Cady And The Cardinals Run Over Riverhawks

PASCO - Just how impor­tant is Kris Cady to the Car­dinals' offense and defense? Well, try sitting him out for half a game as head coach Jeff Bartlow did because Cady breached team rules last week. The difference was night and day. During the first half of the WP game Thursday against the Chiawana Riverhawks' JV team, the Cardinals trailed 6-7. As soon as Cady, who is a running back on of­fense and a strong safety on defense, and running back Justin Armstrong were back in the lineup, the Cardinals suddenly came out of the starting gate and left Chiawa­na scoreless in the dust (or in this case, the spray of the wet artificial turf at Edgar Brown stadium) for the second half.

The final outcome was 30-7 in WP's favor.

The sideline played a criti­cal part in the victory as well. Pumped as the bench was by Cady's return, the sideline kept up its raucous encour­agement throughout the half. "I was really pleased with the hunger the kids showed in the second half," Bartlow said. "Kris' presence made a huge difference, and that tells you what he brings to the team. Then the sideline came alive, and it made a huge difference on the field. The guys on the field could feel the energy."

During the first quar­ter, WP and Chiawana ex­changed footballs in quick succession when Riverhawks quarterback Shawn Mc­Neil threw the ball to re­ceiver Zach Flieger and it got picked off by T.J. Hofer only to have Hofer finding it stripped again by McNeil.

Though the Riverhawks knocked on the Cardinals' door on the 10 yard line, they did not convert during the first quarter. Three posses­sions

in the second quarter, WP's Ben Shafter gained the ball back on a fumble on the Riverhawks' 28 yards, and on the first snap Cardinals Quarterback Zach Bartlow ran down the far sideline for a touchdown. The kick for the extra point failed. In response, Chiawana rolled out a seven-play drive of nearly 80 yards and took the lead 7-6 with 30 seconds before halftime. "We played well at times but could not get into all of our sets on offense, and that really limited us to what we could do," Bartlow said. "For that first half, the guys just kinda were in a holding mode, and that was unfortu­nate." But if WP seemed drenched, flat-footed and lethargic in the first half, the second half was a picture-perfect comeback with ap­petites completely reversed.

Dalton Estes ran the sec­ond half kickoff back 18 yards to the Cardinals' own 45-yard line. Cady took 15 yards on two more carries, and Bartlow ran it in the end zone for an 11-yard touch­down. Hofer added two more points on a reverse, and the Cardinals led 14-7.

From that point, WP dom­inated the game. Armstrong carried the ball six yards into the end zone again after Cady's two carries for 60 yards following a fumble recovered by WP defensive tackle Peter Wilson. The Cardinals were up 20-7 with more than four minutes to go in the third quarter.

The Cardinals continued their momentum in the fourth quarter with a 10-yard Bart­low pass to Guillermo Her­nandez for a touchdown. The final WP score came when Estes kicked a 19-yard field goal with just over two min­utes to go before the whistle. Tre Brannock and Greg Sterns each had sacks.

"We came out in the sec­ond half and played with a lot of heart," Bartlow sad. "We picked it up and took care of business."

Worried about the WP offense during the first week of the season, Bartlow said he has seen quite a bit of improvement on the offen­sive line, which ran for 331 yards with several successful drives. He credited Tre Bran­nock, David Brock, Morgan Robinson, Greg Stearns and Ben Shafer, a sophomore transfer student who will start as an offensive tackle

against DeSales. He said last Thursday's game against the River­hawks,

a "very decent and physical football," was good preparation for WP's matchup against the Irish this Thursday at home at 7 p.m.

WP vs Chiawana JV

30-7

WP 0 6 14 10 - 30

Chiawana JV 0 7 0 0 - 7

Rushing:

Kris Cady 15 carries for 176 yards

Zach Bartlow 16 carries for 125 yards

Justin Armstrong: 6 car­ries

for 24 yards

Dalton Estes: 1 carry for 6 yards.

Passing:

Zach Bartlow: 10 for 20 with 104 and one touchdown.

Receiving:

T.J. Hofer: 3 for 28

Guillermo Hernandez: 2 for 30

Dalton Estes: 2 for 21

Anthony Powell: 1 for 13

Justin Armstrong: 1 for 7

Kris Cady: 1 for 5