The 2021 Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal football team is taking a similar path as the 2020 team through this year’s playoffs with big road victories. After a 40-0 win at home in the opening round, the Cardinals earned a 42-22 win on the road against the Gayville-Volin Raiders on Thursday, October 28th.
The Cardinals appeared to come into the quarterfinal game with a mission, and that mission was to run the ball up and down the field on the Raiders. Mission accomplished as St Mary racked up 464 rushing yards in the game, along with 40 passing yards, for a total of 504 yards of offense. Two players nearly had 200 yards of rushing.
St Mary set the tone in the opening drive of the game. The drove the ball 70 yards in just over three minutes. Noah Olund scored on a three-yard touchdown run with 8:41 to go in the opening quarter. That was the only score of the first quarter. The Raiders did hold a brief lead in the game. Nate Quatier scored on a 36-yard run with 5:44 to play in the second quarter. Gayville-Volin made the two-point conversion to take an 8-6 lead.
It wasn’t long before the Cardinals took the lead back. Ty Brown scored on a two-yard run with 2:46 to give the Cardinals a 12-8 lead. The St Mary defense then forced the Raiders to punt on their next drive, and the Cardinals got the ball back with just over two minutes in the half. That was enough time for one more score. Nic Gaspar had a six-yard touchdown run with :43 left in the half, after a 40-yard run by Brown put the Cardinals in the red zone. St Mary took an 18-6 lead into halftime.
The Cardinals kicked off to start the second half, but executed an onside kick to get the ball. St Mary drove the ball down the field, and Olund scored his second touchdown of the game on a one-yard run. The Cardinals added another score late in the third quarter. Gaspar had a four-yard run for a touchdown with 1:37 in the third quarter to give the Cardinals a 30-8 lead.
The Raiders weren’t quite ready to go away quietly. Quatier threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Hirsch with :33 to go in the quarter to cut the lead to 30-14. Gayville-Volin then executed their own successful onside kick to get the back. They scored about a minute later. With 11:26 to play in the game, Andrew Gustand had a 22-yard touchdown run followed by a two-point conversion. The Raiders trailed by just eight points, 30-22.
The Cardinals responded. Gaspar broke loose for a 48-yard touchdown run with 8:51 to go to push the lead to 36-22. After a fourth down stop by the defense, the Cardinal offense got one more touchdown. Olund had a one-yard score with 4:15 left in the game to seal the victory.
Brown finished with 21 carries for 195 yards and a touchdown. Gaspar had 21 carries for 190 yards and three touchdowns. Olund added 14 carries for 64 yards and three touchdowns. CJ Smith was 2-2 passing for 40 yards. Gaspar had both catches. Brown also led the team in tackles with eight and also had an interception. John Pica had six tackles. Gaspar finished with four tackles, and Olund had three tackles. Gabe Lindeman and Kyle Bares each had 2.5 tackles.
“The boys played hard. They got after it from start to finish. I felt our defensive unit played a great game all the way around. Our offensive line cleared the way. It was a great team win tonight!” said head coach Ross Flemmer.
St Mary will travel to Avon on Friday, November 5th for the semifinal game. The winner will play in the championship game on Thursday, November 11th.