The Cardinals of Triad are a different football team this season.
The last two years have been tough for third-year coach Joe Cardinal. The Cards have won only two games of the past two years.
The team, though, is already in the win column with a victory over Bradford last week.
Cardinal said it feels good to get a win early in the campaign.
“The big thing is just that getting that first win takes a lot of the pressure off of you in the fact that you are not trying (to get that first win) in week two, three or four,” he said.
Triad was able to accomplish the task with a run-heavy offense that was successful behind good blocking, according to Cardinal.
“We ran the ball really well last week,” he said. “We had two running backs go for over 90 (yards). Our offensive line and wide receivers are a testament to that.
“Our ‘O’ line was making some big holes for those guys and our wide receivers did a good job blocking down field,” said Cardinal. “I was super-pleased with those guys.”
Although the Cardinals cruised to the win, they suffered some fallout in the quarterback position.
Triad was already on its second-string QB Logan McCoy after starting quarterback Jordan Simonelli suffered an injury prior to the start of the season.
McCoy also suffered an injury last week that puts him on the ‘game-time decision’ list for tonight at home against Ridgemont.
“He (McCoy) will be fine for week three,” said Cardinal. “He has some soreness going on, but beyond him we are good everywhere else. It is just our quarterbacks that are a little banged up.”
Despite the injury, Cardinal says they are still good to go at quarterback.
“We still have guys who can throw the ball, so that is not an issue,” he said.
This brings the Cardinals to their current opponent.
The Golden Gophers are suffering from a small roster with only 19 players this season.
Despite their small size, Ridgemont will bring a 1-0 record into the game at Triad after a 27-24 win over Ridgedale last week.
The Gophers do have some weapons that Cardinal will be keeping his eye on.
“They got two really good playmakers,” he said. “They have a fullback who is a really big kid that runs the ball real hard. They have another kid who lines up at running back or wide receiver and is a pretty good playmaker for them.
“Stopping those two guys is really the big thing for us.”
Ridgemont will also use the blitz on defense to help slow down the Cards, but Cardinal believes his front four will be able to handle the heavy handedness.
“Offensively, we are going to be dealing with the blitz,” he said. “They are going to bring five to seven guys pretty consistently. We’ve got to stay on those blocks and have our wide receivers blocking down field as well.”
Coming out of Week 2 with a 2-0 record just depends on working with what the defense gives them, according to Cardinal.
“If they start loading the box, we are going to throw it,” said Cardinal. “We are blessed with some speed at wide receiver. If they are willing to sit back, we will run at them. I feel confident either way. We are not going to force anything; we are going to do whatever the defense gives us.”
Triad will also use its roster size to its advantage.
“It is supposed to be kind of hot tomorrow, not overly hot, but you hope conditioning pays off,” Cardinal said. “Really, the big thing is practice. It allows us to go 11 vs. 11 so that is nice to have that option. We can try to give ourselves the best look possible.”
The game will boil down to the Cardinals’ ability to be adaptable on offense and shut down the Gophers’ key players.
However, the real benefit will come late in the game for the Cardinals as they use their roster size to their benefit to stay fresh for the fourth quarter.
on a warm Friday night.