MIDDLEFIELD—Garrettsville Garfield capitalized on several Cardinal mistakes to take a 21-13 lead into halftime of Friday’s season opener at Richard A. Moss Field on Friday.
The G-Men then opened the second half with 28 points to pull away for a 49-20 win over the Huskies.
“I thought we played tentative at first,” said Cardinal coach Eric Cardinal. “We did come back and I liked the way we played in the second quarter, but we had seven offside penalties because they have a hard count that we practiced against all week. It’s one thing to get geeked up to play and another thing to get geeked up and play and jump on a hard count. We have some things we have to clean up aside from anything else.”
Brice Hogue opened the game with a 52-yard run that set the Huskies up in G-Men territory.
The drive stalled at the Garfield 10 and the G-Men drove 90 yards for a 7-0 lead.
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An offside penalty extended Garfield’s next drive and the G-Men converted on a 4th-and-2 before another touchdown increased the lead to 14-0 with 10:52 left in the first half.
Garfield then picked off a Cardinal pass but Trey Shirkey recovered a fumble at the Garfield 27 and Jake Carney scored on the Huskies’ next play to pull Cardinal to within 14-6 of the G-Men with 8:28 left.
The Huskies then forced a Garfield punt and an errant snap led to a loose ball, which Hayden Cummins recovered and returned 10 yards for a touchdown. Cam Klepper’s extra point cut Garfield’s lead to 14-13 with 5:30 left in the half.
Cardinal’s defense again held but a fourth down offside penalty extended the drive and the G-Men scored on the final play of the first half to take a 21-13 lead into the locker room.
“That last touchdown they got with one second left, we had them 4th-and-5 and jumped offside and all of a sudden it’s first down and away they go,” Cardinal said. “We’ve got a lot to clean up in that area.”
Aided by two squib kickoff recoveries, Garfield scored four straight touchdowns in the third quarter to pull away from the Huskies.
“I thought our focus was a little lacking,” Cardinal said. “They squibbed the ball and if you don’t recover the ball they will because the kids want to play. They played hard on those kickoff returns and we stood around a little bit.”
Michael Lucarelli scored on a 29-yard run in the fourth quarter for the Huskies, who travel to Pymatuning Valley on Friday.
Led by Hogue with 52, Cardinal rushed for 151 yards on 21 carries. Garfield racked up 359 yards of offense.
“Garrettsville has a nice team,” Cardinal said. “They had a pretty good run last year and I think they’re poised to have a pretty good team this year. We’ve got too much to worry about ourselves so I’m not worried about Garrettsville, especially since it’s over, and I’m not worried about Pymatuning Valley next week or Grand Valley the week after. I’m worried about the Caridnal Huskies. We’ve got a lot of things to work on and we’re going to continue to work on them.”
