Oakley’s Ground Game Too Much for Cardinals

In a game that featured two teams that were undefeated two games into their respective seasons, Joe Roche and the Ell Saline Cardinals were looking to get to 3-0 on the season over the Oakley Plainsmen.

The Cardinals had beaten Marion and Sacred Heart in their previous two games in what you could call dominant performances. Both of those being a shutout.

However, Oakley was probably the best team that the Cardinals would see up to this point in the season, as they were also 2-0 coming into the matchup.

The Plainsmen would dominate their first drive, scoring in under 5 plays with all of those plays being runs. Oakley senior running back Ethan Abell would be the ball carrier on each of those runs and would go into the end zone to take an early 7-0 lead for the Plainsmen.

With both teams being extremely run heavy it was a battle of the trenches all night. Both teams would have big plays brought back by penalties throughout the game. In the second quarter Eli Hopkins for the Cardinals would recover a Plainsmen fumble and return it all the way to the Oakley 15 yard line. TJ Morrical would finish that drive off with a touchdown pass to even the game up at seven all.

From there, Oakley would go right back to their go-to guy in Ethan Abell who would punch it in the end zone once again before half. With a missed PAT from Oakley, the halftime score was 13-7.

In the second half, it was all Oakley as they would chew up the clock for what seemed like the entire third and fourth quarters on the ground and not give the Cardinals a chance to answer back. Ethan Abell was even more unstoppable in the second half than he was the first. Abell finished with 261 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries.

Oakley would go on to roll the Cardinals by a final score of 34-7.

Ell-Saline was limited to 112 yards of total offense. Quarterback TJ Morrical had 77 yards of total offense with one touchdown.

Ell Saline fell to 2-1 on the year, and will look to get back on track against the Plainville Cardinals next week.