The 2017 football season came to an end for the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals on Friday, October 13th in Rutland. The Cardinals fell to the Oldham-Ramona/Rutland Raiders 33-8 in their final regular season game.
The Cardinals opened up the game with the ball. They were forced to punt in their first drive. The Cardinal defense forced a fumble on the first drive of the Raiders. The Cardinals next drive took them inside the Raider 15 yard line, but the O-R-R defense forced a turnover on downs and kept St Mary off the board. The Raiders scored on their next drive when Casey Renaas crossed the goal line on a three-yard run with 2:15 to go in the first quarter. St Mary again drove the ball inside the Raider 15 yard line on their next possession, and again the O-R-R defense forced a turnover on downs. The Raiders turned that into more points when Jamus Brown connected with Hunter Breske on a 23-yard touchdown pass with 5:00 to go in the second quarter. The Raiders scored again after a failed fourth down fake punt by the Cardinals. Brown hit Breske again, this time on a 35-yard pass with 1:43 left in the half. The Raiders led 18-0 at halftime.
O-R-R scored on their first drive of the second half. Brown threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Renaas with 8:51 to go in the third. The two-point conversion was good, and the Raiders pushed their lead to 26-0. Both teams traded possessions midway through the third quarter. The Cardinal defense forced a turnover on downs with 1:01 remaining in the third quarter. St Mary then scored on a six-minute drive. Connor Libis scored on a four-yard touchdown run with 6:55 to go in the game. Ethan Geraets ran the ball into the endzone for the two point conversion to make the score 26-8. The Raiders scored the final touchdown of the game with 2:24 to go. Jeremiah Hoekman scored on a one-yard run, and Brown kicked the extra point for the 33-8 final score.
Weston Geraets had 24 carries for 88 yards. Libis finished with 18 carries for 62 yards and a touchdown. W. Geraets also had 7.5 tackles and an interception. Longville had 7.5 tackles. E. Geraets finished with 12 tackles and a fumble recovery.
The Cardinals ended their season with a 1-7 record missing the playoffs.