the superstar — he’s a superstar,” Muhammad-Rogers said of Carpenter. “He made magic.”
On Richards’ first play after the break, Muhammad-Rodgers hit Carpenter on a short pass. Carpenter turned, shook off a few Argo defenders and hit the jets for a 76-yard touchdown and a 12-0 lead.
“I didn’t make a lot of plays in the first half, and I got a little angry,” Carpenter said. “I wanted it bad. You have to have a nose for the end zone. I had a nose for the end zone and that’s all I wanted to do.”
Carpenter’s next two catches were 9- and 45-yard touchdown passes from Muhammad-Rogers, with the latter coming via another dynamic run after the catch.
“Tacari took the game over,” Richards coach Tony Sheehan said. “Plain and simple.”
Carpenter added 38 yards on the ground. Muhammad-Rodgers went 19-for-31 for 261 yards while Romeo Johnson totaled 134 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries for the Bulldogs.
Argo finished at 8-3, with two of those losses coming from Richards.
“It was kind of a carbon copy of the first game,” Argo coach Jim Innis said, who plans on retiring after next season. “We played them well in the first half and then we didn’t tackle in the second half.”
Argo’s twin linebackers, Darius and Danny Jiles, were a big reason for Argo’s first-half prosperity. The pair combined for three tackles for loss and a sack.
“We just couldn’t generate any offense,” Innis said. “We had some dropped balls. We just didn’t complete some balls that we had to.”
Richards pitched its fifth shutout in six games while limiting Argo to 181 yards from scrimmage.
“They’ve been playing lights out the last six weeks,” Sheehan said of his defense. “It’s good to see and it’s good to have that behind you.”
Corde O’Neal was the top gainer for Argo with 48 yards on two catches.
