The Carthage football team snapped a two-game losing streak with one of its better performances of the season in last week’s 41-28 victory over Millikin.

Chances are very good that the Red Men will make it two in a row when they host North Park in the final home game of the season 1 p.m. today at Art Keller Field.

“The odds say that,” Carthage coach Tim Rucks agreed. “Certainly, we like to think we can.”

That confidence stems from the fact that the lowly Vikings have lost 66 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin games in a row and have been outscored 248-44 in five league games this season.

“One of the things that I told our guys on Sunday is, ‘I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that they are some great team because they are not. At the same time, it’s really about us and what level of excellence we want to play at.’

“That’s sort of our approach. If we come to play and our heads are into it, we’ll be fine.”

The Red Men are looking to build off last week’s victory over Millikin when they outscored the Big Blue 20-0 in the third quarter to break open a tie game.

“We dominated the second half and really controlled them,” Rucks said. “It was a big win, I think, for our confidence. We played hard. We played very physical. We were able to run the ball a little bit. Really, for the first time, we felt like it was a total team win.”

During today’s game, Carthage will recognize 19 seniors, most notably defensive end Alex Annes, linebacker Joe Busse, right tackle Jordan Eder, center Matt Favero, left guard Bryan Shredl and wide receivers Jeff Koeneman, Rick Loisi, Nick Merchut, Luke Musselman and Chas Walton.

Carthage closes out the season next week at Wheaton.