The St Mary’s Cardinals remained undefeated after holding off the Elkton-Lake Benton Elks on Homecoming on Friday, September 18th in an afternoon kickoff. The Cardinals moved to 5-0 on the year with the 22-20 win.
St Mary’s opened the game with a bang. Brady Jewett connected with Logan Bauer on a 57-yard touchdown pass with 10:50 to go in the first quarter. Pano Skliris scored the two-point conversion to give the Cardinals an 8-0 lead. Elkton-Lake Benton scored on a seven-yard touchdown pass with 1:36 remaining in the quarter. The two-point conversion was no good, and St Mary’s led 8-6.
The Cardinals were not done scoring in the first quarter. Jewett had his second passing touchdown of the game after connecting with Jake Heinitz for the 35-yard score with 0:56 remaining. Skliris scored another two-point conversion to extend the St Mary’s lead to 16-6.
The Elks cut the lead to two points again, 16-14, after a nine-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion with 8:20 remaining in the first half. Elkton-Lake Benton was knocking on the door of another score late in the second quarter, but a fumbled snap flipped the script. Bauer picked up the ball and ran it 80 yards for a defensive touchdown with 1:28 to give the Cardinals a 22-14 lead. The score remained 22-14 going into halftime.
The only score of the second half came with 9:57 to go in the third quarter. The Elks scored on a 60-yard touchdown run. The Cardinal defense stopped the two-point conversion to keep the lead at 22-20. Both defenses held tough the rest of the game, and St Mary’s held on for the two-point win.
St Mary’s had 255 yards of total offense, 149 rushing yards and 106 passing yards. Elkton-Lake Benton ended with 308 yards of total offense, 300 rushing yards and eight passing yards.
Jewett was 3-6 passing for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Bauer had two catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. Heinitz had a catch for 35 yards and a touchdown. Thomas LaVoy had 11 carries for 75 yards. Heinitz ended with five carries for 40 yarads.
Alex Lindeman ended with 10 tackles. Jacob Geraets and Josh Liebel each had eight tackles. Isaac Griffin ended with 7.5 tackles. Bauer finished with seven tackles and a fumble recovery. LaVoy also had seven tackles.
