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RANDOLPH – Hoping to build off a win the previous week, the Cardinals football team returned to Randolph to host its 2023 home opener last Friday and things didn’t go quite as well as hoped.
The host Cardinals (1-2) started off in good shape, but then were overcome by some key big plays before halftime and eventually fell 46-20 to O’Neill St. Mary’s.
“We really took advantage of some miscues by St. Mary’s and played with a short field that led to a couple of touchdowns early,” Cardinals head coach Mark Lech said. “The defense was dialed in and was stopping the run well in the first quarter.
“In the second quarter, St. Mary’s hit a couple of big passes that helped them score fast and capture the lead. We couldn’t score enough in the second half to make it a game after getting behind so much in the second quarter.”
Randolph got a 10-yard touchdown run from Bryson Eledge (21 carries, 55 yards rushing) and 11- and 1-yard scoring runs from Dayton Winkelbauer (14 carries, 38 yards rushing).
“We are playing well at times, stringing together good drives that result in points,” Lech said. “We have played good second-half football this year on defense and holding their opponents down for most of the second halves.
Where we are struggling is playing consistently on offense for four quarters.
“This is leading to playing a lot of defense and eventually breaking down.
We are working hard on stopping the big play in the passing game, and right now, it is still a work in progress.”
The Cardinals travel to Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family this Friday “The last three games have given our younger guys a ton of experience and now they need to take the next step and help the team continue to get better for a shot at the win this week,” Lech said.
Winkelbauer is feeling good about where his team is at despite dropping two of its first three games.
“We never gave up,” he said. “We just always thought we were in it. It’s good to know that we’re just always in it, even when we’re down or down by a lot or up. I was having a bad game and my teammates were really picking me up. I love all those guys. We feel like this year we can play with and beat every single team on our schedule, which is quite a bit different from last year.”
Winkelbauer said Randolph started off strong, but then “let up” after the opening quarter. He believes that the team has evolved from the one who allowed an opening-season win go too far into their heads and led to a seven-game losing streak to end 2022.
“We know we can get more than that and last year was a big learning curve for a lot of us because we didn’t have the success like the past few years,” he said. “After (the opening 2022 win), we felt like we were just (too good) and for the rest of the seven games, that just killed us and nobody was having fun anymore.
“We know we can win more this year. We’re not like settling down or nothing like that anymore.”
He added that a big key going forward is to find more consistency on offense.
“We tend to start off really hot and then mid-first quarter to almost the second quarter, like almost to halftime, nothing’s working,” Winkelbauer said. “It’s just big spurts of doing really good and then just not moving the ball at all. We’ve just got to figure out how to stay consistent and keep playing and keep making explosive plays.”
