Cards rocked by Lions

After dispatching Bertha-Hewitt in the first round of the Section 5 nine-man football playoffs, the Cromwell-Wright Cardinals ran into a buzzsaw in the Ogilvie Lions. Ogilvie, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, downed the Cards 44-14, ending their season.

“Overall, I was very pleased with the season,” said Cards coach Jeff Gronner. “It was our best season in five years as far as wins and losses go.”

The first quarter of the game was played mostly in the red zone in the Cromwell end of the field, but it wasn’t until the last play of the first quarter when a team scored.

“Our defense really kept us in it in the first half,” said Gronner. “We held them in check pretty well for a while.”

The Lions’ first touchdown was scored by Kaden Felde on a 19-yard run on the last play of the first stanza, and then in the second quarter Hunter Kenyon tacked on a 54-yard gallop, making it 16-0 at halftime.

“They are just a big and physical team,” said Gronner. “They really controlled the line of scrimmage on the offensive side of the ball.”

Ogilvie took control of the game in the third quarter with a pair of touchdowns, the first on a 3-yard run and the second on a 7-yard pass, as the Lions built a 30-0 lead after three quarters of play.

The Cards finally got on the scoreboard on a 2-yard plunge by Brady Dahl that cut the gap to 30-6. Ogilvie responded with a touchdown of its own and then the Cards got the play of the game when Dylan Nyberg returned the kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. Dahl caught the two-point conversion pass from Phoenix Anderson and at that point the score was 36-14.

Felde added a 57-yard run to end the scoring, and after a two-point conversion the final was 44-14.

“I thought that Ogilvie was going to be good this season,” said Gronner. “I am really happy with the season. The seniors were good leaders and all the guys came to work every day. They were a fun group to work with and were just a hard-working bunch of kids.”

Cromwell-Wright ends the season at 7-3.