Big plays were the name of the game in Friday night’s 58-6 win for Dell Rapids St Mary. From Lincoln Lebrun taking the opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown, to Thomas Lavoy going coast-to-coast for a 75-yard rushing touchdown, the Cardinals were in control from start to finish. Friday saw the Cardinals three-headed monster of Trimmier Hanson, Lebrun, Lavoy dominate.
We were brought to Rutland for St Mary’s opening game. It was all Cardinals from the very start. The contest ended early in the 4th quarter as Isaac Griffin scored to put St Mary’s over the 50-point mercy rule.
1st Quarter
The first quarter went ideally for the Cardinals. Oldham-Ramona-Rutland (ORR) kicked the ball away to St Mary’s to start the game. Of course, it’s always nice when you can score 16 seconds into the game. That’s exactly what Lebrun did as he fielded the opening kick at the two-yard line and brought it 78 yards to the end zone. Kade Lutt took the handoff to convert a successful two-point try, 8-0 in a blink. Not too long into ORR’s opening drive, Lavoy picked off a pass from Raider quarterback Cooper Merager. After setting up St Mary’s in the red zone, Lavoy capped off the short drive with a two-yard touchdown run. Jake Heinitz caught the two-point pass from Jaxon Baumberger to move the score to 16-0.
Following these scores, ORR was able to answer with touchdown on a quarterback sneak, bringing the score to 16-6. However this would be their only score of the game. Quarterback Hanson walked in a 27 yard touchdown run with Heinitz catching another two-point try. This brought the score to 24-6 at the end of 1 quarter.
2nd Quarter
So after an explosive first quarter, St Mary’s was nowhere near done. Raider quarterback Merager was picked off again, this time by Baumberger, who ran the interception back for a touchdown. Lutt added the two-point conversion to bring the lead to 32-6. After the Raiders drive was cut short in the red zone, the Cardinals ended up backed up to their own five-yard line. From there Lavoy took a jet sweep 75 yards for a touchdown. Hanson ran in from 32 yards out for the next score. Then he called his own number again for the two-point conversion to make the Cardinal lead 46-6 going into the half.
Second Half
Then the second half rolled around. Still forcing turn-over-on-downs late in this game, freshman Pano Skiliris had a big run to set up his classmate Colter Griffin for a one-yard score. Although that was the only score of the third, it was quick strike in the 4th. Freshman I. Griffin scored from 11 yards out to bring the score to 58-6 and put a close to the ballgame.
Stat Breakdown
Hanson lead the way in rushing for the Cardinals. The senior tallied 102 yards on five carries for two touchdowns. He also threw the ball twice, completing one pass for 14 yards, totaling 116 all-purpose yards. Lavoy finished the night with three rushes for 95 yards and 2 touchdowns. The junior also returned a kickoff for 27 yards as well as having a 30 yards on an interception return. Lebrun had five carries for 31 yards, one kickoff return that went 78 yards and a touchdown. Skliris had four carries for 52 yards. I. Griffin and C. Griffin both had touchdown runs.
Lebrun and Josh Leibl finished with 4.5 tackles each. Lutt finished with four tackles with Heinitz and Alex Lindeman tallying 3.5 a piece. Lavoy and Baumberger both finished with two tackles and an interception, Baumberger returning his for a touchdown.
The Cardinals finished with 339 yards of offense, 325 on the ground with 14 through the air. ORR was held to 99 yards, 54 passing and 44 rushing. For the Cardinals, three players out-gained the Raiders. Lavoy had 152 all purpose yards and two touchdowns, Hanson had 116 total yards and two touchdowns, Lebrun finished with 123 all-purpose and a touchdown.
After the game, I reached out to Coach Ross Flemmer for comment.
“The boys played a great game tonight. Our offensive line did a great job opening holes. Our backs did a great job of hitting the holes and keeping control of the ball. Our defensive line did a great job controlling their offensive line, and our defensive backs did very well in coverage. Our linebackers really started to come on and fill holes. Very proud of the effort and intensity our kids played with tonight.”
After seeing Hanson, Lebrun, Lavoy dominate the stat book, we’ll see who comes up big next week as the Cardinals (1-0) will face the Irene-Wakonda Eagles (0-1) in Irene. If you can’t make it down to Irene, the game will of course be up on our YouTube page under https://www.youtube.com/@BigSiouxMedia/streams
