CAMDEN — By PATRIC FLANNIGAN
Sports editor
Lost opportunities seemed to be the theme on Friday night as the Cardinals dropped another critical game at home when it fell in defeat to the Magnolia Panthers, 7-6.
It ended up being the worst game of the season for the Cardinal offense with only 157 yards while turning the ball over a total of seven times - four on downs.
The Cardinals went three and out to start the game and had to punt. CF's defense appeared to have the Panthers pinned but a penalty for running into the kicker extended the drive. However, the Cardinals would come up with a fumble at its own 42 yard line and three plays later Logan Robertson would hit Jaden Bates on a screen and Bates would race 50 yards for the Cardinal's lone score on the night. The two point conversion was stopped short.
Magnolia would start its next drive at its 42 yard line after a sky kick and move the ball down inside the red zone. The Panthers sent out their field goal team but Bates would fly from the his right side and block the kick. CF junior defensive tackle Kyron Kidd would pick the ball up and rumble for 37 yards - the biggest yardage play for the Cardinals on the night - to the Magnolia 42 yard line.
CF and Magnolia would both go 3 and out on their next offensive possessions but a bad punt by Magnolia would put the Cardinals in great field position at the visiting teams 27 yard line. The Cardinals were unable to take advantage of the opportunity and ended up turning the ball over on downs in large part due to penalties.
Magnolia would go for a deep pass on its next possession that was caught at the CF 20 but Peyton Byrd would rip the ball from the receivers hands and race down to the Magnolia 30. Offset penalties allowed the Cardinals to start at the Magnolia 32 yard line, but penalties would again plague the home team as it turned the ball over on downs.
Magnolia methodically moved the ball down in to CF territory late in the second quarter and scored on a 21 yard pass on a fourth down when a Cardinal defender was unable to turn his head around and found the ball on the pass. Magnolia would hit its extra point with less two minutes remaining in the half.
Things went from manageable to concerning on the ensuing kickoff when Javien Clemmer was hit late out of bounds and was injured because of it. Clemmer was unable to return to the game which meant the Cardinals would have to finish without a starting receiver, kick-off returner and taller option at cornerback.
Still, considering CF's second half surge against Texarkana last week, things didn't appear bleak.
After the Cardinal defense forced a punt on the Panther's first drive in the third, CF looked primed to go on a run. The Cardinals used a similar strategy that worked against El Dorado and Texarkana in the third quarters and that was run the ball between the tackles. While most would argue that Panther defenders were going low on the Cardinal offensive lineman every time they attempted to get to the second level, Erik Hall was still able to get the ball down to the Magnolia 20 for the Cardinals.
Again, opportunities would fall by the wayside and frustrations would get the best of the Cardinals.
Reshard Clardy came into the game and had a powerful 18 yard run down to the 2 yard line but an unsportsmanlike conduct pushed the ball. the next play a CF linemen was ejected for his second unsportsmanlike conduct call even though he was the one that was pushed down. CF would end up turning the ball over on downs.
The Cardinals would then lose another player for a second unsportsmanlike conduct because of something that was said. Now, in addition to being down a WR/KR/CB, the Cardinals were down a safety, punter and O- lineman for the rest of the game.
After a Magnolia punt, the Cardinals would turn the ball over on downs on its own 38-yard line after fake punt.
Magnolia's next three possessions started inside Cardinal territory, the defense came up big every time with Dasharie Ford Burton picking off a pass two turnover on downs on drives that ended at the CF 22 and CF 16. But, the Cardinal offense came up empty. Over the last seven minutes of the game, the Cardinals loss yardage on early downs and three drives would end with interceptions - one on a second and 1 for the Cardinals with 2:59 left in the game.The Cardinals got the ball with 1:15 left in the game and did get the ball near midfield before an incomplete pass on a 4th down with 1 second left sealed the game.
C.F. Head Coach Jake Monden admitted that he felt down about the game but said that he is confident that the nucleus of his team will play hard going forward. Monden said that the two student athletes that were ejected have great character but frustrations just got to them.
"We're a little upset with how it went last night," Monden said. "It's one of those things where I felt like we had a really good week of practice and felt like our guys were ready to play. We just lost a lot of opportunities. I thought our defense played really hard, but on offense every time we felt like we had something going there was a run through, or a penalty or we'd drop a pass. It's a rivalry game and we let frustrations get to us so I got to do a better job as coach to make sure we don't let those things happen. There's always going to be some jawing back and forth between teams but tonight we caught the worst end of it in terms of penalties. Those kids have great character and I have no doubt that they'll learn from it but that's something we can't tolerate. I feel like our team is going to respond to this and play hard the rest of the season."
The Cardinals were 7/22 for net 78 yards unofficially. One reception resulted in a 15 yard loss and there were at least three wide open drops and two where the intended receiver short-armed on the pass. The running game for the Cardinals had a season low of 39 yards in the first half but tapped out around 135 with Hall having 82 yards on 25 carries.The Cardinal defense was dominant and had over 15 plays that were tackles for losses. Jacobie Williams, Jacarvie Barker and Kidd got to the quarterback a total of 4 times while Amari Pace, E.J. Gates, Tre Reed and Eric Albert - who wore the jersey No. 12 to honor Tyler Kelly - all were credited with big stops in the back field. The most telling stat was that the Magnolia Panther only had a net of 22 yards the entire second half.