CARTERVILLE — The Carterville Lions closed the regular season by beating Harrisburg 45-12 at Lions Field. The two teams were matched up in the first round of the 4A playoffs in the very same place, with nearly identical results as Carterville 42-12.

Lions’ junior quarterback Andrew Hellriegel was 13-13 for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, as Carterville built a 28-6 lead by half and cruised from there. For the day, Hellriegel completed 21 of 25 for 318 yards and four touchdowns.

Carterville jumped out to a 14-0 lead almost immediately. Harrisburg fumbled the opening kickoff, and the Lions recovered on the Harrisburg five yard line. Townsend Barton scored on a 1-yard touchdown for a 6-0 lead. On Carterville’s next possession, Hellriegel connected with Blake Burkey for a 29-yard touchdown on 4th and 18. The two-point conversion made it 14-0.

Harrisburg cut that lead to 14-6 on Bryant Lester’s 3-yard TD run, but Carterville scored twice in the final 2:48 of the half, both on Hellriegel TD passes–a 48-yarder to Barton and a 10-yarder to Nolan Hartford.

Carterville improves to 8-2 and will hit the road next week to meet 8-2 Freeburg in the second round. The Bulldogs finish 6-5 in the Matt Griffith’s first year as head coach.