Cardinals win Area Championship

The Columbus Cardinals are heading to the third round after they defeated the Palestine Westwood Panthers 48-28 on Friday.

The Cards are getting a lot of key pieces back from injury at the right time and one of them made a big impact in Friday’s game.

Grayson Rigdon missed the last two regular season games but returned last week to start the playoffs. He played only the first half for the Cardinals in the first round because the team was playing so well and it allowed him to rest a little bit longer.

This week however, Rigdon returned to form and the Cardinals could not be happier. Rigdon was a huge part of the offense on Friday, just like he has been all season long.

He carried the ball 19 times Friday night and racked up 94 yards with those 19 carries. He also found the endzone five times on Friday night which only boosted the Cards confidence on offense.

Adam Schobel had a great night throwing the football, he completed 16 of his 19 pass attempts for 314 yards and one touchdown. His top receiver was Braylon Fisher who caught five passes for 126 yards.

Schobel’s next top target was Camdon Pitchford who caught seven passes for 79 yards followed by Elijah Usher who caught three passes for 67 yards and the lone Cardinal touchdown through the air.

With the offense humming the defense for the Cards were also having a great night. The main objective of the defense in a football game is to prevent the opposing offense from scoring.

The Cards did a great job of that on Friday, they allowed only one touchdown to be scored against them in the first half. The Cards carried a 34-7 lead into halftime and with such a large lead Westwood knew they needed to respond.

While Westwood scored three more touchdowns in the second half the Cardinal offense continued to execute and scored two more touchdowns to close on the game to claim the Area Championship.

The Cards drive deeper into the playoffs and find themselves matched up with the Yoakum Bulldogs, they will play on Friday, Nov. 29, at Katy Legacy Stadium at 7 p.m.