It's been a rough season on the gridiron for the Cardinal Huskies football team. Everybody knows it.
It’s been a rough season on the gridiron for the Cardinal Huskies football team. Everybody knows it.
It’s tough enough to start a season with only 19 players , but having some go down with injury only puts a bigger burden on those left standing.
As expected, the Huskies have spent a lot of time this season getting knocked down, as they have now lost all seven Fridays. As they lick their wounds from a 56-15 thumping at the hands of the Mathews Mustangs in NAC action Oct. 3, the single most obvious positive factor for the Huskies was that they kept getting up after every play, determined to stick out a very tough situation with pride and effort.
As the team moves ahead on the field of battle, it’s easy to expect bad outcomes. Getting better from them, though, sets teams with a good future apart from those who wallow in defeatist attitudes.
You can knock down this bunch of Huskies, but their effort can’t be dampened by anything, and that should provide a good future outlook for Head Coach Keith Fife and his players.
“Tonight was by far our best game of the season,” he said. “From the first whistle to the final whistle, these kids never let down in their effort and attitude, and I could not be any prouder of each of them. They know they will be outmanned every week, but they work hard all week to get better, and it is showing, despite the scores of our games.”
Beginning the season with only four seniors on the roster, it was clear that it would be a huge learning effort, both mentally and physically. Two juniors who have stepped up well in leadership roles are Jadien Fix, who has taken over at quarterback for the injured Josh Miller and grown by leaps and bounds over the season, and lineman Xavier Apathy, who has teamed with senior Joshua Phillips on the left side of the line for Coach Fife to provide examples of power that the eight freshmen and four sophomores can use to build on in the offseason.
“I think we are growing into a nice team here,” Fix said. “We just want to help the younger kids to see they can have success playing. For those coming along after us, that is important. This was the first time tonight that we scored double digits on the scoreboard, and I’m proud for all the guys with that.”
Apathy has seen the growth in his own game as well as that of teammates.
Mathews has been a NAC powerhouse for many years. Though this year was expected to be a bit lower on the learning curve, the school has some good size and a plethora of skill players to throw at a team like the Huskies. And though the football did not get thrown much — only once in the second half, by the kids in black — they had more than enough heft in the lines and speed in the backfield to take control early and maintain it all night long.
Londyn Deak scored twice in the first period to stake the Mustangs (3-4) to a healthy lead. Jimmy Pegg and Drew Spagnolaetta broke runs in the second period, the latter a 70-yard dash up the middle that looked like a roadrunner movie minus the beeps.
But with 4:18 left before halftime, the Huskies showed what they carry in their hearts.
Starting on their own 44 with 9:26 showing on the clock, Cardinal moved, mostly on the power of Fix rushes around end, to a fourth down at the Mustang 34 yard line. Mason Thistlewaite split left on a single defender, ran a sweet crossing pattern, and took a pass from Fix to go untouched for a touchdown with 4:18 to play.
Then the Huskies opened some eyes by recovering an onside kick at the midfield stripe on a pink-out night for Mustang fans. They couldn’t do anything with that recovery, but notice was served.
Two scoring drives sandwiched around a safety put the Mustangs ahead after three period, 50-7.
The Huskies then went on a 11-play, 77-yard drive that ate up over nine minutes of a running clock to a 15-yard scoring run from junior Dominic Harris, capping their biggest scoring night of the season in Middlefield.
Numbers show a 382-105 edge on the ground for Mathews. Fix did hit on three of seven passes, all to Thistlewaite in the first half, before an injury sat him down in the second half. But there are no numbers to show how much this tiny band of Huskies has grown over the course of this trying season.
This week, Cardinal faces a band of Mustangs at Grand Valley, a team also dealing with adversity. If heart and effort have anything to say about it, it could be the season’s first Cardinal first win.
