Cardinals Power Past DeSales In Rivalry Game

WALLA WALLA --The WP Cardinals stepped it up in the second half to defeat the DeSales Irish 33-14 last Friday night.

After forcing the Irish to punt on their opening drive, the Cardinals started their first drive on their own 30-yard line.

WP quarterback Zach Bartlow tried to spark the opening drive with three straight QB keepers to take them to the Irish 30-yard line. The drive was soon ended when Bartlow only gained two yards on fourth and six and the Irish took over on downs.

The Irish took to the air on their next drive and found themselves in the end zone with a 7-0 lead over the Cardinals.

The Cardinals would start the next drive deep in their own territory, but WP running back Billy Brown broke away from the Irish defense and carried the ball 20 yards to the Cardinal 38-yard line to end the first quarter.

The Cardinals continued to plug away at the Irish defense and lit up the board when Bartlow connected with Dalton Estes for an 18-yard touchdown reception to tie the game at, 7-7.

The Irish continued to attack from the air and soon found themselves in the end zone again to regain the lead, 14-7.

The second quarter continued to be a Bartlow/ Estes combination, and the two teamed up for three straight receptions all the way to the Irish 2-yard line.

The Cardinals were then called offside and were moved back to the 6-yard line with 9.2 seconds left in the half when Bartlow found Estes on his tip toes in the end zone to tie the game up at halftime, 14-14.

The second half remained to be a WP showcase as the Cardinals held the Irish scoreless and continued to pound away at them with a ground attack led by Brown who rushed for a total of 159 yards in 16 carries with one touchdown.

The Cardinals defense took the spotlight in the second half holding the Irish to 160 total yards of offense with their standout running back Nick Wales, only gaining 43 total yards in 12 carries.

Two crowd- pleasing defensive plays were by Sterling Eastman who stripped the ball from the Irish and recovered it on their 49-yard line, ending a drive that had the potential to take it to the house.

The other came early in the fourth quarter when Eshom Estes came charging around the Irish defense to strip the ball from Irish quarterback Jeremiah Cox as he was locked and loaded looking for a receiver.

"I'm very happy with our defensive performance tonight," said WP head coach Jeff Bartlow. "We had a lot of single tackles, Zach had 15 solo tackles and Dalton had 9."

"The boys out hit the Irish and were more physical than they were in the second half, and just wore them down in the fourth quarter," said Bartlow.

"Defensively we didn't know where we were and now we do. The competition up to now hadn't shown us much, so now we know what we need to work on," Bartlow said.

"We have a little flu bug making its way through the team, so I'm real proud of the boys for fighting all the way through the game."

The Cardinals racked up a whopping 510 yards of total offense with 20 first downs.

Two hundred twentyone of those yards were fought tooth and nail on the ground and 289 yards were an air attack led by Bartlow who completed 20 of 28 receptions for 221 yards and 3 touchdowns, and rushed 130 yards in 18 carries for one touchdown.

His wing man of the night was Dalton Estes who grabbed 12 receptions for 160 yards and 3 touchdowns.

" You guys have got something special going on right now," Bartlow told his players in the after game huddle. "This was a big win, take the weekend to celebrate and rest and come to practice next week ready to prepare for Dayton."

" This week's game against Dayton is just as big, if not bigger than the DeSales game," said Bartlow. "Back-to-back rival games can be tough, but we just need to fight through it."

The undefeated Cardinals take on the Dayton Bulldogs in Waitsburg this Friday. The Friday night lights begin burning at 7 p.m., so grab a jacket and get their early for a good seat because it will be good.

In other Cardinal football action, the WP junior varsity is keeping right up with the upperclassman as they remain undefeated 4-0 after a victory over Mac-Hi last Monday.

Sterling Eastmam connected with Riley Stevens and Luke Alexanko for two touchdowns and Stevens rushed for another.

In the second half, backup quarterback Owen Lanning connected with Stevens for "another Cardinal touchdown" for a 26-8 win.

The youngsters have outscored their opponents, 137-14.