The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal offense used big plays and the defense held strong for a 28-0 win over the De Smet Bulldogs on Friday, September 6th in De Smet. This was the first road game for the Cardinals on the season.
Both defenses came to battle on the night. Neither team could really get much of a ground game going, but the Cardinals were able to connect on big plays to break through on the scoreboard.
Facing a fourth down, Weston Geraets scored on a 31-yard run with 2:25 to play in the first quarter. The two-point conversion was no good, but the Cardinals took the early 6-0 lead. On a more sustained drive, Geraets found the endzone again with 8:13 to go in the second quarter. Geraets scored on a six-yard run. Again the two-point conversion failed, and the Cardinals led 12-0. St Mary scored one more time before halftime. Another another fourth down play, Connor Libis threw a 50 yard touchdown pass to Geraets with :34 to go in the half. The two-point conversion was good on a pass from Libis to Eli Longville for a 20-0 lead heading into halftime.
The only score of the second half came with 2:51 to play in the third quarter. Libis connected with Max Herber on a 23-yard pass for a touchdown. Longville scored on the two-point conversion to extend the Cardinal lead to 28-0. The St Mary defense held strong again in the second half to keep the De Smet Bulldogs off the scoreboard in the shutout win.
St Mary had 250 total yards of offense, 131 rushing yards and 119 passing yards. De Smet was held to just 56 yards of total offense by the Cardinal defense.
Geraets had four carries for 49 yards and two touchdowns. Libis had 10 carries for 40 yards. Libis was also 6-16 passing for 119 yards and two touchdowns. Geraets had one catch for 50 yards for a touchdown. Herber had two catches for 50 yards and a touchdown. Longville had 19 receiving yards. Longville led the team on defense with 10 tackles. Gabriel Lindeman had seven tackles and a sack. Geraets had six tackles and three interceptions.
Head coach Ross Flemmer said, “The guys did a great job of overcoming a slow start and getting things rolling. I thought our defensive line played very well tonight.”
The Cardinals (3-0) will be on the road again on Friday, September 13th. St Mary will travel to Alcester to play the Alcester-Hudson Cubs. The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.