Cardinal can?t catch up with to W-MU after slow start

NEW LONDON ? For the second year in a row, it took a deficit for the Cardinal football team to find its way against Winfield-Mount Union.

Last year, the Comets fell behind 14-0 before rallying to a 21-14 win, but Friday night, a 22-0 halftime deficit was too much to overcome and Cardinal fell 29-14 to drop to 0-2 on the season. Trailing by three scores entering the third quarter, Cardinal marched right down the field on its first possession to make the score 22-7, recovered a fumble and punched in another score minutes later to climb within eight points at 22-14, but couldn?t muster anything more.

From there, the contest turned into a punt-fest aside from one last score by W-MU late in the fourth quarter to make for the 29-14 final score.

Both Cardinal touchdowns came 14 yards out from the arm of quarterback Brandon Warren. Warren hooked up with Tyler Goodell and Josh Kent for the third-quarter scores. The senior finished with 130 yards through the air on 16-of-29 passing while completing six passes to Tanner Chance for 71 of those yards.

Drew Ostrander was the leading man on the ground for the Comets with 41 yards on 11 carries. Ostrander also recovered a fumble on defense while Warren tallied a team-high 12 tackles and Joel Ramos tacked on nine more.

While Cardinal is now winless through two games, the good news is that it is still in position to make a run at another postseason berth with district play starting up next week. The Comets won a 7-0 game vs. Highland to end the regular season and grab the final Class A playoff spot in 2009. Now the two teams open the district season against each other Friday night in Eldon.