Cardinals blow out Central Texas Christian;
meet Sacred Heart for district title Friday
Thursday, October 29, 2015
St. Paul Cardinal Football | St. Paul Cardinal Sports
St. Paul ended the night with a 54-8 blowout against the Lions, but the first quarter was a lot more tense than that final scoreboard indicated.
Jed Janecek hangs onto the football for a first down as he's tackled by a Lions defender after a good run.
[ NOTE: click on photo to enlarge ]all photos by Stephanie Kasper
The Cardinals let the Lions into the end zone on a 23-yard run just minutes into the first quarter, on CTC's first drive of the game. The successful Lions conversion run left St. Paul trailing 8-0. These were the first points the Cardinal defense had surrendered to any district opponent this season and it put them behind on the scoreboard for the first time since Aug. 28 in their first game of the season against Yorktown.
According to senior Marco Ynclan, "We got a wake up call after that touchdown. We knew we didn't come out to play, so we fixed that right after they scored."
Marco Ynclan hangs onto a pass from quarterback Austin Barton for the completion and first down.
[ NOTE: click on photo to enlarge ]
The adjustments the Cardinals made after that play worked, and they held the Lions scoreless for the rest of the game, limiting them to 87 rushing yards and 132 passing yards.
In the meantime, the Cardinals rushed for 368 yards, passed for 137, and put up 8 total touchdowns. By the end of the first quarter, after a 63- yard touchdown run by Ryan Geiger, a 31 yard touchdown run by Austin Barton, a successful two-point conversion pass from Ynclan to Noah Leist, the Cardinals were back on top, 14-8.
Nathan Pilat jumps through the air to knock the pass out of the hands of the Lions receiver.
[ NOTE: click on photo to enlarge ]
The four St. Paul touchdowns in the second quarter came on a short 6-yard run by T.J. Bell and on passes from Barton to Ynclan, Nathan Pilat, and Bell. On top of his three touchdown passes, Barton also ran 60 yards on 4 carries and kicked 4 extra points for the Cardinals.
Two more rushing touchdowns from Bell and Ryan Malinovsky rounded out the Cardinal scoring in the third quarter.
Bell led the way once again with 112 rushing yards on 11 carries, bringing his season rushing total to 840 yards. Geiger added 73 yards on 3 runs, River Haynes contributed 40 yards, and Jed Janecek added 30 rushing yards to the Cardinal effort and as well as 42 receiving yards on 2 passes.
The 9-0 St. Paul Cardinals will travel to Hallettsville on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. to compete against their rivals, the Sacred Heart Indians, hoping to secure the district title.
"We just come out ready to practice every week," Ynclan said. "When we have a good week, we have a good game. It's simple as that. We're going to treat Sacred Heart like every other team. We're going to come out to get better and hope for playoffs and state."
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