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RANDOLPH - Aiming for a change of fortune, the Randolph Cardinals football team entered last week’s season opener with optimism and came away with some even if the result wasn’t ideal.
The Cardinals dropped a 40-22 decision, falling behind 34-14 after the first quarter before settling into a stalemate for the last 36 minutes.
“We started the game well with the kickoff team recovering the opening kickoff fumble and punching it in for a touchdown,” Randolph head coach Mark Lech said. “The offense moved the ball again early on and was able to score and complete the two-point conversion to keep the game within reach.
“The defense had a hard time stopping the Spartan offense as they were able to answer all of our scores and get a few stops of their own and to stretch their lead.”
Randolph’s scores came via a Shaw Becker seven-yard scoring pass from Dayton Winkelbauer and a one-yard run by Gage Jensen.
Winkelbauer ran for 45 yards and a score and threw for 129 yards while luke Harder collected 58 yards receiving.
“The keys to the game were based on Boyd County consistently converting third downs,” Lech said. “They were able to stay on the field and eventually after long drives score touchdowns. We were inconsistent on offense, starting the game strong and ending strong, but going for long droughts in the second and third quarter without crossing midfield.
“The strong play of Boyd County’s run game and being able to convert third downs when needed was too much to overcome for the defense.”
Lech liked the play of new quarterback Winkelbauer and Harder’s ability to complete routes for catches.
“All of the offense contributed well and seem to grow into their roles as the game progressed,” Lech said. “We were able to leave the contest with no injuries and some valuable experience going forward.
The players now have a game under their belt in their new roles and will have to take the next step if they are going to beat the next opponent, Walthill.”
Lech hopes that the game against Walthill won’t be as hot as a 2:30 p.m. start time can get.
“The heat may be an issue this week and the coaches and players will use the week to prepare for it,” he said. “Last year, was the first time Randolph played Walthill in football and was able to come away with a victory, so the team is confident and ready to get past this week’s loss.”
Senior Aiden Gubbels is wholly optimistic the team can evolve past this weekend’s game.
“We got a lot of experience on the line, and Luke made some pretty good catches,” Gubbels said. “I feel like we’re blocking pretty well and we’re improving our skills. We have some freshmen who’ve been playing in the back and doing a pretty good job.”
Gubbels said the Cardinals settled down after the first quarter, especially on defense as they started to make the right reads.
“It was just kind of realizing what their offense was more like and what we needed to do to stop them,” he said. “There were some plays where we had some really good tackles, and there were some plays where we should tackle them a lot sooner.
“I feel like we could definitely win some games. This kind of just got the first game out of the way and learning more what we can do on offense. It’s knowing that we can figure teams out. We can just need to do that earlier on in the game.”
