Cardinals Blow Out TCP At Homecoming

WAITSBURG - Forced or fortuitous, the opportuni­ties kept coming the Cardi­nals' way during their Home­coming game against the Tri Cities Prep Jaguars Friday.

Whether it was a fumble recovered by Eshom Estes or an interception by Kris Cady, WP took full advantage of the Jaguars' turnovers in the home team's 28-7 win. The Cardinals are 7-0 going into a tough away game Friday against the Asotin Panthers, the only team to beat WP in the regular season last year.

"It was a great Homecom­ing night win," Cardinals head coach Jeff Bartlow said. "We played extremely hard." Bartlow said 12 seniors played during the game Fri­day, including running back Cady who celebrated his 17th birthday.

Despite the large margin of victory, the Cardinals weren't flawless. WP had about 100 yards in penalties, including two holding calls that reversed touchdowns. And the Cardinals had three turnovers - more than in any other game this year. TCP's Jacob Schmidt intercepted a pass intended for Anthony Powell, and the Jaguars recovered two WP fumbles.

"We overcame turnovers and penalties," Bartlow said. "We sucked it up and got a win against a quality op­ponent."

The Cardinals' first scor­ing opportunity came just before the end of the first quarter after the WP defense stopped the TCP drive that followed the home team's first turnover. From the Jag­uars' 13, quarterback Zach Bartlow ran it into the end zone on a keep but was called back because of his team's first holding penalty. The drive ended in a second turn­over when TCP recovered a WP fumble. But the Cardinals' defense brought another TCP drive to a halt and forced the Jag­uars

to punt at the start of the second quarter. Running back Justin Armstrong was hit hard after the punt and stayed down on the field for a while until he was helped off, where he remained on the sideline for the rest of the game.

Bartlow led the subse­quent drive with passes to Eshom Estes and T.J. Hofer. A quarterback keep and a suspenseful measurement put the ball on first and goal. Bartlow faked the handoff and ran it into the end zone for WP's first touchdown. Dalton's kick made it 7-0. On its next possession, TCP began its drive down the field but soon fumbled and Estes came up with it. Bartlow immediately con­nected with Cady for a 42-yard touchdown pass, putting WP ahead 13-0. Estes' extra-point attempt was blocked with almost seven minutes remaining in the half.

Poor ball handling stalled another Jaguars' drive, and WP didn't do much better on its next possession but got lucky when TCP fumbled after the punt return and the Cardinals recovered it on the TCP 22-yard line. Bartlow thought he scored another touchdown after running it in on a keep, but another (this time more con­troversial) holding call put an end to that hope. One more holding call reversed a Cady carry and hope almost seemed lost when TCP's Schmidt broke up a Bartlow pass to Cady. But the WP would not be denied. On the snap, Bartlow pump-faked, then threw a high overhead pass to Cady for the Cardinals' third touch­down.

T.J. Hofer received the next Bartlow pass for the two-point conversion, mak­ing it 21-0 with 1:29 minutes to go in the first half. TCP came out swinging in the second half, putting together an impressive drive that brought the pig skin to the 1-yard line on third and goal. A quick pass from Jag­uars' quarterback Jameson Pedersen to Chase Castona in the end zone won TCP it's first and only touchdown. It was Cady who helped WP respond in-kind with two tackle-breaking runs. T.J. Hofer took it from there with a 32-yard touchdown pass with 39 seconds to go in the third quarter. "We had trouble with their drive, but we didn't let them back in," coach Bartlow said. Although the Cardinals defended well against the Jaguars' drives in the fourth quarter, their ball handling was lackluster until Cady in­tercepted a pass from Peders­en and ran it back to midfield to the delight of the crowd. It did not lead to another WP score, but it held off the Jaguars and secured the 21-point-margin win.

"We made some mistakes, but we outhit them," Bartlow said. "We protected our quar­terback well." About the upcoming game against Asotin, Bartlow said, "We've had trouble down there. They always play well at home." WP was undefeated last year by the time the team went to Asotin. If they win against the Panthers Friday, the Cardinals are guaranteed to their first playoff game at home, Bartlow said.

WP vs TCP

28-7

WP 0 21 7 0 28

TCP 0 0 7 0 7

Rushing

Zach Bartlow 20 for 77, Kris Cady 12 for 49, Dalton Estes 1 for 1; Total: 127 yards

Passing

Bartlow 13 of 21 for 170 yards, 2 TDs and 1 Intercep­tion

Receiving

Dalton Estes 4 for 84, TJ Hofer 3 for 50, Cady 4 for 29, Anthony Powell 2 for 7; Total: 170