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The Columbus Cardinals secure their first win in district play Friday night in front of a packed home crowd.
The Cardinals flew the Hallettsville Brahmas by a score of 42-14 but they had to earn every inch.
“I don’t tell them to enjoy it enough but tonight I made sure to tell them to enjoy this one,” Cardinals head coach Matt Schobel said. “We still have things to clean up and big test coming down the road so there’s no time to pat ourselves on the back but i did tell them to enjoy it tonight.”
The Cardinals got things started quick with an 11-yard touchdown run from senior running back Tyvone Whitehead. The offense would follow that up with a 56-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Adam Schobel to freshman receiver Braylon Fisher to make it a 14-0 game early.
“That’s always a good thing to get off to a fast start,” Cardinals head coach Matt Schobel said. “I am well aware that Hallettsville is going to fight and scrap for four quarters. We talked about that at halftime, so credit to our kids for continuing to play.”
Whitehead would finsih the game with 24 carries for 148 yards and four touchdowns. Schobel would complete 18 of 26 passes (69% completion) fro 241 yards and two touchdowns with his top targets being Jackson Hancock who caught 12 balls for 149 yard and a touchdown and Braylon Fisher who caught two passes for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Offensively the Cardinals took advantage of a lot of mismatches but stuck true to their identity. They like to run the ball inside but when that was taken away Schobel trusted his quarterback to make the throws that were needed.
“We are going to run our gap and our power stuff inside and Hallettsville really did a good job defending it,” Schobel said. “We had to go to some different areas and I thought Hancock (senior receiver Jackson Hancock) had a great game Braylon (Fisher) as well. All our receivers made critical catches for us and allowed us to run the ball later in the game.”
The Cardinals did exactly that and ran the ball with Whitehead to cap off the game.
Defense was the story Friday for the Cardinals stopping all but one fourth down attempt from the Brahmas. The defense did give up two touchdowns to the Brahmas Friday night but to make up for it they also caused two takeaways.
“We probably should have started on defense. They were really the story tonight,” Schobel said. “We gave Hallettsville a short field and we stopped them. Our guys just kept battling and scraping.”
Schobel said Hallettsville is a well coached team and every play has to be earned and said his defense earned every stop they got Friday night.
The Cardinals will be on the road for their next game against Hitchcock on Friday, Oct. 13, where they will look to continue to soar in district play.
