The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal football team is headed to the Dakota Dome.  The Cardinals beat a Region 4 opponent for the third time in the playoffs on Friday, November 6th.

Six days after making the 357 mile trip to Faith, the Cardinals had to travel 264 miles to Kadoka for a semifinal match-up with the Kadoka Area Kougars.  The only thing similar between the quarterfinals and the semifinals was being on the same side of the state.

Instead of the Cardinals getting out to a quick start, the Kougars set the tone in the first half.  With a little help from a penalty early in their opening drive, Kodoka scored with 1:15 in the first quarter on a 35-yard touchdown run by Gaven Sudbeck.  After an interception early in the second quarter, the Kougars struck again with 9:23 to play in the first half when TJ Hamar threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Sudbeck.   The Kougars scored for a third time on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Hamar to Dawson Reckling with 3:48 to play in the first half.

Kadoka Area led 20-0 at halftime after dominating the game in every area.  The Kougars had a total of 192 yards of offense and held the Cardinals to 127 yards and forced two turnovers.  St Mary took full advantage of halftime to stop the momentum Kadoka had built and make the necessary adjustments.

The Cardinals began their comeback at the very start of the third quarter.  The defense held Kadoka to just three yards on three plays and forced a punt.  St Mary scored on their opening drive of the third quarter.  CJ Smith connected with Ashaun Roach-Valandra for a 19-yard touchdown on fourth down with 8:09 to play in the third quarter to cut the lead to 20-6.

St Mary forced the Kougars to punt on their next two drives, and the Cardinals scored again on the very first play of the fourth quarter.  Smith and Roach-Valandra connected again, this time from 10 yards away.  They also made the two-point conversion, and with 11:51 to go in the game, St Mary trailed 20-14.  The Cardinal defense did not budge again and forced another punt.  The momentum had certainly shifted to St Mary, and the offense put another score on the board.  Connor Libis scored on a seven-yard run with 8:54 on the clock.  Roach-Valandra ran the ball into the endzone for the two-point conversion to give St Mary a 22-20 lead.

The Kougars didn’t go away quietly.  Again aided by a penalty on fourth down, Kadoka took advantage as Sudbeck scored on a five-yard run with 4:43 to play.  The two point conversion was good, and the Kougars went back in front 28-22.

St Mary magic was still in the air.  On the next Cardinal drive, Smith found Roach-Valandra again on fourth down for a 26-yard gain to keep the drive alive.  Libis followed with a 21-yard run a few plays later to give St Mary a first and goal.  Libis ended the drive with another seven-yard touchdown run to tie the game 28-28 with 1:15 to go.  Smith wisely tucked the ball and ran through a huge hole on the two-point conversion to give the Cardinals the lead again at 30-28.  The final drive by Kadoka ended with an interception by Libis at the Cardinal 34 yard line with :45 on the clock.  St Mary was able to run out the clock to win the game.

It was a tale of two halves for St Mary.  After allowing 192 yards in the first half, the Cardinal defense allowed just 38 yards in the second half.  The offense for St Mary had 232 yards in the second half for a total of 359 yards and scored 24 of their 30 second half points in the fourth quarter.  The Cardinals also finished the game 4-for-7 on fourth down attempts.

Libis finished the game with 35 carries for 252 yards and two touchdowns.  He also had two catches for 19 yards.  Noah Olund had five carries for 20 yards, and Nic Gaspar had two carries for 10 yards.  Smith finished 5-8 passing for 74 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception.  Roach-Valandra had three catches for 55 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense was led by Max Herber with 11 tackles, one of those being a sack. John Pica had 10 tackles.  Samuel Lack finished with eight tackles, and Roach-Valandra had six tackles.

The Cardinals (7-2) will play Wolsey-Wessington for the 9B championship on Thursday, November 12th at 3:00 p.m. at the Dakota Dome in Vermillion.

