MOUNT CARMEL - Jensen Dardeen lit up the Herrin defense for six touchdowns as Mount Carmel's Golden Aces rolled over the Tigers 62-20 in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs on Saturday.

Dardeen, a senior tailback, caught touchdown passes of 27, 49, and 35 yards and added rushing scores of 9, 14 and 34 yards. The one-man wrecking crew finished with 119 yards receiving and 85 rushing.

"Today feels great," he said. "We came out here today after everybody talked about Herrin should handle Mount Carmel. We took that personally and took it to them early."

The Golden Aces took to the Tigers early, in the middle of the game and late in the contest. Dardeen was correct though, Mount Carmel got off to a lightning quick start, scoring on its first three possessions.

After stopping a Herrin drive at the Mount Carmel 40, it took the Golden Aces just four plays to score. Dardeen did the honors, getting behind the Herrin defense and hauling in a perfectly thrown 27-yard pass from Kyle Buss.

"Me and Kyle, we connected all year," Dardeen said. "We've been doing that since sixth grade. He knows who to throw it to. We have this kind of connection toward each other."

Buss also had a connection with Eric Stoltz on Mount Carmel's next possession. As on the first touchdown, Stoltz slipped behind the Herrin defense on a play action play for a 37-yard touchdown.

The Golden Aces then upped the ante to 21-0 on the first play of the second quarter when Buss and Dardeen hooked up for a 49-yard pass.

"It seems like two years in a row they (receivers) got behind us," said Herrin coach Jason Karnes. "We worked on it all week. It's something that happens."

Buss attempted just five passes in the first half, but completed four of them for 148 yards and four touchdowns.

"Kyle is a fantastic passer," said Mount Carmel coach Darren Peach. "If our philosophy at this school was to throw 20-30 times a game, he'd probably has 2,000 yards, but that isn't our personality.

"He does a good job of running our option offense and throwing play action off of it."

That early 21-0 deficit was just what Herrin was trying to avoid.

"We came out and sustained a little drive there and they shut us down," Karnes said. "I thought we were going to come out a little more from the get-go. We got off to a slow start and that's a credit to them. They really controlled the line of scrimmage.

"You get 3-4 scores behind them and it gets you out of your game plan."

The Tigers appeared willing to make a game of it on a couple occasions when Tommie Taylor scores, one a 52-yard run, kept the Tigers close. Taylor finished the game with 134 rushing yards.

The two touchdowns gave him 28 for the season, a Herrin school record.

"I might not see another Tommie Taylor in my lifetime as a coach," Karnes said.

"We didn't feel confident with the lead we had," Peach said. "Taylor pops one play and goes about 60 yards. We wanted to make sure we got the job done and advance to the next round."

The Golden Aces built a 28-7 lead at halftime and switched gears the second half. Instead of using play action, Mount Carmel fed the ball to fullback Clint Witsman.

Although Witsman failed to reach the end zone, he was a thorn in Herrin's side all day. The 200-pound senior lugged the ball 15 times for 166 yards.

"The first half we did a good job of throwing play action as well as running the option," Peach said.

In the meantime, Herrin was never really able to sustain anything against the Mount Carmel defense. The Tigers had 180 yards rushing and 94 passing.

"Our defense played really well the first half," Peach said. "The second half, I'll give Herrin credit, they came out and did some nice things."

Not nice enough to threaten the Golden Aces.

Herrin's season ends at 7-3. Mount Carmel is 10-0 and will be at home against 9-1 Breese Mater Dei next week.

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com/351-5088