In the season-opener for the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal football team, the Canistota Hawks ruined an otherwise perfect night for football on Friday, August 28th, at Rickeman Field in Dell Rapids. In a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal playoff game, the Canistota Hawks once again defeated the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals, this time by a score of 36-0.
The Hawks got on the scoreboard early. After taking the opening kickoff, Canistota scored with 10:06 left in the first quarter on a five-yard touchdown run by Jerad Nielsen to go ahead 6-0. St Mary was forced into a three-and-out in their first possession, giving the ball right back to Canistota. The Hawks had possession of the ball for almost the entire first quarter, but the St Mary defense held tough, allowing just the one touchdown in the first quarter.
Canistota was able to break through the Cardinal defense again in the second quarter with 8:31 to go when Nielsen again found the endzone, this time on an 18-yard run. The two-point conversion was successful, and the Hawks went ahead 14-0. Canistota had the ball again late in the second quarter and drove deep into Cardinal territory near halftime. With just seconds remaining, Shay Jolley took the snap, handed the ball off to Jalen Kaufman, and Kaufman scored as time expired in the half to give Canistota a 20-0 lead at halftime.
The St Mary Cardinals took the kickoff to begin the third quarter and looked to be building momentum as they drove deep into Hawk territory. Josh Brown appeared to score on a 10-yard run, but the play was called back due to a holding penalty. The penalty appeared to steal all momentum away from St Mary. The Cardinals were unable to score, and the ball went back to Canistota on downs. After each team traded interceptions, the Hawks scored again with 5:59 to go in the third quarter on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Jolley to Drew Seubert. Jolley and Seubert connected again in the fourth quarter with 10:17 to go for the final score, this time on a 32-yard touchdown pass.
St Mary finished with a total of 118 yards of offense, while Canistota racked up 317 yards of offense. Brown finished with 11 carries for 38 yards. Garret Frost was 4-6 passing for 51 yards. G. Frost also had a catch for 10 yards. Jacob Glazier had two catches for 23 yards, and Casey Hansen had a catch for 20 yards. Christian Schnieders led the defense with 10.5 tackles. Dalton Houska had 9.5 tackles, a half sack, and a fumble recovery. Jacob Frost finished with eight tackles and a half sack. G. Frost tallied seven tackles and a half sack.
The loss drops the Cardinals to 0-1 on the season. They will host Oldham-Ramona/Rutland on Friday, September 4th. The game can be seen again on Big Sioux Media.