Photo taken and used with permission by Tammy Chamley
Nic Gaspar found the endzone four times to help lead the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals to a 34-6 win over the Oldham-Ramona/Rutland Raiders at Rickeman Field on Friday, September 24th.
St Mary struck first when CJ Smith scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 7:26 to play in the opening quarter. That was the only score of the quarter, and the Cardinals lead 6-0. Gaspar’s first touchdown was on a three-yard run with 11:55 to play in the second quarter. He also scored the two-point conversion to make the score 14-0. The Raiders scored about four minutes later. Will Matson had an eight-yard run with 7:47 to go. The two-point conversion was no good, and the Cardinals led 14-6 at halftime.
Gaspar’s second touchdown came at the halfway point of the third quarter. With 5:35 to go, Gaspar scored on another three-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 20-6. Gaspar added a one-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter to extend the St Mary lead to 26-6. The final touchdown for Gaspar was at the 6:03 mark of the fourth quarter. He scored on a 43-yard run. Smith connected with Gabe Lindeman on the two-point conversion to make the score 34-6.
The Cardinals finished with 340 yards of offense, 280 rushing yards and 60 passing yards. The Raiders had 152 yards of offense, 131 rushing yards and 21 passing yards.
Ty Brown had 21 carries for 119 yards. Gaspar finished with 16 carries for 90 yards and four touchdowns. Tate Bunkers had five carries for 35 yards, and Lucas Flemmer had 8 carries for 24 yards. Smith was 3-8 passing for 60 yards. Gaspar also had two catches for 56 yards. Lindeman had a catch for four yards.
Lindeman led the team in tackles with nine and two sacks. John Pica had eight tackles with a forced fumble and recovery. Noah Olund finished with seven tackles.
Head coach Ross Flemmer said, “I felt that all of our kids played hard. They kept fighting and made a lot of big plays happen throughout the game. Our defensive line played exceptionally well and applied pressure throughout the whole game. I felt our team improved a lot these past couple weeks, and it showed tonight.”
St Mary (3-2) will travel to Estelline to play the Estelline/Hendricks Redhawks on Saturday, October 2nd.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| O-R-R Raiders | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| St Mary Cardinals | 6 | 8 | 6 | 14 | 34 |