Since the mid-1990s, the Cardinal Huskies have opened their season against the Garfield G-Men, that similarly sized school in Garrettsville.
Head coach Eric Cardinal has been a constant in the rivalry in his 16 years coaching Cardinal.
In each of his first four seasons, the Huskies beat the pesky G-Men. But after this year’s 47-14 Garfield win, a surprise considering the high hopes the Huskies have this season, Garfield has a 7-4 record in the past 11 matches. And the Huskies have not beaten Garfield at home since 2003.
Garfield controlled the Huskies offensively and took advantage of good field position in this season opener’s one-sided victory.
Garfield jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter on two passing TDs, one from 26 yards out and the second from the 35 yard line.
While the G-Men were piling up stats, the Huskies were held to four 3-and-outs in the first quarter.
Garfield continued its dominance in the second half, holding the Huskies to just two first downs. Cardinal moved the chains for the first time in the game with under nine minutes remaining until half time, but the very next play the Huskies fumbled, turning it back over to the G-Men.
Garfield then took the ball 77 yards in eight plays, using just 3:25 to take a 20-0 lead. Following another turnover on downs, the Huskies punted the ball away, leaving the G-Men just 1:45 in the half.
The Garfield offense, that was clicking on all cylinders, used just 1:42 to close out the first half scoring, 27-0.
By that time, the game was decided.
Junior Kyle Simms, a second-year starting QB, was not happy with the way the Huskies offense performed.
“I think I am still learning my role as a leader,” said Simms.
Cardinal had 212 yards of total offense, 176 of which came on the ground. Simms threw the ball seven times, completing one pass for 36 yards.
“We got a lot of young guys on the team that played their first varsity game as a starter,”?Simms said, “and we need to make sure if we’re making mistakes we need to make them at 100 miles per hour.”
Simms also thought the team was dragging, so conditioning could be a concern.
Nate Peters scored the Huskies’ first TD this season, a 43-yard run. And Trey Shirkey scored again from 5 yards out to cap off Cardinal’s 14 points.
The entire fourth quarter, the G-Men mixed in their JV and freshman teams.
The Huskies’ usually stingy defense allowed Garfield to tally 332 total yards, 209 of which came through the air.
Garfield rolled up 332 total yards, 209 coming through the air.
The 0-1 Cardinals next travel to 1-0 Pymatuning Valley to take on a Laker team that beat Newbury 34-15 in game one.