The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals had to wait 27 days to get a game played since their last game on October 2nd.  And in that time, they also watched the opening round of the 9B playoffs.  But once the Cardinals took to the field in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, October 29th, they made sure more football would be played this season.

The Cardinals made the long bus ride to Faith and then handled the Longhorns with a 40-22 victory.

St Mary scored 22 points in the opening quarter and never looked back.  Noah Olund had two rushing touchdowns in the first two Cardinal possessions and Connor Libis added another one for a 22-8 lead after the first quarter of play.   Olund scored his third touchdown with 10:42 to play in the second quarter.  Libis then ended the half with a touchdown run with :30 on the clock as St Mary went into halftime leading 34-8.

Faith was able to make some adjustments on defense in the second half, and their offense got going as well.  The Longhorns scored a touchdown in the third quarter to make the score 34-14.  Faith would get another touchdown early in the fourth quarter after a blocked put, and all the sudden the Longhorns cut the lead to 34-22.

St Mary responded on the very next drive.  They would put together a nine-play drive that ended with a 16-yard touchdown by Libis with 5:25 to play in the game.  That touchdown proved to be the game-clinching score as the Cardinal defense held the remainder of the game.

The Cardinals finished the night with 352 yards of total offense, all of which were rushing yards.  Faith had 202 yards of offense, 70 rushing yards and 202 passing yards.

Libis had 29 carries for 202 yards and three touchdowns.  Olund had 18 carries for 63 yards and three touchdowns.  Nic Gaspar finished with nine carries for 80 yards.  Ashaun Roach-Valandra led the defense with seven tackles and two sacks.  Noah Dennis finished with six tackles, and John Pica added five tackles.  Nick Wolles, Libis, and Olund all had an interception in the first half of the game.

St Mary (6-2) will travel to Kadoka to play the Kadoka Area Kougars on Friday, November 6th.  The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.

The 2020 Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal football season has not gone according to play to say the least.  The Cardinals currently have a 4-2 season record and have advanced to the quarterfinals of the 9B playoffs, but they have not played a down of football since Friday, October 2nd.

The Cardinals were one of the first team to have their scheduled altered due to the Covid pandemic.  St Mary was scheduled to open the season in Estelline against Estelline/Hendricks on Friday, August 21st, but the Redhawks had to cancel that game due to Covid.  In less than 24 hours after that announcement, the Cardinals found a new season-opener opponent in Florence/Henry.

St Mary started their season with a 1-2 record in their first three games.  They were able to turn things around at home against Alcester-Hudson with a 52-38 victory on Friday, September 11th.  They followed that win with two big road wins over Avon on September 18th and Centerville on October 2nd.

Things then went sideways for the Cardinals.  Their final two regular season games had to be cancelled due to Covid.  St Mary was scheduled to play Colman-Egan on October 9th.  That game was then moved to Monday, October 12th, but ultimately cancelled when St Mary closed the school during Homecoming week October 12th through the 16th.  That also meant the Homecoming game against Elkton-Lake Benton was also cancelled.

Despite having the last two games cancelled, St Mary qualified for the 9B playoffs as the #1 seed in Region 2.  School was back in session, and the team was back on the practice field.  Everything was set for the Cardinals to host the Bison Cardinals on Thursday, October 22nd in the opening round of the playoffs.

Then the team received the news on the evening of Wednesday, October 21st.  Bison was forfeiting the playoff game and will not be making the trip to Dell Rapids.  This news coming less than 24 hours before the scheduled kickoff.

“It’s very disappointing for the team. The team, as well as the coaches and our administration, have already put a lot of time into this game, and then to have to find out they are backing out from a third party is ridiculous. How Bison handled the situation from start to finish was just absurd. I feel bad for the kids missing out on a game because another team who had plenty of time to figure things out decided to pull out less than 24 hours before kickoff,” said head coach Ross Flemmer.

St Mary will not move their focus to the quarterfinals.  The Cardinals will travel to Faith and play the Faith Longhorns on Thursday, October 29th.