Triad’s Ayden Sanford catches a pass against Fairbanks. The Cardinals will play at West Jefferson tonight. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
The Cardinals of Triad are looking for the positives in a season that has been difficult.
The Cards now sit at 2-6 and will travel to play 7-1 West Jefferson tonight.
West Jefferson is coming off a tough 42-39 loss to West Liberty last week and is looking to get back on the winning side of the record.
The Roughriders have a running back in Gabe Jones who will give the Cardinals’ defense a lot of concern.
Jones has tallied more than 1,600 yards and picked up more than 200 in the loss to West Liberty.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, have struggled to find their offense of late.
They have managed only 368 yards in total offense the past three weeks.
Triad especially had trouble last week against Fairbanks as it finished with a total of negative three yards of rushing.
Despite the ground game woes, head coach Zach Winslow has said all season he wants to keep the offense balanced.
The Cardinals did that against the Panthers, splitting the 44 plays down the middle, with 22 running and 22 passing.
The one shining spot in the offense has been the connection between senior quarterback Jordan Simonelli and his classmate wide receiver Logan McCoy.
Simonelli has passed for 975 yards on 59 completions with the majority of those passes going to McCoy.
McCoy has picked up 635 of those yards on 34 receptions and leads the Ohio Heritage Conference in yards gained.
Those passing numbers will be tested tonight against a defense that has only yielded 147 points in eight weeks of play.
The challenge will be to get the ground game more involved to relieve the pressure off Simonelli in the backfield.
Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at West Jefferson.
high School.