Logan McCoy (2) of Triad tackles Harley Day (86) of North Union after a reception during a football game Friday night at Triad High School. The Wildcats of North Union cruised to a 54-14 victory over the Cardinals to improve their record to 1-1. The Cardinals slipped to 0-2 on the season.
(Submitted photo)
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Week Two of the high school football season rumbled on through Friday night as the Wildcats of North Union went on the road for the first time this season. The Wildcats completely dominated the Triad Cardinals, 54-14.
Triad head coach Joe Cardinal can see where things might have gone wrong for his Cardinals. “North Union is very good at what they do,” he said. “The game plan, I liked it going into tonight, but could we have executed it better, yeah. Could we have called some things better, yeah. For the most part this is football.”
The game started out in what looked like was going to be a defensive battle as each team couldn’t convert a first down on their opening offensive possession.
However, that all changed rather quickly as a bad snap sailed right through the hands of Triad quarterback Jordan Simonelli and rolled in the end zone.
The Wildcats pounced on the ball for the first points of the game. Drake Price added the extra point to give NU a 7-0 lead early in the game.
“I thought our kids came out really focused and played with a lot of energy,” said NU coach Nick Hajjar. “We jumped on them early.”
Trouble continued for the Cards when they received the ball after the kickoff. Dylan Rice, Triad’s leading running back, made a nice move down the sideline to move the ball nearly 40 yards into North Union territory. However, a hit on the sideline injured the junior for the remainder of the game.
“Losing Dylan early on really, really hurt us emotionally,” said Cardinal. “Dylan might be our biggest vocal leader on the field.”
The play was called back after a holding call and the series fizzled out after several incomplete passes.
The Cats continued to do what they do well, which is to run the ball. After only three plays, Carson Smith made his first trip to the end zone after a 25-yard rush. Drake added the PAT to give the Cats a 14-0 lead.
North Union’s offense continued to cruise after the defense got it the ball back quickly. NU quarterback, Anthony Padovano handed the ball to Smith at the 50-yard line. Smith did the rest of the work to score his second rushing touchdown of the night. Drake couldn’t put the ball through the uprights on his third attempt, but the Cats took a commanding 20-0 lead.
Triad continued to struggle against a tough Wildcat defense. Andy Martin took over in the backfield for the injured Rice and gave the Cardinals a second-and-one after a nice rush around the edge. Triad couldn’t convert to move the ball into Wildcat territory and punted.
North Union took over at its own 38-yard line. A total of three different rushers moved the pigskin to the Cardinals’ 21-yard line.
Padovano dropped back in the pocket and hit a wide-open Smith streaking down the sideline. Smith finished the play in the end zone to give the Cats their fourth touchdown. Drake got back on track and kicked it through the post to give the Cats a 27-0 lead.
“Carson is a special talent,” said Hajjar. “I’ve got a lot of kids that have special talent. We talked last week that we killed ourselves with penalties and mistakes and tonight we eliminated those for the most part. A lot of good things happen when you do that.”
The same scene repeated itself on both of North Union’s defensive and offensive sets as Padovano completed another pass to Smith for a touchdown. Drake added the point after to put the game at 34-0 by the end of the first quarter.
Garrett Miller got in on the scoring bonanza at the beginning of the second quarter when he ran one in from 11 yards out to give the Cats a 40-0 lead.
Drake’s PAT was blocked to keep the score line the same. Smith would add a third rushing touchdown to his stats before the halftime whistle blew to put the Wildcats up 46-0 with 24 minutes in the books.
After the break, the Cards caught a break when the Wildcats brought in back-up quarterback Preston Crabtree to take the snaps.
Crabtree missed a hand-off, putting the ball on the ground. The Cards scooped up the ball and two plays later, put their first points on the board with a 31-yard run by Martin.
The Cards added another TD on the scoreboard via Martin on a 37-yard run in the fourth period. However, by that time, the damage had already been done.
“We didn’t quit in the second half, but adversity, like we always say as a team, how are you going to handle adversity and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” said Cardinal.
North Union will travel to Grandview Heights on Friday, while Triad will open Ohio Heritage Conference play at home against Springfield Catholic Central.