Cardinals hold off Stockdale in shootout, 38-34
by Cedric Inglehart
Friday, September 9, 2011
Gonzales Cannon Article | St. Paul Cardinal Football | Shiner Home Page
SHINER - Throughout the course of his storied career -- and, mind you, he's just a junior -- Adam Hollenbach has made numerous big plays for the Cardinals. But few of those plays came on the defensive side of the ball, and even fewer were as big as the one he made Friday night.
St. Paul running back Adam Hollenbach photo by Lori Raabe
With no time left to play the two-time, all-state running back outfought Stockdale’s Cody Hastings to knock away a pass in the corner of the end zone, preserving a dramatic 38-34 win for St. Paul at Shiner’s Comanche Stadium.
"I knew they were going to throw it to him because I saw him signal to the quarterback that he was going to the right," said Hollenbach about the game’s final play. "I just went straight out there, followed him, jumped at the same time he did and knocked the ball away. It was great."
The game was marred by 14 penalties, including eight that went against the Cardinals for 80 yards. What the game lacked in efficiency and execution, it more than made up for it in entertainment with four lead changes and 476 yards of total offense.
"We’ll take a ‘W’ anytime," said St. Paul head coach Paul Johnston. "Our kids know they’re not biggest, the strongest or the fastest, but they’ve got a lot of heart and they keep fighting. We’ve got to get a lot of things corrected penalty-wise. We had a lot of them tonight which was very uncharacteristic of us."
In addition to his late-game heroics, Hollenbach ran for a touchdown and caught two more from Dakota Kresta, who went an impressive 19-of-26 for 236 yards. He also threw a pair of scoring passes to Justin Natal, who led St. Paul with 87 yards receiving.
Stockdale’s Trevor Baumann led the Brahmas (1-2) with a game-high 256 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Matt Valadez also contributed heavily, running for three touchdowns.
"St. Paul played great and they earned it," said Stockdale head coach Josh West. "We turned the ball over at some bad times and shot ourselves in the foot, but my hat’s off to them. They’re well-coached and they did a great job."
The Cardinals (3-0) started the game with a bit of trickery in an onsides kick that was recovered by Hollenbach at the Stockdale 43. However the sleight of hand failed to produce any fruit, and St. Paul turned the ball over on downs.
Their second possession went much better as Kennedy went in motion, took a handoff and hurdled a defender to cap a seven-play drive with a three-yard run. Cole Hybner kicked the extra point to give the Cardinals an early 7-0 lead.
Stockdale responded immediately as Baumann did most of the dirty work before Valadez found the end zone from six yards out to end an eight-play march. The extra point kick failed and the gap was narrowed to 7-6.
The Cardinals came back and mounted a 17-play drive that featured three fourth-down conversions. Hollenbach hauled in a 16-yard strike from Kresta for the score, but the point after kick missed to keep the score 13-6.
The Brahmas answered again with an 11-play scoring drive wherein they overcame three false start penalties. Baumann plunged into the end zone from a yard out on fourth down and Cody Hastings ran in the two-point conversion to give Stockdale a 14-13 advantage at halftime.
"At halftime we told our kids this was the Pettus game all over again," said Johnston. "In both games, we felt like kids were in position to make plays defensively in the first half but just were not making the tackles."
St. Paul began the second half with another scoring drive, this one comprised of nine plays and ending with a five-yard run by Hollenbach. The conversion run failed and St. Paul led 19-14.
Stockdale was three plays into their ensuing possession before Baumann coughed up the ball and it was recovered by Hollenbach at the Cardinal 48. A dozen plays later, Kresta found Natal on a fourth and goal from the 17 to increase the lead to 25-14.
On the first play of the next Stockdale possession, West fumbled trying to run a mid-line option and it was recovered by Austin Horne near midfield. The Cardinals gave the ball right back on the next play however, when Dylan Dunn intercepted Kresta and returned it down to the Cardinal 23. Three plays later, Baumann ran into the end zone from 10 yards out and the score was 25-20 after three quarters.
On the fourth play of the fourth quarter Kresta connected with Natal, who caught the pass over the middle, broke a tackle at the 10 and burst into the end zone for a 39-yard score. Baumann got Stockdale back on the board when he raced 67 yards on the first play of their ensuing possession. West ran in the two-point conversion and the Brahmas pulled to within 31-28.
Natal gave the Cardinals great field position with a return to the Brahma 39 and five plays later, Hollenbach hit paydirt from four yards away. Hybner made the extra point kick and St. Paul was up 38-28 with 8:31 left to play.
Stockdale came back yet again with Baumann ripping off five straight runs before West hit Hastings with a deep ball at the Cardinal 16. St. Paul was flagged for a facemask on the play and on the next snap Valadez scored on a seven-yard jaunt to account for the game’s final score.
"I told everybody at halftime we had to play hard and go finish the game," said Kresta. "I knew if we did that we would come out with the win. We played as a team on defense in the second half."
GAME STATISTICS:
statistics source: http://www.gonzalescannon.com/node/6482Stockdale St. Paul First downs 12 14 Rushes-yds 41-339 39-137 Passing yds 27 236 Passes 1-5-1 19-26-1 Punts-avg 1-40 1-32 Penalties-yds 6-45 8-80 Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-0 SCORING SUMMARY: 1 2 3 4 -- Final Stockdale 6 8 6 14 -- 34 St. Paul 7 6 12 13 -- 38 SCORING DETAILS: First Quarter SP - Martin Kennedy 3 run (Cole Hybner kick), 5:36 St - Matt Valadez 6 run (run failed), 2:15 Second Quarter SP - Adam Hollenbach 16 pass from Dakota Kresta (kick failed), 8:15 St - Trevor Baumann 1 run (Cody Hastings run), 3:16 Third Quarter SP - Hollenbach 5 run (run failed), 8:20 SP - Justin Natal 17 pass from Kresta (kick failed), 2:59 St - Baumann 10 run (pass failed), 1:22 Fourth Quarter SP - Natal 39 pass from Kresta (kick failed), 10:47 St - Baumann 67 run (Colton West run), 10:32 SP - Hollenbach 4 pass from Kresta (Hybner kick), 8:31 St - Valadez 7 run (run failed), 5:27 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS: Rushing Stockdale: Trevor Baumann 24-256, Matt Valadez 9-57, Colton West 8-26. St. Paul: Brett Hodges 9-59, Martin Kennedy 8-40, Dakota Kresta 17-35, Adam Hollenbach 6-17, Team 1-(-2). Passing Stockdale: Colton West 1-5-27-1. St. Paul: Dakota Kresta 19-26-202 Receiving Stockdale: Cody Hastings 1-27. St. Paul: Justin Natal 6-87, Martin Kennedy 4-56, Adam Hollenbach 4-25, Brett Hodges 3-14, Cole Hybner 1-5, Mitchell McElroy 1-1
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