O’NEILL — Too much heat and too much Gage Hedstrom.
Undefeated O’Neill St. Mary’s improved their record to 6-0 Friday afternoon, handing EPPJ a 63 to 6 loss.
With temperatures around 90 degrees and Hedstrom accounting for seven touchdowns, the Cardinals handed the Wolfpack their worst loss in some time.
“As a team, they’re very, very good,” Wolfpack Co-Coach Nick Heithoff said. “These guys (St. Mary’s) were my pre-season favorites to win it all and they kind of proved why today. They were a whole different animal than we prepared for.”
On defense, they seemed to have an answer for everything the Wolfpack tried to do. They stuffed the running plays, covered receivers like a glove and pressured quarterback Karson Kallhoff constantly for much of the game. Forcing the Wolfpack into a three-and-out on their opening possession, St. Mary’s needed only seven plays to score the first of their nine touchdowns in the game. It came on a 14-yard scramble by Hedstrom.
Hedstrom, on the team’s next possession, tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to Logan Brabec
St. Mary’s then converted back-to-back interceptions into touchdowns on their next two possessions to lead 36 to 0 early in the second quarter.
The Wolfpack did not gain a first down in the first half as St. Mary’s closed out the final minutes with two more scores to lead 49 to 0 at halftime.
After surrendering another touchdown to start the second half, the Wolfpack offense came to life.
After a kickoff return by Evin Pelster gave the team good field position, the Wolfpack went to work on the round.
Eleven consecutive running plays, isolation and pitch plays to Grady Drueke and Jarek Erickson got the ball down to the Cards’ 11-yard line. After a touchdown was called back due to penalty, Kallhoff connected with sophomore Max Henn for a 20-yard touchdown strike with under a minute to play in the third quarter.
…see more at this week’s Elgin Review.
