Cards Victorious Over Verdigre, 38-0

The Verdigre Eagles were the latest victims of the Cardinal scourge in a, 38-0, victory last Friday evening in O'Neill.

Verdigre took first possession of the ball at the 22-yard line and were forced to punt from the 25-yard line. Quarterback Mike Simons escapes the grips of a Verdigre defender in action from last Friday's match in O'Neill.

St. Mary's had three possessions and Verdigre had four in the first quarter, but neither were able to score.

In the first series of the second quarter, Jed Givens took the Cards from the 40-yard line to the 38-yard line. On third down from the 38, Ryan Hickey took the ball on a draw play down to the 3-yard line, where on first down from the 3-yard line, Ryan Kelly ran in the first touchdown to put the Cards on the board. A PAT attempt by Mike Simons gave the Cards an extra two and St. Mary's went up, 6-0, with 11:18 remaining in the second quarter.

St. Mary's next series started from their own 18-yard line. After a small loss on second down, Jed Givens caught a pass from Mike Simons and took the Cards 33 yards down the field to the Verdigre 30. St. Mary's tried moving the ball on the ground and progressed to the 11. A fumble and a penalty took the Cards back to the 21-yard line, where St. Mary's regrouped. On third down from the 21, Mike Simons found Matt Willis in the end zone to add six more points for the Cards to make the score 13-0.

The Cards got their next scoring action when Mike Simons intercepted a pass giving the Cards possession deep in Hawk territory. St. Mary's took over with two runs from Ryan Hickey and made yardage to the 32-yard line. A penalty took St. Mary's back to the 27. Mike Simons took the ball to the air and hit Jed Givens, who made it out to the 38-yard line. On first from the 38, Simons found Willis, down at the Verdigre 13-yard line. Three plays later from the 9-yard line, Simons found an open Matt Willis in the third touchdown of the evening to make the score, 20-0. With a two-point conversion from Willis, St. Mary's ruled the score board, 22-0, with 2:16 left in the half.

St. Mary's started out the third quarter with the first possession from their own 33-yard line. A run by Willis took St. Mary's 3 yards to the 36. A penalty on Verdigre brought the Cards over the line and on to the Verdigre 39. Mike Simons took the next run up field to the 31-yard line where Jed Givens took over and ran 7 yards further to the 24. Simons gained 11 yards on the next carry to the 13 and Givens added one extra to put St. Mary's at the 9-yard line and in scoring position. On fourth down from the 9, Simons handed off to Givens for a 9-yards touchdown to the put the Cards up, 28-0. With a two point conversion by Jed Givens, the Cards went into the fourth quarter, 30-0.

The fourth quarter scoring by the Cardinals was handled by Ryan Kelly, when he ran 55 yards for the final touchdown. After a successful two point conversion, the Cards went ahead, 38-0, where the scoring ended for the evening.

The Cardinals had 401 total offensive yards. They rushed for 266 on the ground and had 135 yards from the air. St. Mary's ran 77 plays and fumbled the ball three times, losing the ball twice.

Top players for St. Mary's were Kiel Neumann with 18 tackles; Mike Simons with 135 yards passing, completing 12 of 21 passes with two for touchdown; Matt Willis with 80 yards receiving; and two touchdowns.

Verdigre had 174 total offensive yards with 44 yards rushing and 130 from the air. The Hawks fumbled the ball five times and lost it three times. They ran 70 plays and were penalized six times for 35 yards.

The Cards end their regular season, 8-0, and will move on to the first round of the state playoff action against Sumner EM on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. in O'Neill.