The last look Carthage College football fans got of the team’s talented trio of receivers was a prolific one.

Seniors Jeff Koeneman, Rick Loisi and Nick Merchut combined for 14 catches on 327 yards and five touchdowns as the Red Men blasted North Park 55-24 in the Art Keller Field finale before 1,350 fans Saturday afternoon.

“We were able to do pretty much anything we wanted to do,” Carthage coach Tim Rucks said. “North Park put more people in the box than we had blockers for, so that means throw the ball, and we did. If you give us the pass, you know what we’re going to do.”

Sophomore quarterback Evan Jones threw for 467 yards and a school-record tying six touchdowns as Carthage improved to 6-3 and 3-3 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Carthage rolled up 674 total offensive yards in handing North Park (1-8 and 0-6 CCIW) its 67th consecutive league loss.

The Red Men actually trailed in this one when North Park took the opening kickoff and sopped up 7 minutes and 15 seconds. Sam Lialios capped the 13-play, 60-yard drove with a 9-yard TD catch from Shelby Wood.

Carthage responded with 28 consecutive points to put the game away.

Jones fired scoring passes of 15-yards to Koeneman, 81- and 26-yards to Loisi and 19-yards to Merchut to turn the game into a rout.

“We started out a little slow today but we did what we needed to do and took care of business,” Rucks said. “Our offense is really in synch at the moment and any team we play is going to have a do a pretty good on defense to stop this offense.”

Long field goal

After the teams swapped touchdowns, Tyler Funk drilled a Carthage-record 52-yard field goal with :01 left in the first half to give the Red Men a 35-15 bulge at intermission. The previous long Carthage field was 49 yards by both Scott Sutton (1981) and Matt Denny (2007).

“Tyler Funk wasn’t at all sure if he could make that 52-yard field goal, but I shoved him on the field and told him he could do it,” Rucks said.

The Reds led 52-17 after three thanks to a 43-yard TD catch by Merchut and a 3-yard run by Luke Musselman.

Funk’s 36-yard field goal in the fourth quarter closed the Carthage scoring.

n Notes: Carthage plays at Wheaton next week. ... Carthage’s John Seigler ran for 92 yards. ... Chris Williams led Carthage with seven tackles.